DERBY — The city of Derby has three months to develop an emergency response plan showing how it will deal with future backups of untreated sewage into homes, streets or the Housatonic and Naugatuck rivers.
On Nov. 1 that plan, which includes a 24-hour hotline residents can use to report backups, has to be submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
On Monday, the city was required to document all backups, their causes and city responses and repairs from Jan. 1, 2013, to Dec. 31, 2015, in a report to the two agencies. Details of that report were unavailable Monday.
Those measures were among a series of requirements contained in a 16-page consent decree on which the city’s aldermen signed off with the two agencies last Thursday.
All of this comes as Derby works to implement the 2014 voter-approved $31.2 million for improvements in pump stations and wastewater treatment lines.
The Burtville Avenue, Roosevelt Drive and South Division Street pump stations were described as ready to fail in 2014.
The situation was so bad that Anthony DeSimone, an engineering consultant for the city’s Water Pollution Control Authority, warned city officials that if they were to cut a sewer improvement project to reduce the referendum amount, “then I would tell users to stop flushing.”
On Monday, Mayor Anita Dugatto said the South Division Street and Burtville Avenue pump stations’ upgrades are designed and out to bid for construction.
“It will cost $1.5 million for both sites combined, and the deadline to submit an offer is Tuesday, Aug. 16,” Dugatto said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Eversource to try again for Greenwich substation
GREENWICH — Eversource Energy is in the planning phases for a new Greenwich substation proposal.
The Connecticut Siting Council struck down the company’s last proposal for a new substation in May following heavy protest from town residents. Spokesman Frank Poirot said they are working with the town to come back with a new plan that will be more amenable.
“It’s a great dialogue, they are asking questions, and we are asking for a little more detail on the proposals they are putting forth,” Poirot said. “In the end, an understanding will be reached that will serve all our customers in Greenwich.”
Poirot said talks began in the late spring. No changes to the former plan are off the table, he said, including the building’s location and how the burden of the cost would be shared.
Eversource wanted to build at 290 Railroad Ave., the site of Pet Pantry. An underground electrical cable would have connected the new substation to the existing one in Cos Cob over the course of a 2.3-mile route.
Several residents and officials said the station as planned would be an eyesore, and they raised concerns about potential health risks from the construction and the installation of the underground cable.
“The town has requested more information regarding electric usage to get a better sense of the need,“ Poirot said. “It is more of a technical nature, drilling down into the details of what we submitted to the Siting Council.”
Poirot said it could take a year or more for a proposal to be finalized, and construction could take a year or two after the approval has been obtained.
In the meantime, Poirot said, time is ticking and the energy demands of Greenwich keep increasing. At some point, there won’t be enough energy to go around. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
I-84 viaduct remake weighs heavily on businesses, motorists, DOT
Think of the construction project to replace the I-84 viaduct through downtown Hartford this way: You can peel the Band-Aid off slowly, or rip it off as quickly as possible.
Lingering discomfort vs. short jolt of pain.
Richard Armstrong, principal engineer at the state Department of Transportation, heard someone use that Band-Aid analogy and shared it to visualize the kind of construction options DOT and the community will have to consider before the expected viaduct replacement project begins around 2021.
It's too early to talk specifics about construction since there's no decision yet on the new design, although there's apparent consensus on a combination of ground-level and "capped" freeway.
What is certain, however, is that the construction project will be complicated for engineers and builders and painful for motorists and some businesses — it's a matter of how painful, slow peel or quick pull.
Building an at-grade/capped highway conventionally — lane reductions and restrictions, temporary ramps and bridges, trying to keep traffic moving as close to normal as possible (think I-84 Waterbury work today) — could take four to seven years, Armstrong said. An accelerated plan using more disruptive construction processes (think I-84 Southington bridge replacement two years ago when the highway was a closed for three days and prebuilt bridges dropped in place), could perhaps cut that time in half. While shutting down I-84 at times may not be feasible in Hartford, other accelerated methods could be considered.
"How you build it is probably more complicated than what you build in the final configuration," Armstrong said. "So it certainly would be several years, and of course we want to explore … , 'What if we were more aggressive with construction, cause greater impacts, but really reduce the time? … Because five or six years of impacts, that's not a short-term impact." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Fragile U.S. Economy Now Facing A Slowdown In Building Boom
At a quarry in Bridgeport, Texas, where rock is crushed, sorted and cleaned, it's hard to tell that the nation's construction boom may be hitting a wall. Workers maneuver front-end loaders to fill a long line of rail cars and trucks with up to 25 tons of washed stone each. The destination: one of many construction projects that dot the Dallas-Fort Worth area 70 miles away.
"We're moving a lot of rock," said Dean Gatzemeier, who runs quarries in North Texas and Oklahoma for Martin Marietta Materials Inc.
Construction has been one of the few pockets of strength in the U.S. economy — until recently. Construction payrolls have declined since March and spending in May rose less than 3 percent from a year earlier, the lowest rate since 2011. Coming after super-charged growth of 10 percent last year, the question now is whether the sputtering is just a blip or something more lasting that portends a significant drag on the economy.
"It's a deceleration process after two years of fairly decent growth," said Robert Murray, chief economist of Dodge Data & Analytics, which gathers data on construction. Last year's boom was spurred by housing and office construction. Residential spending alone contributed almost 0.3 percentage point to the U.S. economy's 2.4 percent growth rate. New industries, such as e-commerce, also drove construction work, including two Amazon fulfillment centers in California that will be 1 million square feet each.
Yet construction may be a victim of its own success. A torrid pace of apartment building has saturated some markets. Foreign investment, looking for returns, has poured into high-rise condos in Miami and hotels in New York, creating some overcapacity. In one example, Pollack Shores Real Estate Group, a privately held group, put on hold plans to build a 315-unit apartment complex in the Atlanta area as several new buildings cropped up.
Regulators have flagged a heightened risk of lending to commercial real estate, noting that hundreds of banks increased loans to the sector by more than 50 percent during the last three years.
The slowdown can be seen in construction payrolls. Adjusted for seasonal fluctuations, the number of people working in the field dropped by 22,000 since hitting a post-recession peak in March of about 6.7 million. It was the first time the job count had dropped for two straight months since 2012. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Middletown Pump Station Job An Important Piece Of Riverfront Redevelopment
MIDDLETOWN — Construction bids for the wastewater pump station component of the project that will link the city with the Mattabassett District in Cromwell are due Aug. 11, and city officials say they are confident multiple firms will be competing for the work.
The pump station will be built on the site of the former fire training tower off Main Street Extension and is estimated to cost $27 million to $28 million. It is another step toward building up the city's harbor and riverfront areas and follows some setbacks.
"We have a good pool of bidders," said water and sewer Director Guy Russo. "Based on the questions we're getting and the level of detail of the questions, there seems to be a lot of interest in this project."
The bid process is the second one the city has opened for the pump station project after getting only a single bid in March 2015 — $5 million over budget.
Voters in 2012 approved $37 million for the pump station and related pipeline project to hook up to the Mattabassett plant, and the common council approved another $3 million in 2014. But after last year's bid holdup the council had to ask voters for another $15 million to cover increased costs and adding a $5 million contingency.
Since opening for construction bids last year, the project has also undergone two major design changes that will increase its cost.Russo said the federal government now requires the pump station to be elevated above the 500-year flood zone; it was designed two feet above the 100-year flood zone last year. Regulators are also requiring the city to add a backup "grit chamber" that filters out small rocks and gravel from wastewater.
After bids are opened on Aug. 11 at city hall and a lowest qualified bidder is determined, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will have to approve the selected firm, Russo said.
Hazardous material removal and demolition of the three buildings on the pump station site likely can begin in the fall, and site preparation work can start either late this year or in spring 2017. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
U.S. construction spending fell for a third straight month in June with spending on nonresidential construction dropping by the largest amount in six months. Construction spending fell 0.6 percent in June following declines of 0.1 percent in May and 2.9 percent in April, the Commerce Department reported Monday.
For June, housing construction showed was unchanged with an increase in home renovation spending offsetting declines of 0.4 percent in single family construction and a drop of 1.5 percent in apartment building.
The 1.3 percent decline in nonresidential construction was led by a 4.5 percent plunge in spending on construction in factory construction and a 1.6 percent fall in the category that includes shopping centers.
The 0.6 percent drop in spending on government projects reflected a 2.3 percent fall in spending at the federal level and a 0.5 percent decline in spending on construction projects by state and local governments. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
CT split on rail overhaul; Malloy says repairs should come first
Washington – There is split opinion in Connecticut on ambitious proposals to overhaul rail service in the Northeast Corridor, with some preferring to put resources into a coastal route to Boston and others backing an inland route that runs through Hartford with a new stop near Storrs.
Differences over the Federal Railroad Administration’s proposals have divided coastal towns like New Haven and Old Lyme, and pit environmental groups against Amtrak and others who want high speed rail service between Connecticut cities, Boston and New York.
Meanwhile, Gov. Dannel Malloy said he wants the Federal Railroad Administration to fix and modernize the existing Northeast Corridor before spending billions of dollars on expansion plans that would introduce high-speed rail into the region.
“Connecticut does not endorse any particular Action Alternative at this time,” Malloy wrote FRA Administrator Sarah Feingberg.
Instead, the governor said Connecticut “strongly recommends” the FRA move on the “No Action Alternative,” a proposal that would limit the federal government to working on existing lines, at a cost of $20 billion, and “addressing connections to Bradley International Airport."
“Only after this is completed should major new capacity be evaluated,” Malloy wrote.
But the FRA plans to select one of three alternatives proposed for its NEC (Northeast Corridor) Future Plan this fall. While Malloy does not want to pick a favorite, many of his constituents have. More than 1,850 of the 3,200 public comments on the NEC Future plan collected came from Connecticut – about 1,000 just from residents of Old Lyme. The comments, submitted from Nov. 13, 2015 through Feb. 16 of this year, were obtained by the Connecticut Mirror through a Freedom of Information Act request. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Nonresidential construction declined 1.3 percent, the biggest setback since December, while residential activity was unchanged in June. Spending on government projects fell 0.6 percent, the fourth straight decline, with both federal and state and local construction activity down.
Construction weakened in the April-June period after posting solid gains in the winter. Some analysts believe warmer-than-normal winter weather caused builders to move up the start of some projects, causing the second quarter to look weaker. Analysts expect construction will rebound in coming months. The weakness in construction in the spring was reflected in a disappointing report on overall growth in the second quarter, as measured by the gross domestic product. The GDP expanded at a modest annual rate of 1.2 percent in the April-June quarter with residential construction falling at an annual rate of 6.1 percent after six quarters of strong gains.For June, housing construction showed was unchanged with an increase in home renovation spending offsetting declines of 0.4 percent in single family construction and a drop of 1.5 percent in apartment building.
The 1.3 percent decline in nonresidential construction was led by a 4.5 percent plunge in spending on construction in factory construction and a 1.6 percent fall in the category that includes shopping centers.
The 0.6 percent drop in spending on government projects reflected a 2.3 percent fall in spending at the federal level and a 0.5 percent decline in spending on construction projects by state and local governments. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
CT split on rail overhaul; Malloy says repairs should come first
Washington – There is split opinion in Connecticut on ambitious proposals to overhaul rail service in the Northeast Corridor, with some preferring to put resources into a coastal route to Boston and others backing an inland route that runs through Hartford with a new stop near Storrs.
Differences over the Federal Railroad Administration’s proposals have divided coastal towns like New Haven and Old Lyme, and pit environmental groups against Amtrak and others who want high speed rail service between Connecticut cities, Boston and New York.
Meanwhile, Gov. Dannel Malloy said he wants the Federal Railroad Administration to fix and modernize the existing Northeast Corridor before spending billions of dollars on expansion plans that would introduce high-speed rail into the region.
“Connecticut does not endorse any particular Action Alternative at this time,” Malloy wrote FRA Administrator Sarah Feingberg.
Instead, the governor said Connecticut “strongly recommends” the FRA move on the “No Action Alternative,” a proposal that would limit the federal government to working on existing lines, at a cost of $20 billion, and “addressing connections to Bradley International Airport."
“Only after this is completed should major new capacity be evaluated,” Malloy wrote.
But the FRA plans to select one of three alternatives proposed for its NEC (Northeast Corridor) Future Plan this fall. While Malloy does not want to pick a favorite, many of his constituents have. More than 1,850 of the 3,200 public comments on the NEC Future plan collected came from Connecticut – about 1,000 just from residents of Old Lyme. The comments, submitted from Nov. 13, 2015 through Feb. 16 of this year, were obtained by the Connecticut Mirror through a Freedom of Information Act request. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE