NORWALK — Some of the people who stand to be most affected by the Walk Bridge replacement weren’t at the table when the state Department of Transportation held a “partnering session” in New Haven on Thursday.
Tony D’Andrea, owner of Select Plastics at 217 Liberty Square, didn’t find himself among the partners invited to the meeting, despite the fact that his property and business stand to be taken to replace the bridge.
“I have not been invited to any of them. If they are public meetings, I will attend,” D’Andrea said. “Hopefully, the people that attend will come back and disseminate the information to the people affected. Everybody affected in South Norwalk and East Norwalk should know the outcome of this meeting: what was discussed, what was agreed and if there’s any changes made we should know what the changes are.”
“The team selected a central location for the meeting,” Everhart wrote in email response to The Hour. “Contractor (Cianbro/Middlesex), DOT and Parsons-Brinckerhoff (project consultant), as well as other stakeholders from Norwalk (city reps, aquarium, harbor commission), and Metro-North.”
He said DOT is researching whether the meetings need to be open to the public and press.
“These meetings are considered business meetings,” Everhart said.
About a dozen Norwalk officials, including Mayor Harry W. Rilling, Maritime Aquarium President Brian Davis and representatives of city departments, were invited to attend, based on an email invitation sent by the DOT.
Rilling said he was unable to attend, but sent Director of Public Works Bruce J. Chimento and Director of Economic Development Elizabeth B. Stocker in his place.
“We have asked to be at the table at every meeting,” Rilling said.
In addition to Chimento and Stocker, Norwalk Redevelopment Agency Senior Project Manager Susan Sweitzer and Administrative Services Manager Kathryn R. Hebert. Representatives of the Norwalk Harbor Management Commission also went to New Haven. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Replacement of Farmington Avenue Bridge is underway
BERLIN — The replacement of the Farmington Avenue Bridge is now underway.
Crews have blocked off the section of Farmington Avenue where the bridge is located over the Mattabasset River. A detour has been set up on Seymour Road, adjacent to Central Pizza on 96 Mill St.
The bridge, which dates to 1928, according to Deputy Director of Public Works James P. Horbal, will be torn down by contractors Mastrobattisto, Inc. of Bristol, and replaced at a cost of $2.5 million.
Eighty percent of the project is federally funded, while 10 percent is covered by state funds, with the other 10 percent funded by the town, said Horbal.
Around 4,500 cars travel over the bridge each day, he said. The project is expected to be completed by the end of the construction season Dec. 1.
Additional bridge improvements to structures on Burnham Street, High Road and Spruce Brook Road are in the preliminary planning stages, said Horbal. The work on each bridge is expected to cost more than $1 million, he said, with 47 percent of the cost covered by the state and the other 53 percent covered by the town.
The Town Council in April approved $1 million in bonds for the improvement projects.
Portland commissions study of major road, sidewalk repairs
PORTLAND >> The Board of Selectmen has given the go-ahead to conduct an economic study of two major — and potentially costly — infrastructure repair projects.
The board voted last week to have Director of Public Works Richard D. Kelsey work with town engineer Jeff Jacobson to develop cost estimates for a sidewalk repair project and the reconstruction of Brownstone Avenue.During last week’s selectmen’s meeting, preliminary cost estimates were mentioned: $2 million to $3 million for a limited sidewalk repair project and between $3 million and $4 million for the reconstruction of perhaps 3,500 linear feet of Brownstone Avenue.Jacobson will be tasked with developing firmer figures for both projects. Brownstone Avenue is an economically important road that services several industries dotted along the shore of the Connecticut River as well as the Brownstone Exploration and Discovery Park. The popular and successful water park occupies an abandoned brownstone quarry.
The street is also one of two access roads to the town’s new Riverfront Park. However, it was built atop “spoil” from the quarry, which is defined as “waste material brought up during the course of an excavation or a dredging or mining operation.”Because large blocks of brownstone were used to create the underpinning of the roadway, voids were created in the spaces between and among the blocks. Those voids can open up without warning, creating sinkholes. There is also a major water main under the roadway and on occasion it has leaked, creating similar problems. “These holes suddenly appear,” Kelsey told the selectmen. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Glastonbury's Gemma wraps work on two Penn. power plants
Glastonbury-based Gemma Power Systems said it has finished work on two natural gas-fired power plants in Pennsylvania and turned them over to their owner to begin operation.
The two 829-megawatt plants - named Panda Liberty and Panda Patriot - are located in neighboring counties in northeastern Pennsylvania. They are owned by Panda Power Funds, which did not disclose their exact price tag.
Panda said in 2013 that it had raised debt capital for the two plants totaling $1.28 billion.
Gemma, a subsidiary of Maryland's Argan Inc., acted as the engineering, procurement and construction contractors for the plants through a joint venture with Lane Construction Corp. Its work began in 2014.
The plants are designed and sited to capitalize on fracked natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, Gemma said.
The company said the two plants include the first installation of Siemens' H-class turbines in a single-shaft configuration, which it said makes the plants more efficient and flexible.
Middletown Receives Single Bid, From Centerplan, To Redevelop Parking Garage Site
MIDDLETOWN — The city received one bid, from locally based Centerplan Cos., in its request for proposals to redevelop the parking garage site between Court Street and Dingwall Drive.
Bids were due Wednesday afternoon. Planning Director Michiel Wackers said the city's staff has not fully reviewed Centerplan's submission, so he could not comment on its components. The common council's economic development committee is likely to interview Centerplan at its meeting July 12.
The city has grappled for a few years with the timing of building a new parking garage. Public parking is generally recognized as a necessity to support new development, but without a project attached to it, the city could not adequately plan its location or justify the estimated $25 million expense.
Mayor Daniel Drew said that price tag was far too high for parking alone, so he and city staff opted to broaden the potential uses for the property.
"This could be a huge project," Drew said. "That's one of the most valuable pieces of property in the downtown, so why would we build a big hulking garage there when we could look for something better?"The "parking arcade," as the garage structure is known, is more than 60 years old and has been repaired a few times in recent years. The upper level is accessed from Court Street; the lower level, mostly closed now due to eroding concrete, has an access from Dingwall Drive.
Officials have been hoping that a developer would see an opportunity to bring in commercial, entertainment or residential projects on the 1.5-acre site half a block from Main Street. The city's request for proposals identified the project as a "Public/Private Partnership" that "shall be designed to generate property taxes and be mixed-use with a minimum of three stories."
Drew said one idea the city identified is to sell the property to a developer for a low purchase price with conditions that must be met. With that approach, the city would get the parking it wants along with a project that adds to the tax base and improves the city's economic core. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
NEW HAVEN >> Developer Randy Salvatore has made his position clear. In an email to a city official, he said he will consider going forward with his proposed $100 million plan for housing and commercial development in the Hill only if he gets the zone change he requested and the document is not amended further.
“I was entirely betrayed by the Board of Alders from the top down,” he wrote in an early Thursday morning communication with Serena Neal-Sanjurjo, the executive director of the Livable City Initiative.“I am not spending any more time or money on this project or attending any more of these ridiculous hearings, and I have told (attorney) Carolyn Kone that she is not authorized to spend any more time (or my money) speaking to anyone going forward,” Salvatore wrote. In a phone conversation Thursday, he predicted there will be “long-term consequences” for New Haven. He said developers already think it is a hard place in which to do business and that this won’t help that perception. “It is all about the process. This was not a fair process. It was not a transparent process,” Salvatore said. He said he had no problem dealing with the city staff over the past year.
“City staff was fine, but they don’t make these decisions,” Salvatore said. The developer offered that some of the people involved in project approvals “do not have the best interests of the city at heart.”The developer said he has been talking and meeting with people for months. “I am not doing it anymore. I have talked to every constituency,” Salvatore said. A joint aldermanic committee reviewing his plan Wednesday for 140 units of housing, retail outlets and possible commercial development on 11.6 acres in the Hill eliminated one of the parcels he was piecing together for a zone change from BA to BD-3, which allows for taller and denser development. The parcels in question cover an area that has been essentially a sea of parking lots and deteriorating former school buildings for 26 years, tied up in an arrangement signed off by the city in 1989, when it had few development suitors. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE