WESTPORT—Town commuters can expect delays on their daily trek to New York—construction in Lot #1 of the Westport Train Station is expected to start within the coming weeks.
The $1.5 million complete reconstruction project, passed by the Representative Town Meeting in early June, will improve storm drainage and staircases, add pedestrian walkways, set up cameras, and install LED lighting in addition to repaving and restriping the surface. When complete, the parking lot will be repurposed to have two points of entrance and exit as well as a right hand turn lane. Currently, the lot has five channels of egress.
“They are firming up and finalizing the contract with Department of Public Works and contractor who was awarded the job,” Deputy Police Chief Sam Arciola said. “Immediately upon the finalization of the contracts and we will firm up a set day to start. Our goal is to have everything completed before Labor Day.”
Lot #1 will not be closed until the actual construction starts. In response to the temporary loss of the 310 spaces during construction, Police Chief Foti Koskinas’ department will allow for temporary permit parking across Saugatuck Avenue abutting Lot #8 to the rear. They also advocate for commuters taking the shuttle from the Imperial Avenue parking lot to the Westport train station.
Additional permit parking will also be available at the Greens Farms train station on New Creek Road near Lot #2.
“I understand the frustration commuters face, but this will benefit the commuter” Koskinas said.
He noted that the first week after construction starts, there will be a heavy police presence in order to facilitate traffic flow and to show people where to park.
“I would encourage them (commuters) to give an extra 5-10 minutes the first week until they familiarize themselves where parking spots are. There is no question that people will be inconvenienced,” Koskinas said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Union condemns ‘child labor’ in Stamford
STAMFORD — A day after a 13-year-old boy was found doing electrical work at a school construction site, more than a dozen union members staged a protest outside the building.
“We’re asking for a level playing field,” said Ted Duarte, a senior organizer for the New England Regional Council of Carpenters. “We’re asking for legitimate contractors, union or not union, to have a real shot at getting real work and not having to compete against people who are exploring children.”
The state Department of Labor’s Wage and Workplace Standards Division sent inspectors to the New School, an extension of Rogers Magnet Elementary, on Thursday morning after learning of the violation. Authorities said they found the juvenile helping his father, an electrician working for D.F. McDermott, a contractor out of Ansonia.
Police removed the boy and his father from the construction area, but no one was arrested.
City Engineer Lou Casolo, whose office manages the project, said on Thursday that the contractor was hired by the city’s Information Technology Department to install digital whiteboards.
On Friday morning, protesters were seen outside the building at 200 Strawberry Hill Ave. with a large inflatable cat “strangling” a construction worker. They were also holding picket signs with phrases like “Don’t exploit a child,” “We will not be silent” and “Protect kids. Don’t exploit them.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Utility prep work for Wallingford bridge replacement underway
WALLINGFORD — Utility work around the East Center Street bridge over Wharton Brook began in April and Department of Transportation officials say the replacement of the bridge is expected to start in August, resulting in traffic being condensed to one side of the bridge, which may impact flow during rush hour.
“We would like to thank the residents of the area in advance to bear with us and in the end they will get a brand new bridge and we all will be better off because of it,” said DOT Project Engineer Anil Seghal. “People they are not used to construction equipment noises. There are houses around the bridge and because of the construction activity we create noise.”
Department of Transportation spokesman Kevin Nursick said the existing bridge was built in 1914.
“The bridge is structurally deficient and has been recommended for replacement,” Nursick said in a statement. “The purpose of the project is to replace the structure to meet current design standards.”
The construction area will span just under 400 feet from east of Elm Street to west of Pomeroy Avenue. The bridge will be replaced with a concrete deck over a street girder superstructure supported by concrete abutments resting on bedrock.
The bridge will be replaced in two halves to maintain traffic flow during all phases of the project, Seghal said. Crews will start work replacing one half of the bridge in August, while the other half will be replaced sometime in 2017.
Water and sewer lines will be replaced in the process and new sidewalks will be added to both sides of the road. Pedestrian access will also be maintained at all times.
Utilities have to be relocated in order for work to begin.
Town Engineer Rob Baltramaitis said crews are still in the process of moving utilities.
“They have already started the utility work, the “make-ready” work, temporarily relocating power throughout the area,” Baltramaitis said. “All the utilities have quite a bit of work to do. There’s a lot of utilities on Center Street and it’s one of the complexities of the project.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
HARTFORD — A border war between titans in the casino world has escalated, with MGM Resorts International stepping up its opposition to a proposed tribal casino project in Connecticut that’s supposed to help the tribes fend off competition from MGM’s planned $950 million project in neighboring Massachusetts. Besides challenging the law which laid the groundwork for the possible satellite casino, MGM was credited last month with proposing the surprise amendment to a federal defense bill. It would have prevented tribes with casinos on tribal land, like Connecticut’s Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal nations, from opening a venture off-reservation in the same state.
“It’s pretty exceptional to try to solve a local issue in the defense authorization bill. So, we weren’t going to let that amendment go anywhere,” said Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, who worked with fellow Democratic Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal to scuttle the provision. “But it’s clear that MGM is using every angle they can find to try to stop this project from going forward.”
Clyde Barrow, an economist and general manager of Pyramid Associates, a Massachusetts consulting firm that conducted a market analysis for the two Connecticut tribes, said “the magnitude of what MGM is engaged in is probably above and beyond anything I’ve seen elsewhere in the country at this point.” Alan Silver, a casino industry expert at Ohio University, contends MGM’s tactics are not surprising, given what’s at stake. “I think any business person would be doing the same thing,” said Silver, who agrees MGM should question the fairness of Connecticut’s law. Proponents maintain the jointly run satellite casino could protect thousands of jobs at the tribes’ two existing casinos in southeastern Connecticut — Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Planned
The Delamar Hotel being built at the corner of Memorial and Raymond roads is expected to be a six-story, 111-room luxury hotel — an estimated $30 million project.
"We'll be finishing up a building review and [reviewing] the next set of building permits," West Hartford Community Services Director Mark McGovern. said last week. "Construction is expected to ramp up in the next few months."
McGovern said people paying attention to the hotel's development may have noticed that work on the site has "slowed down." That was due to necessary building review, some proposed changes that needed town council approval and authorizing more building permits, McGoven said. Charles Mallory, founder and CEO of Greenwich Hospitality Group, one of the partners on the hotel project, said in an email statement that "… steel framing of the hotel is almost complete and the community will start to get a sense of the hotel's shape as we move next to finish the exterior walls." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Loses Out On Federal Money To Ease Congestion On Charter Oak Bridge
HARTFORD — The state has apparently lost its first bid to get federal aid to reconstruct Exit 29 of I-91, but will be able to apply for future rounds of funding.
Connecticut sought $75 million in federal FASTLANE grants to help pay for an estimated $305 million reconstruction of the highway’s connection to the Charter Oak Bridge.
But in a recent announcement, federal transportation officials said this year’s FASTLANE funding is headed elsewhere. The nationwide competition was severe: States submitted requests totaling more than $9.8 billion, even though just $800 million was available.
Whether future money comes through, the DOT intends to do the I-91 work because that section of highway creates severe traffic congestion, according to state officials. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s “Let’s Go CT” long-term transportation plan budgets $57 million in state funds over the next five years for the work, and would direct almost $230 million in yearly federal aid to cover most of the rest. The area around the Charter Oak Bridge ranks as the 84th worst traffic bottleneck for truck freight in the country, according to the DOT. The DOT blames most of that to the design of the northbound Exit 29 ramp to Routes 5 and 15 northbound.
“The Interchange 29 off-ramp … routinely experiences significant traffic delays and above average crash frequency,” according to the FASTLANE application that the DOT filed in April. “Much of this can be attributed to the steep vertical grade and single-lane configuration of the ramp, the heavy traffic weave on the Charter Oak Bridge, and the near capacity volumes on I-91.”
The federal transportation department established FASTLANE as a competitive grant program targeting freight bottlenecks around the country; it’s available for railroad and port projects as well as highways. Connecticut made a case that the Charter Oak connects much of the truck traffic between New York and Boston, so traffic backups hurt the region’s freight-moving operations. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE