NEW MILFORD — The high school’s athletic field project is expected to cost tens of thousands of dollars more than originally thought, but should be completed on time next month.
The Town Council approved $105,000 in change orders Monday to cover unexpected costs. This brings the total project cost to $3.7 million, about $200,000 more than the original budget when previous change orders are included.
The additional money includes lighting a walkway, additional fill for the north field and making a sidewalk compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Joseph Failla, who sits on the town’s Artificial Turf Field Construction Committee, said 16-foot light poles were added to pedestrian walkways at a cost of $28,300.
The crews also discovered that pavement under the old track was deeper than expected, requiring more milling before the new track could be added. This cost nearly $16,900.
Water company that serves Oxford acquired
Connecticut Water Service will acquire the Heritage Village Water Co., which serves about 4,700 customers in Oxford, Middlebury and Southbury, in a deal worth $20.6 million. All current Heritage Village Water employees will be retained. Connecticut Water Service is one of the 10 largest shareholder-owned water utilities in the country. Heritage Village Water Co. will provide water to the CPV Towantic Energy power plant under construction in Oxford, which is slated to begin production in 2018.
Construction of new Vinal Tech in Middletown estimated at $110 million
MIDDLETOWN >> A Glastonbury architecture firm has been awarded approval to design a new Vinal Tech at its current Daniels Street location.
According to Jeffrey Beckham, the director of communications for the state Department of Administrative Services, S/L/A/M Collaborative has been tasked with designing a new 250,000-square-foot facility that will serve a student population of 800 and an administration and teaching staff of 100.
The construction will be a flip-flop of sorts. The new school — which is estimated to cost $110 million — will be built where Vinal’s athletic fields are currently located, Beckham said. Once the old building is demolished, that area will be the new site of the fields.
The project is still in its beginning stages and Beckham said there is no completion time line currently in place. However, once the building’s design is finished, the project would enter the next phase and the DAS would send out a request for qualifications for construction management companies to oversee the building of the new school.This is not the first technical high school S/L/A/M has designed. According to Robert Pulito, the firm’s president and principal-in-charge, the firm has partnered with the state of Connecticut on two technical high school projects — W.F. Kaynor Tech in Waterbury and Harvard H. Ellis Tech in Danielson. Last year, the architectural firm also oversaw the $51 million renovation of East Hampton High School. Construction of East Hampton’s new high school began in June 2015and the completion date is projected to be in May 2017. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Dispute with state delays Portland’s Main Street repaving
PORTLAND >> The scheduled repaving of Route 17A/Main Street has been postponed until early June. The work was supposed to begin Monday, however, during a meeting with town officials last week, state Department of Transportation officials said the work was being delayed. The delay is so the construction will not interfere with the town’s annual Memorial Day parade May 28.
DOT officials also told town leaders “they definitely will not be paving” a series of parking areas on the east side of the first two blocks of Main Street. The cutouts include parking areas in front of Portland Memorial Funeral Home and Liberty Bank, among others. The $1.1 million project will involve milling and paving the portion of Main Street from the Arrigoni Bridge to the post office at Middlesex Avenue.
DOT officials from the department’s Region 2 office in Norwich met with First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield and Director of Public Works Richard D. Kelsey, among others, in the first-floor conference room in Town Hall. Crucially, town officials said they were assured the work will include repairing the badly decayed section of roadway that turns from Main Street onto Route 66.
Beyond the post office, the road will be repaved — but not milled — to the intersection with Route 17, officials said. Instead, the DOT will apply a two-inch “overlay” on the portion from Middlesex Avenue to Route 17, Kelsey said.
According to Wikipedia, “Pavement milling (cold planing, asphalt milling or profiling) is the process of removing at least part of the surface of a paved area such as a road, bridge or parking lot. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Chamber Corner: FedEx to break ground on distribution center Thursday
MIDDLETOWN >> The 33rd Annual Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament, originally scheduled for last Friday, was postponed to June 3 due to inclement weather. Our Golf Committee, players, staff and all other tournament supporters were looking forward to a great day on the course, but Mother Nature had other ideas last Friday. We still look forward to a sold-out tournament on June 3, and will certainly continue to provide updates on the rescheduled event as we get closer.
This week includes three chamber division meetings which will all feature reports from important state officials. State Comptroller Kevin Lembo will attend Wednesday’s meeting at Cooper Atkins Corp. in Middlefield and Thursday’s meeting at Chicago Sam’s Sports Bar and Grille in Cromwell. Kevin Lembo has been a strong supporter of our chamber and even joined me for a tour of a few downtown Middletown small businesses last Thursday to celebrate Small Business Week in our great nation. Comptroller Kevin Lembo is a terrific public servant and we continue to appreciate his support of chamber events and activities. The previous occupant of the comptroller’s office is Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, who was also a fantastic friend to our chamber during her tenure as comptroller, and she has continued that tradition while serving as Lt. Gov. She will visit with our Chester, Deep River and Essex Division on Friday morning at Chester Village West. We very much appreciate the support of these state officials, and continue to appreciate the support of our membership for these important chamber divisions. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Third phase of linear trail nears completion in Wallingford
WALLINGFORD — Town officials say they hope to hold a grand opening celebration in June for the third phase of the Quinnipiac River Linear Trail expansion project.
“It’s a godsend,” said Elaine Doherty, publicity co-chair for the Quinnipiac River Linear Trail Advisory Committee. “It’s been painfully slow.”
The $2.4 million project is over a decade in the making and expands the trail by three quarters of a mile, from the tunnel under Route 15 across the Quinnipiac River to Fireworks Island. Schultz Corp., the project contractor, has a deadline to finish construction by July 6. Town Engineer Rob Baltramaitis said crews will likely be done ahead of schedule.
“They have just about two months left to complete the project, but I think they will finish early,” Baltramaitis said. “Really, we’re getting to the point where it’s the final elements of the work, the restoration, installation of signs. It’s really nearing completion.”Crews still have to do seeding and topsoil work, but have finished paving most of the trail and have completed a bridge to Fireworks Island.
The second phase of the trail was completed over a decade ago, Baltramaitis said.
“There’s been about a 10 year or more lull in progress and that’s why the Quinnipiac River Linear Trail Committee is so excited,” Baltramaitis said.
State Rep. Mary Mushinsky, who co-chairs the committee, said she is proud of the committee for not giving up despite snags in the project.
“We’re extremely thrilled about this and this group is very dedicated,” said Mushinsky, D-Wallingford. “They are all volunteers, they put in a lot of extra effort, their own personal time and no one ever got discouraged. They just hung in there and despite all the obstacles we ran into, everyone just stubbornly persisted.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
WALLINGFORD – The plans for a downtown apartment complex near the new train station approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission Monday night complement the town’s Transit-Oriented Development Plan, officials say. The complex will include two newly constructed apartment buildings and an addition on a third existing building on site, adding just under 200 apartments within walking distance to the train station and retailers.
The project is helmed by Branford-based development company JFA Management and will merge three properties – 53 Parker St., 75 Parker St. and 367 Washington St. – into one cohesive complex with 313 apartments spread across two new buildings and an addition to a third already existing on site.
Representatives from JFA Management could not be reached for comment regarding the project Tuesday.
JFA Management has entered into a contract to purchase 75 Parker St. from Davenport Associates. According to the town assessor’s office, the parcel is 2.33 acres and has a market value of $1,172,300. The adjacent property, 367 Washington St., is 2.70 acres and with a market value of $955,900. Planned for the properties are two new three-story apartment buildings with a total of 136 apartments between them.
The Parker Place apartment complex at 53 Parker Street sits on 4.08 acres and has a market value of $6,657,800. That site already contains 120 apartments, and plans call for the construction of a connected addition with 57 new apartments. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUEThe historic mill village seen from the commanding fifth floor once housed thousands of French Canadian workers, who labored 10- to 12-hour days with the din of massive machinery.
But Robert Mills, president of the Norwich Community Development Corp., reminded more than 50 people in attendance Tuesday that it was thousands of Irish workers who provided the inaugural Taftville workforce before an “economic upheaval” in the 1870s displaced them.
“We're back!” Finn O'Neill announced, with an Irish drawl. O'Neill is director of operations for New Jersey-based developer Onekey LLC's $30 million project to create 116 apartments in just half of the sprawling 313,000-square-foot building.
O'Neill and his wife, Paula O'Neill, Onekey president and owner, said they fell in love with the enormous Ponemah complex on the Shetucket River when they first saw it a dozen years ago.
“It was our dream when we first saw it,” Paula O'Neill said. “Finally, our dream has come true. We love old, historic buildings, and the riverfront is beautiful.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Glastonbury Boathouse's Patio, Boardwalk To Be Restored
GLASTONBURY — The town is moving forward with a plan to restore the sidewalks and patio around the front and side of the boathouse while keeping as much weight as possible off the top of the slope the building sits on.
The town council received an update Tuesday on the restoration work to a patio and sidewalk, the final step in a two-part solution to fix stability issues along the banks of the Connecticut River. The first part was last summer's project to install riprap — small- to medium-sized boulders — along the river to protect the boathouse. The material was installed to prevent movement in the riverbank slope the boathouse is built on.
Shortly after the park was completed, officials noted vertical and horizontal movement in the concrete terrace west of the boathouse and the serpentine handicapped accessible ramp leading from the park to the Connecticut River. Allen Marr, the town's geotechnical expert, said Tuesday the slope has been stabilized, allowing the restoration work to begin.
"The slope movement over time shows very dramatically the movement has stopped and is really unmeasurable," he said. "I sleep better at night and so can you. ... Overall, this has been very successful." The town will use "lightweight approaches" as it begins to put weight back on the slope. The patio below the boathouse deck — now a gaping hole — will be filled and reconstructed using pavers. Cracks in the concrete terrace area and stairs will be filled. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUERoute 8 project in Bridgeport will be topic of public meeting
BRIDGEPORT >> A public information meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday about the replacement of the Route 8 bridges over Lindley Street and Capitol Avenue. The bridges are located about 2 miles north of Interstate 95. “The first stage takes place June 11 to June 25,” said Domenic LaRosa, assistant district engineer overseeing the project. “During that stage, the southbound traffic is going to be rerouted to the northbound side of the highway.
“Then in stage two, which will be July 16 to July 30, we’ll be shifting the northbound traffic onto the southbound side, which will allow us accelerated demolition and construction of the northbound structures,” LaRosa said.
The entire project will be completed during those four weeks because the bridges will be constructed using a “design-build” method, in which “prefabbed bridge units … will be trucked in and put in place,” LaRosa said. It is the first design-build project in Connecticut, according to the state Department of Transportation. While the DOT does the initial design, the final design and construction are completed by the joint venture of Manafort Brothers and Parsons Brinckerhoff.
The traditional method could take up to two years, according to the DOT. The cost of the project is $35 million, the DOT said. The public hearing will take place in the City Council chambers at City Hall, 45 Lyon Terrace. For more
Upgrades sought for Cambridge Oxford Apartments in New Haven after $22.5M sale
NEW HAVEN >> The stately Cambridge Oxford Apartments on High Street recently were sold for almost three times their appraised value, according to city records, and will be further upgraded.
The adjacent buildings are located at 32 High St. and 36-38 High St. and were sold by Beacon Communities of Boston to East River Partners, a New York-based private equity investment and real estate development firm, for $22.25 million.
The complexes together hold 84 apartments. The appraised value for the properties was $8.44 million, according to city records.
A statement from Institutional Property Advisors, the brokers for the sale, said the multi-family properties were extensively renovated in 2001. IPA is a division of Marcus & Millichap.
“Just steps from the Yale University Arch, Cambridge Oxford Apartments are poised for significant upside through the continuation of the unit upgrade program for the 58 unrenovated units,” said Victor Nolletti, IPA executive director.
The new owners are looking to add two bedrooms to an apartment on the top floor of the building at 32 High St. and construct a fifth floor with four more units to the complex at 36 High St. The last building at 38 High St. is a two-story, multi-family home. Construction on the structures began in 1860 and was finished in 1926. The new owners will have the building addition for 32 High St. taken up at the June Board of Zoning Appeals meeting. The BZA referred the proposed addition of another floor at 36 High St. to the City Plan Commission as the owners are looking for a special exception to reduce the parking requirement, which staff has recommended they be granted. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
I-84 project has drivers gawking
WATERBURY — The Interstate 84 reconstruction project has become a daily part of life for anyone who drives the east-west highway that runs through the heart of the city. Although it began a little more than a year ago, the construction landscape still changes on a weekly basis. Drivers slow down not just at the merge from three lanes to two, or because of the narrow lanes between jersey barriers, but to gawk at the enormity of the work. One week there's a new bridge sprouting from the earth between Hamilton Avenue and Harpers Ferry Road, another week a new box culvert off Scott Road for the future Plank Road East. "It's been a busy year," said Project Engineer Christopher Zukowski, of the state Department of Transportation. "But in 2016, we're going to be doing even more." The $330 million I-84 project involves adding a third lane in both directions on a 2.7-mile stretch of highway, along with building eight new bridges and improvements to local roads. The primary contractor, I-84 Constructors, is a joint venture between North Haven-based Empire Paving and Yonkers Contracting of New York.
The project began last spring with paving layers of asphalt on the existing highway, to strengthen the roadway surface in an effort to prevent pot holes — which would require closing a lane to repair.
Then crews removed trees and brush along the roadway, including the former Century Dam, a large area south of I-84 between Hamilton Avenue and Harpers Ferry Road.
Crews have demolished the western section of the Hamilton Avenue bridge over I-84 and are rebuilding a wider version. Traffic has been shifted to the eastern section of the bridge while the demolished portion is rebuilt. When the new section is finished, traffic will be shifted onto it. The eastern section will be demolished and reconstructed.
Lane shifts onto old, and then new, sections of a bridge will be used in other locations to avoid disruptions to traffic flow. On the western crossing of I-84 over the Mad River, steel rebar is being installed for a new bridge over the river adjacent to the existing bridge.
Once the new bridge is finished, traffic will be shifted onto the new section and the existing bridge will be closed and reconstructed.
Also, the new Exit 23 eastbound on-ramp will be rebuilt so vehicles will have a longer acceleration lane before entering the highway. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE