MERIDEN — School building officials say the vast majority of the Maloney High School project should be complete by the time school starts in a few weeks, but three areas — the guidance suite, library, and main gymnasium — will still require some work.
Glen Lamontagne, project consultant for both the $107.5 million Maloney project and the $111.8 million Platt project — said city and school officials “won’t be recommending project close out” until at least December. Initially it was expected work would be complete by the start of school this year.
The school’s new guidance suite is fully constructed, but Lamontagne said they’ll wait until the “second or third week of September” to move staff and materials in the new space so as not to disrupt the office during crucial first weeks of school.
“We don’t want to disrupt them when kids are coming in for schedule changes,” he said. Karrie Kratz, project manager for the Glastonbury-based Gilbane Building Co., said construction of the school’s library is also complete, though there is still “a fair amount of set-up” to get the media center up and running.
Elsewhere in the school, the main gymnasium floor has been filled in and leveled off, and sub-flooring was being installed this month.
“Ideally, Maloney was supposed to be complete by the start of school,” School Building Committee member John Benigni said at the committee’s meeting Thursday. He suggested the school system distribute information to parents and families about what will be left to complete by the time school does start.
“People think they’re coming into a new school,” he said.
Assistant School Superintendent Michael S. Grove said the schools would send out information about the school’s progress before students return.
Unlike previous phases of construction, no part of the remaining work will impact students’ ability to navigate the school, Kratz said.
Overall, construction at the school was roughly 93 percent complete by Thursday. School building officials estimated there would be $294,185 left in the budget by the time work was fully complete. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
MERIDEN — It’s been 70 years since two Quonset huts were installed as hangars at Meriden-Markham Airport and the current six T-hangars are no longer enough for plane owners awaiting space, airport officials said.
“There is a real shortage of hangars in Connecticut,” said Mark Poole, co-owner of Meriden Aviation Center, the one-year-old flight school at the airport. “We have 50 individuals on a waiting list.”
U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-5th District, visited the airport Thursday to recognize entrepreneurs and learn about the challenges faced by startups like the flight school.
The Meriden Aviation Center serves several Connecticut towns, including Meriden, Cheshire, Wallingford, Middlefield and Middletown. As a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Esty said she is aware of aviation industry challenges, such as an aging pilot base, and a shortage of Federal Aviation Administration inspectors.
“It’s really helpful to hear on the ground, ‘what does that translate to?’ ” Esty told Poole and his flight instructor partner and local attorney Christoper Carrozzella. “We are so silo-ed in this state. There are so many great things going on but people don’t know about it.”
Meriden-Markham was at a crossroad several years ago.
“A lot has happened since then,” said Democratic City Councilor Cathy Battista. “But there are still people in Meriden who don’t know we have an airport.”
Battista submitted a resolution to the City Council this week asking the city to submit a grant application to the FAA for 90 percent of the $100,539 needed to conduct environmental permitting and preliminary design for tree clearing and taxi lines. The council approved moving forward with the application.
Battista also asked the city to approve borrowing $1 million to build new hangars and install a 10,000 gallon fuel tank. Both measures were sent to the City Council’s Finance Committee for a public hearing and discussion. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
SOUTHINGTON — A pollution cleanup settlement with the now-defunct Solvents Recovery Service will fund a portion of the Farming Canal Heritage Trail which will pass through the Lazy Lane property.
The town is working on extending the trail from Curtiss Street to the SRS property. Public Works Director Keith Hayden that work, which includes reconfiguring the intersection of Hart and Curtiss streets, could begin in the fall.
When Solvents Recovery was in operation, the distilling process produced clean solvents and fuels for other companies but also produced unusable solvent that was disposed in unlined lagoons located on the property. The company operated from 1957 until 1991.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, people might be at risk if they drink the groundwater. Town wells downhill of the property were taken out of service in 1979 after contamination was found.
The soil contains lead, cadmium and polychlorinated biphenyls while the groundwater was found to have isopropyl alcohol, acetone and other chemicals.
Cleanup has involved heating the ground and vaporizing contaminants that captured in vapor wells. The thermal work took place between 2013 and last year according to a site update written by the EPA in July. Capping contaminated soils will take place in conjuction with trail construction this year
Heavily contaminated sites such as the Lazy Lane property are classified as superfund sites by the EPA. Bruce Thompson, project coordinator of de maximis Incorporated, a Windsor environmental project management company overseeing the work, said SRS was the largest superfund site in Connecticut and possibly New England.
An request for proposals was sent out by de maximis last week for construction of the trail from north of Hart Street to Lazy Lane. Hayden said work should begin mid to late September and finish by the end of the year. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
The closure of Four Mile River Road (Exit 71) will begin at midnight Monday and be completed by Aug. 22, according to the DOT.
The reconstruction of the ramps will involve full-depth pavement replacement.
Drivers using the Exit 71 Southbound off-ramp to access Four Mile River Road should use the off-ramp for Exit 72 (Rocky Neck Connector) to Route 156 and Four Mile River Road, a notice from the DOT states.
Drivers on I-95 can also expect temporary lane shifts and/or closures during the evening between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. The DOT is urging drivers to obey the posted speed limit and proceed with caution when driving in this area.
No agreement yet with state on using land for proposed Groton middle school
Groton — Groton needs the cooperation of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to build a middle school on the property next to Robert E. Fitch High School, but it has not yet reached an agreement with the state.
Groton bought the land commonly referred to as the Merritt property with help from an outdoor recreation grant of about $200,000. The grant program was designed to save land for uses such as athletic fields and hiking trails, so the site next to Fitch High School is restricted to those uses.
If Groton now wants to build a middle school there, the town must offer the state a comparable property in exchange.
Making a deal with the state is essential for Groton because the proposed school construction cannot take place without it.
The School Facilities Initiative Task Force and the Groton Board of Education both approved a plan that calls for the middle school to be built on the Merritt property.
But Town Manager Mark Oefinger said Groton is making progress on an agreement, and one can be reached well after the November referendum.
"We're making some progress, which we are very happy about," he said Thursday.
Oefinger said he's frustrated that the issue keeps coming up because he believes it's being used as an excuse not to support the school project. The town and state don't need the agreement until Groton is actually ready to build, he said.
"I would love to have (an agreement), believe me. But I think there are some people who are like, 'We don't even have the land,'" Oefinger said. "But would we even want the land if we don't have approval by the voters to build the school?"
He told a town committee on Wednesday that the state has been playing "hard ball" with the town and that Groton might need help from legislators.
The director of the land acquisition division of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said Thursday he hopes to have an agreement with the town within a month. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Work on Branford, Guilford train stations hits red light
After breaking ground on construction at two Shore Line East train stations three years ago, the project has come to a stop after encountering yet another roadblock.
Since first starting renovations to the Branford and Guilford train stations on May 1, 2013, the Connecticut Department of Transportation and Amtrak have faced three delays that have affected the project’s completion date. “Early on, you needed a right to enter the property issued by Amtrak. When we began the job, (Amtrak) did not issue the right to enter for almost 70 days. We had a delay right out of the gate,” said Eileen Ego, assistant district engineer at the Connecticut Department of Transportation.While the project was put on hold for more than 300 days due to additional work needed to complete the maintenance and captain’s closets and the redesign of a retaining wall, the project was slated to come to a finish on Dec. 18, until new problems arose. After the Train Approaching System failed to be ordered by a subcontractor and was not compatible with the old equipment, the project has been put on hold until the end of September, Ego said.
“There’s a system out there called TAMS, it flashes on the platform when the train is approaching so the people can step back from the yellow line and not be too close to the tracks,” she said.A new TAMS was set to be installed at the Guilford Train Station, while Branford received its old equipment. Ego said even though the TAMS was ordered through the same company, the new system was not compatible with the old. “We had to go back and devise a compatible system. That took us up until July 31. We were about ready to put it in and we just found out from the contractor that the fabricator had not ordered all of the material.”The project, which was estimated to cost $9.8 million at the start, now comes with a $10.8 million price tag, Ego said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE