CT Construction Digest Friday August 19, 2016

Construction Photos of Towantic Energy Center


Routes 69 and 72 approved for redesign

BRISTOL — The West End’s Route 69 and 72 accident-heavy intersection has been given the green light by the state Department of Transportation for realignment.
Construction is expected to begin in the summer of 2019.
“The current layout of the intersection is insufficient to carry the 28,000 vehicles that pass through the intersection every day,” said Rick Dunne, executive director of the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments, the agency that approved the project funding of $8.1 million. “This project will be great for the neighborhood.”
The proposed design would reduce the number of streets coming together at this location, and move the intersection about 50 feet to the north, toward the Pequabuck River.
Bike and pedestrian traffic has been considered in the design as well as access to the river.
After the intersection was included on the state’s Suggested List of Surveillance Study Sites for safety concerns, further study was initiated in 2013, the association said.
“It takes years to get these things planned,” said Public Works Director Walt Veselka, as he honed in on the intersection from last year’s poster-sized picture of the area. “Even this is an old concept, but it gives you an idea.”
The intersection includes Park Street, Divinity Street, West Street and School Street.
“The amount of traffic and the accident history is what’s driving this,” Veselka said, pointing to another picture hanging in the Public Works office.
The picture showed statistics from 2010 to 2012 that showed in that three year period, there were 102 recorded crashed, 20 injury crashes and 27 total injuries at that intersection. The study of the intersection began in 2010.
This project will be undertaken with 80 percent Federal Surface Transportation Program funds and a 20 percent state match.

West Haven PZC to hold new hearing on approvals for The Haven

WEST HAVEN >> The Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a new hearing and take new votes on several zoning map and regulation wording changes it approved June 6 for The Haven upscale outlet mall as a result of legal appeals by several holdout property owners, officials said.
 The commission agreed to re-hear two applications that were filed by the city itself in a meeting Wednesday night, said Corporation Counsel Vin Amendola. The tentative agreement still must be approved by a judge. The two appeals initially were filed in Superior Court in Milford but have since been transferred to the land-use docket in Superior Court in Hartford. Amendola said the decision to re-hear the applications was made on “procedural grounds” after it was discovered while getting ready to go to court that the recorder used for PZC meetings malfunctioned that night and testimony officials thought had been recorded was not. “It really was procedural grounds,” Amendola said. “So there’s going to be ... another hearing on the issue ... before the Planning and Zoning Commission. “Essentially, it will be the same application or a similar application,” he said. “They said the recorder was not working, but they did a lot of things wrong,” said Sheik Hossain, who owns the S & S Mini Mart Citgo at Elm Street and First Avenue with his partner, Saed Ahmed. The two appeals were filed June 21 by attorneys for Robinson & Cole of Hartford on behalf of Robert McGinnity, whose family has owned two homes at 341 First Ave. and 349 First Ave. for more than 50 years; and SZS Enterprises LLC, which has owned the Citgo station and convenience store at First Avenue and Elm Street for 17 years. Also named as plaintiffs were Natalie “Nellie” McGinnity and Michael Perrone, both who are identified as former owners of the McGinnity properties and who each continue to hold a “life estate interest” in them. The city and the PZC were named as defendants. The appeals allege the approvals “aggrieved” the plaintiffs because they will affect their lives and interests, the approvals were done “to facilitate redevelopment in accordance with the (municipal development plan) and the changes are being made for the benefit of a private developer, among other reasons. They allege that the approval was “illegal, arbitrary, capricious and constitutes an abuse of discretion” for a number of reasons, including that Mayor Ed O’Brien, as applicant, “illegally participated in deliberations and persuaded the members of the commission to approve the application.” CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE

Malloy supports new garage at New Haven’s Union Station, but not one officials, many residents want

NEW HAVEN >> Gov. Dannel P. Malloy made it clear Wednesday he is supporting a new garage at Union Station as proposed by the state, not a redesign sought by the city and advocates who want a bus depot and retail space at the site, as well. “It is apparent we are having difficulty reaching agreement with the community and ultimately if the community doesn’t want a garage built, that is their call. We are trying to build a garage. This is not intended to be an economic development effort,” Malloy said at a press conference at Union Station. He had called the press event to talk about a new app to buy train tickets, and announce that the number of bike racks in train cars on the New Haven Line has now reached 190. Malloy, in answer to questions, said he wanted a new garage at Union Station from his first day in office, six years ago.
“If we can’t find an agreement to build it, then it won’t be built. I don’t know how else to say that. I understand they (local advocates) get frustrated with us. I suppose, to some extent, I’m expressing frustration with the process,” Malloy said. “We can only have so many things be a front-burner issue for so long, before you have to step back and say ‘OK, looks like this is not going to get done in the foreseeable future,’” Malloy said. At a recent hearing on the proposed garage, the public criticized it as a 1950s design to meet 21st century transit-oriented development needs. As for Malloy’s focus strictly on the garage, a more robust development at the site is nothing new, with studies going back to 2008. City officials concede, however, that a bus depot is a more recent idea, but one which they feel is a matter of equity for its mainly low-income riders, as well as its transit goal to boost ridership. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE

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