Press Conference with Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty
TIME: Plan to arrive at 9:00am (Begins at 9:30 sharp)
DATE: Tuesday August 30, 2016
PLACE: I-84 Project, Waterbury
Congresswoman Esty is our Representative on the U.S. House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee!
I hope you can join us and show our support for continued attention to the Nation’s Infrastructure!
CLICK HERE FOR DIRECTIONS
Pratt & Whitney site development crosses another hurdle
415 Washington Avenue Partners received approval from the Inlands Wetlands Commission on Wednesday, Aug. 24 to proceed with their development plans at the Pratt & Whitney site, referring the plan for approval by the Planning & Zoning Commission on Sept. 12.
Wetlands approved the proposal unanimously, setting the stage for a P&Z meeting that may secure the fate of one of the largest unoccupied commercial sites in Connecticut.
First Selectman Mike Freda said, “We completed the fourth phase of the six-phase process with the Wetlands Commission approval and its referral to Planning & Zoning, which will be the fifth phase. The final phase will be the consummation of the transaction between the parties.”
“The 855,000 square foot facility is a very significant single site user concept with mezzanine levels within the facility that make it larger,” the first selectman said. “This is the closest we’ve ever been to finalizing the project and if it happens it will be one the largest job creators within the region and the state.”
Susan Hayes, an attorney representing the client that won’t be named until a lease is approved, said, “Approvals that were received two years ago from wetlands and P&Z expired in June, so we’re back seeking approval for the same type of development.”
They were seeking approval for an 855,000 square foot warehouse distribution and trucking facility that will feature nine acres less of impervious surface than what exists there today, which is better from a wetlands perspective, Hayes said.
John Plante, a Langan engineer, presented the site plan, which features the building in the center of the east side of the site and 2,500 parking spaces to the north and west of the building. There will be access from Washington Avenue, Defco Park Road and, if extended, Valley Service Road. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
North Stonington — Perry Lorenz believes there's a misconception about his company, A/Z Corporation.
"We do about 600 jobs a year in varying sizes, from very small to large," said Lorenz, the president and chief executive officer of the North Stonington-based design, engineering, construction, operations and maintenance services company. "But the bread and butter of what we do is small capital projects. We obviously support large projects, too, and the reason everybody thinks we only do large projects is because that's what they see.
"So they drive by and say, 'Oh, so you're building a hotel or you're building a new plant or a new office building,' but 80 percent of what we do is under $100,000," Lorenz said.
Indeed, the A/Z Corporation portfolio is extensive, with more than $350 million in "backlog"— jobs that are underway or ready to start.
Last year A/Z's revenues were more than $230 million and over the past five years it has supported more than $950 million of work, much of it in southern New England. Market sectors include corporate, education, hospitality, life sciences and research, manufacturing, mission critical, and utilities and distributed generation. Among the firm's clients are AstraZeneca, Pratt & Whitney/United Technologies, Sanofi/Genzyme, Hartford Healthcare, Amgen, and Brown University.
The business, started by Lorenz' late father, Edward Lorenz, from his home in the late 1960s and initially called A/Z Electric, would quickly grow to include a partner, Tom Mahoney, who was a civil engineer and Ed Lorenz' brother-in-law, and the addition of Ledyard General Contractors. The businesses were based in Ledyard and consolidated as A/Z Corporation in 1994.
Today, A/Z has 450 employees and satellite offices in Hartford, Philadelphia, Hopkinton, R.I., and Westborough, Mass. Throughout the year, its workforce may grow to as many as 1,500, as tradesmen are employed through subcontractors. It has projects as far away as Georgia (design and build of a 100,000-square-foot facility for Aspen Aerogels in Statesboro) and Delaware (the design and build of a combined heat and power facility at Christiana Care Health Systems' 913-bed hospital in Newark), and is looking at future work in Puerto Rico, Colorado and other locales. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Audit: Downtown North costs exceed $102M
The city of Hartford's investment in the Downtown North development, which includes construction of the Dunkin' Donuts Park baseball stadium, exceeds $102 million to date, according to an audit from Hartford's Internal Audit Commission released publicly Friday.
Originally priced at $56 million for initial construction funding and bonded at $63.3 million, the unfinished stadium's pricetag has now jumped to $71.7 million, the audit said.
For the overall Downtown North development, which includes road work, engineering and other infrastructure work, the total costs to the city are $102.5 million to date, the audit report said.
That $102 million does not include ongoing costs related to the shutdown of the project in June when the city fired the developer, such as security and legal, fire and police protection. The sum also does not include the final cost to finish the work on the stadium, which is being determined by the city's surety bond carrier, or costs associated with pending litigation, the report states.
The audit is based on the economic investment for the Downtown North "DoNo" development from inception through August.
The report comes on the heels of a press conference Thursday in which the Eastern League President Joseph McEacharn and Yard Goats team owner Josh Solomon indicated that while they are committed to playing at the 6,600-seat stadium for the 2017 season, time is running out.
The audit report said the city currently has $4.4 million left to finish the stadium, but that doesn't take into account a $5 million invoice the city hasn't yet paid from the fired developer, Centerplan. That invoice was submitted in May 2016, the audit said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Malloy: I-84 Work Ahead Of Schedule, On Budget
WATERBURY — Nearing the end of a busy summer construction season, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Friday reported that the $330 million widening of I-84 remains about 10 months ahead of schedule and on budget.
Contractors are adding a third lane in each direction for nearly 3 miles of the highway starting just east of the Route 8 interchange, a stretch that becomes a bottleneck during morning and afternoon rush hours.
Malloy said the job represents the type of progress Connecticut needs to modernize its highway and public transit networks.
"We all agree that for too many decades, our state did not make the investments needed to ensure we maintained a modernized transportation system," Malloy said. "The growth of our economy depends on these kinds of major upgrades."
The state transportation department's contract with Empire and Yonkers requires that construction be completed by June 2020, but the DOT forecasts that completion could come as soon as late summer 2019. The companies have contract incentives to complete work early.
"By sustaining this pace of work, and with the cooperation of the weather, we anticipate remaining ahead of schedule and on budget," said John S. Dunham, a senior engineer with the DOT.
"At this time, 16 months into a five-year project, we are well within our budgeted cost. It is too early to project final project cost at this time, however we currently running under budget," said Christopher Zukowski, the DOT's manager for the project. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
FRA Approves Northern New England Rail Blueprint
“Existing passenger rail service through New England is limited and already at capacity for a region that is growing,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “With an approved blueprint in hand, New England can now move forward to connect people to key job centers and allow students to easily travel to and from New England's numerous colleges.”
FRA awarded $942,775 to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) and the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) through FRA's Next Generation High-Speed Rail Program to study potential service options and complete the Tier 1 Environmental Assessment, in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act.FRA found that no significant environmental impacts would result from adding more frequent and higher speed intercity passenger rail service, in large part due to the use of existing operating rail lines within existing rights-of-way. The proposed infrastructure improvements also would be located within existing right-of-way along areas that were in the past double or triple tracked.
“More than two million people live within three miles of a station along this corridor,” said Sarah E. Feinberg, FRA administrator. “For everyone to move safely and efficiently, the region needs a robust rail system, and this blueprint will help achieve that goal.”
MassDOT and VTrans will coordinate the Initiative with other projects, including NEC FUTURE, FRA's ongoing comprehensive planning effort to define, evaluate, and prioritize future investments in the Northeast Corridor (NEC). The NEC runs from Washington, DC to Boston. Together, this Initiative and NEC FUTURE would provide greater connectivity to central Connecticut, Massachusetts, northern New England, and Montreal.
Sewer line raises concern
TORRINGTON – Parker Brook doesn’t stand out when you drive past it on Goshen Road.
The leaves from the surrounding trees and the brush along its banks blanket the water source in a lush coating of green. The water flow is a trickle at times from the swampy land nearby, through the culvert underneath Goshen Road (Route 4) to its final destination, a backup reservoir downhill that is owned by the Torrington Water Co.
A proposed sewer line that would carry sewage from 691 homes in the Woodridge Lake residential community in Goshen to a sewer line connection at the intersection of Route 4 and Lovers Lane has residents and Torrington Water Co. officials worried about what would happen to the integrity of the city’s backup water supply if a leak or break in the line sent the raw, untreated sewage to the backup reservoir known as Hart’s Dam.
The proposed 6 miles of sewer lines would include not only crossing Parker Brook, but two other brooks and cut 4,600 feet through the watershed. An estimated 110,000 gallons are expect to pass through the line each day.
City officials and the representaties of the Woodbridge Lake Sewer District say a break or leak in the line is unlikely because of the type of pipe that would be used and seeking an alternate route around the watershed to Highland Avenue in Torrington would be too costly for Woodridge Lake residents and the city, which would ultimately have to maintain the sewer lines once they are installed.
The massive project for Woodridge Lake seeks to put an end to a decades-long battle between the Woodridge Lake homeowners association and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. In 1989, the agency issued a consent order over concerns about the lake association’s disposal field. The association has 19 miles of sewer lines which connect to a treatment plant on the lake property and then to a 98-acre field of ridge and furrow beds to handle the treated water. DEEP raised concerns about the use of the ridge and furrow beds and whether they could adequately handle the treated water. The property borders a tributary of the Bantam River, which flows into Bantam Lake. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
"We do about 600 jobs a year in varying sizes, from very small to large," said Lorenz, the president and chief executive officer of the North Stonington-based design, engineering, construction, operations and maintenance services company. "But the bread and butter of what we do is small capital projects. We obviously support large projects, too, and the reason everybody thinks we only do large projects is because that's what they see.
"So they drive by and say, 'Oh, so you're building a hotel or you're building a new plant or a new office building,' but 80 percent of what we do is under $100,000," Lorenz said.
Indeed, the A/Z Corporation portfolio is extensive, with more than $350 million in "backlog"— jobs that are underway or ready to start.
Last year A/Z's revenues were more than $230 million and over the past five years it has supported more than $950 million of work, much of it in southern New England. Market sectors include corporate, education, hospitality, life sciences and research, manufacturing, mission critical, and utilities and distributed generation. Among the firm's clients are AstraZeneca, Pratt & Whitney/United Technologies, Sanofi/Genzyme, Hartford Healthcare, Amgen, and Brown University.
The business, started by Lorenz' late father, Edward Lorenz, from his home in the late 1960s and initially called A/Z Electric, would quickly grow to include a partner, Tom Mahoney, who was a civil engineer and Ed Lorenz' brother-in-law, and the addition of Ledyard General Contractors. The businesses were based in Ledyard and consolidated as A/Z Corporation in 1994.
Today, A/Z has 450 employees and satellite offices in Hartford, Philadelphia, Hopkinton, R.I., and Westborough, Mass. Throughout the year, its workforce may grow to as many as 1,500, as tradesmen are employed through subcontractors. It has projects as far away as Georgia (design and build of a 100,000-square-foot facility for Aspen Aerogels in Statesboro) and Delaware (the design and build of a combined heat and power facility at Christiana Care Health Systems' 913-bed hospital in Newark), and is looking at future work in Puerto Rico, Colorado and other locales. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Audit: Downtown North costs exceed $102M
The city of Hartford's investment in the Downtown North development, which includes construction of the Dunkin' Donuts Park baseball stadium, exceeds $102 million to date, according to an audit from Hartford's Internal Audit Commission released publicly Friday.
Originally priced at $56 million for initial construction funding and bonded at $63.3 million, the unfinished stadium's pricetag has now jumped to $71.7 million, the audit said.
For the overall Downtown North development, which includes road work, engineering and other infrastructure work, the total costs to the city are $102.5 million to date, the audit report said.
That $102 million does not include ongoing costs related to the shutdown of the project in June when the city fired the developer, such as security and legal, fire and police protection. The sum also does not include the final cost to finish the work on the stadium, which is being determined by the city's surety bond carrier, or costs associated with pending litigation, the report states.
The audit is based on the economic investment for the Downtown North "DoNo" development from inception through August.
The report comes on the heels of a press conference Thursday in which the Eastern League President Joseph McEacharn and Yard Goats team owner Josh Solomon indicated that while they are committed to playing at the 6,600-seat stadium for the 2017 season, time is running out.
The audit report said the city currently has $4.4 million left to finish the stadium, but that doesn't take into account a $5 million invoice the city hasn't yet paid from the fired developer, Centerplan. That invoice was submitted in May 2016, the audit said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Malloy: I-84 Work Ahead Of Schedule, On Budget
WATERBURY — Nearing the end of a busy summer construction season, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Friday reported that the $330 million widening of I-84 remains about 10 months ahead of schedule and on budget.
Contractors are adding a third lane in each direction for nearly 3 miles of the highway starting just east of the Route 8 interchange, a stretch that becomes a bottleneck during morning and afternoon rush hours.
A joint venture of Empire Paving Inc. and Yonkers Contracting Co. is also adding full-width breakdown lanes, eliminating an S-curve and reconfiguring the system of on-ramps and off-ramps.
"When the project is finally completed, this will make a big difference to not just the Waterbury area, but to residents statewide," Malloy said at a press conference at the worksite. Malloy said the job represents the type of progress Connecticut needs to modernize its highway and public transit networks.
"We all agree that for too many decades, our state did not make the investments needed to ensure we maintained a modernized transportation system," Malloy said. "The growth of our economy depends on these kinds of major upgrades."
The state transportation department's contract with Empire and Yonkers requires that construction be completed by June 2020, but the DOT forecasts that completion could come as soon as late summer 2019. The companies have contract incentives to complete work early.
"By sustaining this pace of work, and with the cooperation of the weather, we anticipate remaining ahead of schedule and on budget," said John S. Dunham, a senior engineer with the DOT.
"At this time, 16 months into a five-year project, we are well within our budgeted cost. It is too early to project final project cost at this time, however we currently running under budget," said Christopher Zukowski, the DOT's manager for the project. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
FRA Approves Northern New England Rail Blueprint
“Existing passenger rail service through New England is limited and already at capacity for a region that is growing,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “With an approved blueprint in hand, New England can now move forward to connect people to key job centers and allow students to easily travel to and from New England's numerous colleges.”
FRA awarded $942,775 to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) and the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) through FRA's Next Generation High-Speed Rail Program to study potential service options and complete the Tier 1 Environmental Assessment, in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act.FRA found that no significant environmental impacts would result from adding more frequent and higher speed intercity passenger rail service, in large part due to the use of existing operating rail lines within existing rights-of-way. The proposed infrastructure improvements also would be located within existing right-of-way along areas that were in the past double or triple tracked.
“More than two million people live within three miles of a station along this corridor,” said Sarah E. Feinberg, FRA administrator. “For everyone to move safely and efficiently, the region needs a robust rail system, and this blueprint will help achieve that goal.”
MassDOT and VTrans will coordinate the Initiative with other projects, including NEC FUTURE, FRA's ongoing comprehensive planning effort to define, evaluate, and prioritize future investments in the Northeast Corridor (NEC). The NEC runs from Washington, DC to Boston. Together, this Initiative and NEC FUTURE would provide greater connectivity to central Connecticut, Massachusetts, northern New England, and Montreal.
Sewer line raises concern
TORRINGTON – Parker Brook doesn’t stand out when you drive past it on Goshen Road.
The leaves from the surrounding trees and the brush along its banks blanket the water source in a lush coating of green. The water flow is a trickle at times from the swampy land nearby, through the culvert underneath Goshen Road (Route 4) to its final destination, a backup reservoir downhill that is owned by the Torrington Water Co.
A proposed sewer line that would carry sewage from 691 homes in the Woodridge Lake residential community in Goshen to a sewer line connection at the intersection of Route 4 and Lovers Lane has residents and Torrington Water Co. officials worried about what would happen to the integrity of the city’s backup water supply if a leak or break in the line sent the raw, untreated sewage to the backup reservoir known as Hart’s Dam.
The proposed 6 miles of sewer lines would include not only crossing Parker Brook, but two other brooks and cut 4,600 feet through the watershed. An estimated 110,000 gallons are expect to pass through the line each day.
City officials and the representaties of the Woodbridge Lake Sewer District say a break or leak in the line is unlikely because of the type of pipe that would be used and seeking an alternate route around the watershed to Highland Avenue in Torrington would be too costly for Woodridge Lake residents and the city, which would ultimately have to maintain the sewer lines once they are installed.
The massive project for Woodridge Lake seeks to put an end to a decades-long battle between the Woodridge Lake homeowners association and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. In 1989, the agency issued a consent order over concerns about the lake association’s disposal field. The association has 19 miles of sewer lines which connect to a treatment plant on the lake property and then to a 98-acre field of ridge and furrow beds to handle the treated water. DEEP raised concerns about the use of the ridge and furrow beds and whether they could adequately handle the treated water. The property borders a tributary of the Bantam River, which flows into Bantam Lake. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE