PLAINFIELD — Plainfield officials are gearing up to begin one bridge overhaul project while another has been postponed until next year.
A pre-fabricated bridge kit to renovate the Kate Downing Road bridge is scheduled to be delivered on Nov. 10, First Selectman Paul Sweet said. The replacement of the span’s safety railing and deck will require the bridge to be closed for a month, beginning Monday
“It’s not a high-volume road, but we do have some big trucks go over it,” Sweet said. “The bridge, which was once approved to handle 20 tons, was downgraded to 4 tons after a state inspection.”
The substructure of the 70-year-old bridge, which carries traffic over Mill Brook, is rotting, though its abutments are solid, Planning and Engineering Supervisor Lou Soja said.
“The 22-foot width and 24-foot length will stay the same, but it needs new I-beams,” he said. “There will be detours for the month of construction, but there are plenty of ways to get around it.”
The repair job will be paid with $76,000 in Local Capital Improvement Plan, or LOCIP, funding, which will cover the materials and installation.
Town officials had hoped to begin work on the busier Lathrop Road bridge this year, but a delay in getting materials made it impossible to complete the job before winter, Sweet said.
“That’s a bridge with very heavy traffic, probably more than any other in town,” he said. “The manufacturer of the box culverts we need, which weigh about 32 tons each, kept putting us off. If we started on this project now, you’d be dealing with frozen ground.”
The Lathrop Road bridge has galvanized steel arch culverts which have rusted over time,” Soja said.
“The concrete ones will last 100 years,” he said. “The plan now is to start work in the spring or summer and work on half the bridge at a time to keep traffic open.”
The $440,000 Lathrop Road bridge project, expected to take between 30 and 45 days to complete, will be paid with a combination of LOCIP and town road money.
East Hartford Voters Face Four Ballot Questions Totalling $23 Million
Voters will face four ballot questions Tuesday, including proposed bonding for road improvements and flood control, senior center renovations and Silver Lane and South Meadows development.
Proposed spending totals $23 million.
The referendum questions are:
Shall the $15 million appropriation and bond authorization for the planning, design, construction and reconstruction of town roads and parking lots and for flood control system be approved?
Ten million dollars would go for continuing a comprehensive road reconstruction program that is about 40 percent complete, town council Chairman Richard Kehoe said Tuesday. The other $5 million would be for flood control and related costs.
The town has spent about $20 million on flood control since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Kehoe said. Construction of levees and other installations began after major floods hit the area in 1936 and 1938. The work included 19,500 feet of earthen dikes and 750 feet of concrete flood walls in East Hartford along the Connecticut and Hockanum rivers. The town has been able to fund maintenance of its flood-control installations to the Army Corps of Engineers' satisfaction.Shall the $5 million appropriation and bond authorization for the planning, design, acquisition, construction and/or renovation of a Senior Center/Multipurpose facility be approved?
This question should look familiar. Last November, voters were asked to spend $5 million on a senior center. The plan then was to seek matching state funds and build a new facility in a different location, Kehoe said. But state finances nose-dived, and the question was not approved anyway because less than 20 percent of voters cast ballots, failing to meet a required threshold, Kehoe said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Middletown Voters To Decide On Dispatch Upgrade And North End Sewer Work
MIDDLETOWN — City voters next Tuesday will be asked to decide on two referendum questions, one for sewer work in the North End and one for an overhaul of the dispatch and emergency communications system.
On the Election Day ballot, voters will see two questions seeking approval for bond packages:
Question 1: "Shall the $4,255,000 appropriation and bond and obligation authorization for the planning, design, acquisition, construction, extension and replacement of water and sewer mains in the Columbus Avenue, Mazzotta Place, Erin Street Extension and Berlin Street area of the City, pursuant to the ordinance adopted by the Common Council on August 1, 2016, be approved?"
Question 2: "Shall the $12,100,000 appropriation and bond and obligation authorization for the planning, acquisition, engineering and installation of radio communication upgrades for the City's Central Communication Department, pursuant to the ordinance adopted by the Common Council on August 22, 2016, be approved?"
The water and sewer department, with the $4.255 million, would replace water and sewer mains on a few streets in the North End. The system in that area has degraded due to its age and damage from tree root intrusion. The work would include paving and sidewalk replacement.
A full overhaul of the emergency communications system is needed because the current 20-year-old system has "dead zone" outage areas where emergency personnel can lose radio contact with central dispatch. The mayor's office said a new all-digital system would guarantee coverage around the city and inside buildings.Director of Central Communications Wayne Bartolotta said Wednesday that Middletown's size, among the largest towns in the state, and its irregular shape make a large communications infrastructure necessary.
The city has requested proposals and received one bid, from Motorola Solutions Inc., to do the work. The company would be hired to complete the project if voters approve the funding. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Ansonia residents wary of $4.8 million Wakelee Avenue makeover
ANSONIA >> Residents vented frustration Wednesday over prep work being done ahead of a $4.8 million plan to make over Wakelee Avenue, but city officials promised the end product will be worth it. More than 60 people crammed into the meeting room of the ARMS facility downtown to get an update on the long-overdue project geared to give one of the city’s most traveled roads a facelift.
But well before construction is slated to get underway next spring, many frustrated residents voiced anger and concerns about the road work occurring now where new gas lines and piping are being installed. Economic Development Director Sheila O’Malley explained that the prep work subcontracted out by Eversource is not part of the impending $4.8 million project, and is happening so the road “won’t have to be ripped open again” once the actual construction commences. Many of the Wakelee Avenue residents told city officials that the work is “shoddy” and their driveways and curbing in front of their houses are being torn up. O’Malley told residents experiencing issues with any fallout from the prep work to contact City Hall, as she and Mayor David Cassetti will relay those concerns to the contractor. Back to the main project at hand, Engineer Bill Anderson from the Wethersfield-based engineering firm VHB, said the final design should be complete by March, with construction expected to kick off in spring, and take “one full construction season” to complete. The project originally was slated to cost $3.5 million, for which the city received state and federal funding, but once engineers got into the details of the design, several issues such as additional drainage, lighting and switching new curbing from concrete to granite drove the projected costs to $4.8 million. O’Malley said the city was fortunate to receive further state and federal money to cover the $1.3 million increase. The city is responsible for 10 percent, or $480,000, to cover design and engineering fees. Anderson explained the one-mile stretch of Wakelee Avenue, which is home to about 50 businesses and numerous residences, is in line for a full-depth reconstruction beginning at Division Street near Griffin Hospital, and extending north to the intersection of Franklin Street. The project will also include new granite curbing, curb ramps, 5-foot-wide sidewalks, crosswalks, driveway aprons, pavement markings, drainage structures and pipes, utility pole relocation and new, decorative lighting. Cassetti announced the “Wake Up Wakelee!” initiative in April 2015, and city officials are hopeful the finished project will spark more economic development on the city’s west side. “The goal of this project is to have a street you can be very proud of,” said O’Malley. “It’s a beautiful road and it’s going to be even more beautiful.”
Anderson also told residents that several historical monuments and markers along Wakelee, including one resembling a gravestone in front of Klanko’s market, marking a site known as Pork Hollow from the Revolutionary War, will remain untouched. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE