CHESHIRE — Milling and resurfacing on a two-mile section of Route 70 will continue through April 22, according to the state Department of Transportation.
Milling from the Route 10 junction to Cortland Circle began on April 4. Resurfacing will take place from April 18 to April 22. Motorists can expect lane closures from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday.
MERIDEN — Work to repair an Interstate 691 bridge is shifting traffic on the highway, but isn’t expected to affect local roads.
The I-691 bridge over State Street is being rehabilitated, with work expected to be complete by August 31, according to Judd Everhart, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.
City Public Works Director Robert Bass said he didn’t anticipate the highway work would have a traffic impact on local streets.
Everhart said the $3.3 million project will consist of patching and partially reconstructing the bridge’s superstructure and substructure components. The DOT defines superstructure as “bridge structural members above the top of piers and abutments” and substructure as the pieces that support the superstructure. All bridge joints will be replaced and a waterproofing membrane will be installed on the deck. The concrete overlay on the bridge will also be replaced, Everhart said. Lighting will be repaired, and upgrades will be made to the median guide rails and drainage system.
The project is fairly routine, according to Kevin Nursick, another DOT spokesman
“As bridge structures age, they eventually reach a point where more extensive work — essentially above and beyond typical maintenance activities — is needed,” he wrote in an email.
The bridge doesn’t pose any safety risks to motorists, Nursick said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
DANIELSON – Bids for remediation and demolition work at a dilapidated Danielson mill are expected to be received by the town by next week, a crucial step toward transforming the site into an affordable housing complex. The bids, expected in by April 20, will cover clean-up and other work at the the former Powdrell & Alexander Textile Mill property at 42 Main St. to make way for a planned multi-unit apartment complex on the property. Mary Bromm, Killingly’s community development administrator, said whichever company is hired for the project has a big job ahead of them. “The bids are for all the remediation – soil, lead, asbestos – at the mill, as well as to take down the existing structure,” she said. “It also calls for the installation of subsurface utilities and a concrete cap, or foundation to be placed. That slab would essentially be the last piece of remediation.” Approximately 30 contractors and sub-contractors recently took a tour of the mill, Bromm said. “It’s not in great shape – it’s way more dilapidated than the last time I was there back in 2010,” she said. “There’s some collapsing and we’re very anxious for it to be taken down.” The former mill, built in 1836, was purchased in 2013 by The Mill at Killingly Apartments group, which consists of The Women’s Institute Realty of CT. The Institute last year was awarded $10.5 million in state funding for the project, while the town received an additional $2.02 million for the work on behalf of the group. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
SOUTHINGTON — The massive pile of dirt by Interstate 84 at Exit 30 in Plantsville is a temporary stockpile of excess earth excavated at the $330 million highway re-widening project a few miles west in Waterbury, state officials said Tuesday.
"As we dig our way through the project, we have a serious amount of earth to put someplace for future re-use," State Department of Transportation Waterbury project district engineer John Dunham said of the earth mound, one of several with excess dirt from the ongoing highway construction.
Dirt-loaded dump trucks began hauling excavated earth two weeks ago to the Exit 30 site. The pile, now as tall as a two-story house, has about 25,000 cubic meters of dirt, according to state estimates. The site here should reach its full capacity in a few days. Additional stockpiles will be created at state-owned stockpile sites along I-84. Land about a mile away by a highway entrance ramp in Plantsville is likely to be used next. Barriers are in place to prevent earth from washing off these sites.
The growing dirt pile has attracted attention, Neil Daigle, a mechanic at a nearby vehicle repair shop, said Tuesday. Customers ask about the huge pile of dirt, he said while taking a quick break at Aszklar's Automotive Service at 103 Atwater St. People asked similar questions two years ago when the state rebuilt a replacement I-84 bridge span on the same spot where the dirt pile is now. That job "was cooler to look at" than the current large hill of dirt, Daigle said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUELawmakers Debate New Agency To Coordinate Development Near Transit
HARTFORD — A bill designed to help communities foster private development near transit stations cleared a legislative committee Tuesday.
Advocates said the idea will help Connecticut towns and cities benefit from bus and train stations and emphasized heavily that no community will be required to participate.
Critics — overwhelmingly Republican — said the measure risks creating another costly governmental board at a time when Connecticut is laying off employees.
"This could cost at least $200,000 a year for new staff, at the same time we're looking at a billion-dollar deficit and we're supposed to be making government smaller," Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, said after the 18-to-13 vote A similar measure was hugely controversial last year because it would have created a quasi-public agency with rights of eminent domain and the ability to override local zoning regulations. Committee Chairman Tony Guerrera stressed that those elements has been removed, calling the new version "very watered down." Sen. Cathy Osten, a Democrat from the 19th District in southeastern Connecticut and a prominent booster of the bill, said it will enable towns and cities to get technical assistance for fostering new development near Metro-North, Hartford Line, CTfastrak and Shore Line East stations. The service would be offered through a new board to be called the Transit Corridor Development Assistance Authority. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUEWest Hartford Council Dems, GOP Write Letters Backing Bottling Plant Bill
WEST HARTFORD — The Democrats and the Republicans on the town council released separate letters Tuesday supporting a bill that grew out of concerns over a planned water-bottling plant in Bloomfield.
At Tuesday night's town council meeting, both parties read from letters they were sending to Sen. Beth Bye, one of the sponsors of Senate Bill 422. The bill would prevent the Metropolitan District Commission from selling water to California-based Niagara Bottling at a lower rate than residential users and would also prevent the MDC from discounting the company's sewer usage.
In March, the bill cleared the legislature's planning and development committee 15 to 5.
The MDC has agreed to provide Niagara Bottling up to 1.8 million gallons of water a day and will discount the rate for daily allotments topping 500,000 gallons. MDC officials have said they have no power to deny a potential customer if the MDC has the capacity to provide the water, and they said the sale poses no risk to the water supply.According to the Democrats' letter, Democratic council members said that the transparency surrounding the deal was "extremely insufficient," as West Hartford officials has no knowledge of the deal until after it was completed. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Consultants help New Hartford look for next sewer project
NEW HARTFORD — The Water Pollution Control Authority has received a draft report of existing conditions and a needs assessment from Kristie Wagner, a project manager with consulting engineers CDM Smith. Wagner said the sewer plant, upgraded in 2010 with a total capacity of 400,000 gallons per day, is processing an average of 60,000 gallons. "There is a lot of room for future growth," she said. Authority members are looking to expand the sewer service system to bring more users online, but the debt service and operating expenses of the oversized plant result in some of the highest user rates in the state. Wagner said the 175-foot Jones Mountain Trunk Line, which carries most of the town's effluent to the sewage plant, is in relatively good condition. "Nothing jumped out that needed repair right away," she said, but added it would be prudent to inspect the line every few years.
She gave a rough cost estimate for lining the trunk line at between $500,000 and $750,000.
WAGNER SAID the trunk line can carry up to 1.4 million gallons. If sewer service is extended to both Cottage Street and Pine Meadows, peak flows would reach 1.2 million. "With its current capacity, there is no limit on growth, but if there is more growth, you would have to look at it again," she said. The meat of her report last week centered on the proposed sewer extensions. She said there are 55 parcels on Cottage Street with average preliminary flow projections of 15,000 gallons per day and peak flows of 90,000 to 91,000 gallons Many of the properties are less than a half-acre and are on the river. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Waterbury board to get school project
WATERBURY — The Board of Education's Building Committee voted 3-2 last week to send a proposed $46.2 million proposal to renovate and expand Wendell Cross Elementary School to the full board. The full school board and the Board of Aldermen would have to endorse the proposal to get an application for state construction aid before the General Assembly. State grants carry the bulk of up-front building costs and have been a necessary component to all recent school building efforts. The city's costs for the Wendell Cross project, after state aid, are estimated at $9 million. The proposal would gut and renovate the existing school, and add a new wing. The rebuilt school would service about 550 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, with two classes per grade. The plan did not get an overwhelming endorsement by the Building Committee. Members had many questions. But, given a tight deadline for approval, a bare majority of the subcommittee agreed to forward the proposal to the full board absent a subcommittee endorsement. School Building Committee members Ann M. Sweeney, Charles L. Stango and Charles Pagano voted to put the proposal to the full board. Members Jason Van Stone and John E. Theriault voted against. Waterbury schools Interim Chief Operating Officer Gary Miller said the plans needed a school board endorsement before the end of April to assemble a state aid application by the June 1 deadline. Van Stone questioned the economy of the move. The renovation wouldn't add much student capacity. He estimated the cost at about $380,000 per seat. Theriault wondered about the possibility of uncovering environmental contaminants could increase costs by millions. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE