The I-95 West River Bridge, a major construction initiative that will replace one of the throughway’s busiest bridges and reconfigure the nearly 60 year old interchange has netted a prestigious Connecticut-wide civil engineering award.
The $135 million five year project project, was the recipient of the Achievement in Civil Engineering (ACE) Award in the geotechnical category from the Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers. STV, in association with Amman & Whitney, is providing construction engineering and inspection services. Parsons Brinckerhoff (engineering design) and The Middlesex Corporation (contractor), were also a part of this winning project team.
The project, overseen by the Connecticut Department of Transportation , will replace the 1,138-foot bridge between New Haven and West Haven with a wider span to provide shoulder areas along with an acceleration lane on the southbound side. It will also replace a pair of cloverleaf interchanges with a single diamond interchange to increase capacity and improve safety and efficiency through the heavily traveled corridor.
“It’s gratifying for everyone on our team to receive this recognition,” said STV field engineer Michael Oliver, P.E., M.ASCE. “This has been a very complex and challenging project, which more than 130,000 vehicles travel through every day. The soil conditions for placing the new bridge pilings and abutments were not ideal and required innovative methods to stabilize the riverbed and the surrounding marshlands.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Site chosen for UConn dorms in downtown Stamford
STAMFORD — A long-awaited plan to provide housing for the University of Connecticut’s Stamford students is under way as a new downtown development a block away from the campus was selected over 10 other applicants.
Developer Randy Salvatore said Tuesday that UConn has signed a letter of intent to lease the residential portion of Rippowam Place, a mixed-use building under construction at 900 Washington Blvd., with expected completion by year end.
Salvatore submitted an application with the city on Friday to change the residential component of its previously approved development from high-end rental apartments to dormitories. If approvals are granted as expected, UConn would become the operator of the housing and students selected for on-campus housing may be able to move in for the fall 2017 semester.
“The location is halfway between the campus and the train station and we recognized that that would be really convenient for students,“ UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz said Tuesday.
Student housing for UConn students in Stamford has been three years in the making and is part of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy‘s $1.5 billion initiative to expand digital and risk-management academic programs in the city — the third-largest in Connecticut — and remake the main Storrs campus into a leader in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. The so-called Next Generation fund for UConn‘s 10-year expansion plan approved by the Legislature in June 2013 allocates $10 million for Stamford. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Green bank loan closes financing gap for Southington food waste facility
SOUTHINGTON – A $2 million loan could get construction started on a long-awaited food waste processing plant on DePaolo Drive.
The Connecticut Green Bank, a quasi-public agency approved a loan to complete the $12 million funding needed for Quantum Biopower to begin work on an anaerobic digester. The plant will take food waste and convert it to energy.
Quantum Biopower has been working on financing as well as government approvals for more than two years. Rick Ross, associate director of statutory and infrastructure programs with the bank, said the company has been dedicated to their mission when others might have quit.
“I give them credit It’s a long time to hold on to a project. They never wavered,” Ross said. “This project never really lost momentum.
Quantum Biopower, owned by Supreme Industries Inc. of Harwinton, intends to expand its existing mulching operation at 49 DePaolo Drive to process 40,000 tons of waste a year. They’re capitalizing on a 2013 law requiring supermarkets and wholesalers to recycle rather than pitch leftover food.
The state permitting process slowed the construction according to Ross. Quantum was the first of its kind applying and it was thought that six to 12 months would be sufficient. The wait for two and a half years was frustrating, Ross said.
After the bulk of the needed money was loaned by People’s Bank, the Green Bank approved just under $2 million to close the gap. The bank is funded by a surcharge on utility bills, private investors and government grants.
There is one more federal permit to receive but a draft of that permit has been secured and Ross said the most difficult approvals have been received. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
The work was the subject of an information meeting Tuesday at Copperwood Grill, where Public Works Director Brian Sear assumed the proverbial hot seat.
Bank Street property owner Frank McLaughlin said original notices from public works to businesses indicated sidewalks would be replaced.
“Then all of a sudden you’ve got a crew out there putting down putty and I think that’s what’s got everybody’s pants in a bundle,” McLaughlin said.
The work, which included use of an epoxy, was completed intermittently along a stretch of Bank Street, between Tilley and State streets. Contractors were directed to fill in cracks and level out sections of the sidewalk to avoid trip and fall hazards, Sear said. Several badly degraded sections were completely replaced.
Barbara Neff and others pointed out that, besides being a different color than the sidewalk, the epoxy already is cracking.
Sear said that, based on the reaction and comments from business owners, the city would go back and evaluate the sidewalk “piece by piece” and work with business owners in the process.
Some sections eventually may be replaced.
It is unclear when more work might be completed, but Sear said contractors had thus far steered clear of exisiting vaults — metal covered access points in the sidewalks that lead to the lower levels of the businesses.
Sear said contractors were not prepared to start work without knowing the structural condition of the areas surrounding the vaults, which hold up the sidewalks with metal framework. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
EPA awards Norwich $384K for cleanup
NORWICH — City officials on Tuesday cheered the receipt of $384,000 in federal grant money to assess the cleanup of industrial sites, including the large Ponemah Mill complex in Taftville.
Curt Spalding, the Environmental Protection Agency's New England administrator, toured the Ponemah site with U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, Mayor Deb Hinchey and City Manager John Salomone.
The mill, which developer Finn O'Neill is gutting and renovating into 116 one- and two-bedroom housing units, is the most visible site to benefit from the $384,000 the EPA awarded to Norwich last month. Workers were busy at the site Tuesday, where construction scaffolding surrounds the massive southern tower of the mill between Norwich Avenue and the Shetucket River.
The other two targeted sites are the downtown Chelsea Central District - which contains the Chestnut Street mills - and the industrial parcel at 26 Shipping Street, Spalding said.
"What the cities do with these dollars is deal with hazardous risks in these buildings and get them ready for the next thing that will come along," Spalding said. "It's the groundwork for more grants to come."
The EPA will award almost $2 million in competitive grants throughout Connecticut, Spalding said."This is not earmarked funds. You've got to compete with the whole country," Courtney said. "This grant is going to set the table for the next stage which is to get remediation grants ... this program is about growth in New England, and we've got to get these properties un-stuck." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
City Shutters Yard Goats Ballpark, Orders Developers Off Site
HARTFORD — City officials ordered the developers of the still-unfinished $63 million minor league baseball stadium to vacate the premises Tuesday in advance of an insurance company investigation of the construction fiasco.
The project's insurer, Arch Insurance, is expected to come in to investigate the city's claim and determine the next steps, including who should finish the work. Arch officials could recommend that the developers, Centerplan Cos. and DoNo Hartford LLC, finish the project.
The developers have said that the park, located just off I-84 near downtown Hartford and the future home of the Double A Eastern League Hartford Yard Goats, is about 95 percent complete. It is unclear whether any games will be played at the park this year. The Yard Goats have been playing their games on the road and at Dodd Stadium in Norwich.
Originally the stadium was scheduled to open April 7, but cost overruns and construction delays that came to light in December pushed the opening date to May 31. The developers were supposed to hand over the park to the Yard Goats by May 17, but missed the deadline. Last week the city declared that the developer was in default of the contract. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE