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State to help Bethel fund water projects
BETHEL — The State Bond Commission has approved $2.2 million in low-interest loans to help the town fund several water infrastructure upgrades.
The loans will fund the nearly $700,000 refurbishment of two well fields, the $1.1 million replacement of an aging pump station, among other upgrades.
“That’s excellent news,” First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker said, noting that the loans will help offset costs that would otherwise be covered by water department customers.
“This is going to do is help us improve our water infrastructure, improve the water quality and still keep rates very low,” he said.
The two Maple Avenue wells were installed in the late 1960s and have not been producing as much water as they once did. Knickerbocker said they will be completely refurbished and a third one will be drilled to supplement them.
The Hoyt’s Hill pump station, built in 1959, has also deteriorated in recent years and will be replaced.
The loan is part of a $40 million package the state Department of Public Health put together to help towns improve water treatment plants and other facilities. The loans are repaid at about half the market interest rate over 20 years.
The Bethel projects, which Knickerbocker said are also critical to improving fire safety in town, are part of a long-term capital plan.
That plan includes construction of the $2.8-million Eureka Lake water tank, a 750,000-gallon storage tank that is scheduled to be operational this fall. Knickerbocker said the town has recently applied for an additional $1.9 million grant to complete construction of the tank. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Eversource says disruption to natural habitats limited as road building below power lines continues
SOUTHINGTON — Eversource is replacing towers and lines between its substation on Belleview Avenue and Bristol this year, building gravel access roads in some areas under the lines.
Officials with the utility say the roads are needed both for the work that will continue until December and for ongoing maintenance. Workers are careful to disturb as little land as possible, said spokesman Frank Poirot, and the gravel paths will encompass only a fraction of the entire area.
Some environmental advocates are concerned about the disruption of habitats for birds and other animals.
Town Planner Rob Philips said the work is under the jurisdiction of the state Siting Council. While the town was notified, it has no authority over what’s done on the land. Eversource has more than 3½ miles of transmission right-of-way through Southington to Bristol.
The land is mostly cleared of trees, although the utility company’s easement at times extends into the woods on either side of the transmission lines.
The land is unusual in that it’s not forested and rarely disturbed, providing unique habitats for animals. A Litchfield-based botanist told the Associated Press that the utility company has never done anything this disruptive to its rights-of-way before.
There is a gravel staging area on Lazy Lane where the transmission lines cross the road and gates which block access to the paths going into the rights-of-way. Eversource has rights for an easement about 235 feet wide, Poirot said, and the gravel road is about the width of one lane, or 9 feet. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
HARTFORD – State engineers announced Tuesday that they want to replace the aging I-84 elevated highway through Hartford with a slightly below-grade highway, rejecting a tunnel or new viaduct as too expensive.
At $10 billion to $12 billion, a tunnel is simply too expensive, the Department of Transportation engineers said, while a new elevated highway would do very little to reconnect the divided city or make traffic flow more safely.
Instead, the transportation department and its consultants recommend building a slightly below-grade highway at a projected cost of $4.3 billion to $5.3 billion. The DOT is asking federal officials to endorse the plan this summer so it can stay on track to begin construction as early as 2022.
"The tunnel [option] has a lot of challenges, not the least of which is the cost. And no one seems to want another viaduct," DOT project manager Rich Armstrong said. "Everybody we hear from would like to see it all come down." If the Federal Highway Administration gives its endorsement, the DOT will focus its engineers on designing a new highway at street level in some sections and partly depressed in others.
It will keep one other option available, though: Build nothing and continue to pump money into repairing the existing viaduct. The DOT has put tens of millions of dollars into that in recent years, and warns that future maintenance costs will be far higher.
The state has been looking for several years at what to do with the deteriorating viaduct, a roughly 2-mile stretch of Connecticut's busiest highway.
It was designed in the 1960s for vastly less traffic than the 175,000 vehicles it now handles every day, and is riddled with left-hand exits and entrances, curves and slopes, awkwardly spaced ramps, and merge points that are notorious for fender benders. Much of the viaduct has no shoulder, so a single car breakdown or minor accident often triggers a traffic jam. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
New Haven officials want state DOT to change design of planned Union Station garage
NEW HAVEN >> Pedro Soto, chairman of the Development Commission, says it isn’t often that he will actively work to kill a project, but he is making an exception. Soto has been tasked with writing a letter from the commission to the state Department of Transportation informing it that New Haven would be better off without the 1,000-car garage as it is presently designed for Union Station.
The commission Tuesday agreed with the consistent testimony presented at a DOT public hearing on June 6, that the garage does nothing for the city, which is in the middle of re-imagining the Hill, the medical center and Union Avenue as a transit-oriented development, or TOD, with the train station as a focal point.Soto also referred to the W-ZHA study prepared with Goody Clancy in 2013, which recommended working with a private developer to wrap the garage with housing or offices with active first-floor retail to bring activity to Union Avenue. That study also proposed re-merchandising the interior of Union Station to make it a more vibrant destination. In addition, the city wants a bus depot to make it a multi-modal transportation center as is now available in Hartford and Bridgeport. “The key point is to build a parking garage that takes into account the city, versus a garage that is just for commuters,” Soto said. The garage is estimated to cost between $40 million and $60 million. “New Haven has uniquely been able to run the station at a low cost,” Soto said of the 35-year agreement that is about to expire. As far back as 2007, the state expressed its support for a second garage at the Union Station Transportation Center, its formal name, that would be “appropriate for what hopefully will be a transportation-oriented development,” according to a letter to then-Mayor John DeStefano Jr.
In 2008, the state and the city commissioned the Jones, Lang and LaSalle study on the feasibility of a TOD. It was never implemented after the 2008 recession killed construction projects, but Goody Clancy was hired five years later to collaborate with the state and the city to update the plan. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Part of New Haven’s Crown Street to be closed through Aug. 7 for underground bridge reconstruction
NEW HAVEN >> Crown Street between Church and Temple streets will close to vehicular traffic beginning Saturday through Aug. 7 to accommodate Crown Street Bridge construction, the city announced Tuesday. If you’ve never heard or seen the Crown Street Bridge, you’re not alone. The bridge is underground, running perpendicular under Crown Street. But City Engineer Giovanni Zinn said it’s used regularly for delivery and loading by nearby tenants such as Gateway Community College and the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale. “There’s a bridge that’s there, even if you don’t notice it. It runs from sidewalk to sidewalk,” Zinn said.
According to a memo from C.J. Fucci contractors released by the city, re-construction of this bridge will require the closing of the portion of Crown Street between Church and Temple streets. Cars will be detoured to Chapel Street and back to Temple Street during the interim, the release said. Gary Morrissey, of C.J. Fucci Inc., is serving as project manager for the project and authored the memo dated June 2. Cask Republic and all other business on that section of Crown Street will remain open during construction, Zinn said, adding that sidewalks will be open for pedestrians during the construction. Many people patronize downtown eateries in the area throughout summer.
Dave Allen, one of the managers at Cask Republic on Crown Street, said while the restaurant is awaiting more details about the project, he doesn’t think the road closure will affect his business. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Heads up, I-84 drivers: Highway closed both ways tonight, Thursday and Sunday in Waterbury
Republican-American
WATERBURY — Interstate 84 will be closed in both directions from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. tonight, Thursday and Sunday for the installation of steel girders to support the deck of the new Hamilton Avenue bridge. The closure began overnight Tuesday and is expected to last four days.
Westbound traffic is being detoured at Exit 23. From there, motorists should turn right onto Hamilton Avenue, continue straight on Hamilton Avenue/Union Street and turn left onto I-84 via the Exit 22 westbound on ramp Eastbound traffic is taking Exit 23 toward Prospect, Route 69 southbound. At the end of the exit, motorists should cross Hamilton Avenue and reenter I-84 via the Exit 24 eastbound on ramp. Next week, I-84 eastbound will be closed overnight from June 20 to 22 for the installation of girders on the third bridge segment. The fourth segment will be installed offline.
Twenty steel girders will be installed — five girders on each of the four segments. As part of the I-84 reconstruction project, the Hamilton Avenue bridge is being widened to five continuous lanes. It will have a turn-only lane for the eastbound on ramp. Part of the bridge has been demolished and the new bridge is being built in its place. Lanes have been narrowed on the existing part of the bridge. When the new section opens this fall, traffic will be moved onto it and the old part will be demolished and rebuilt. This method allows to bridge to remain open while construction is underway.