WALLINGFORD — While work to replace the Center Street bridge is progressing, traffic remains limited to a single lane.
In April, the state Department of Transportation said the project will be completed by November 2018. One lane of traffic remains open at the bridge and the sidewalk is closed to pedestrians. Center Street runs along Route 150, a state highway, meaning the DOT is responsible for maintenance. The bridge, built in 1914, was previously deemed structurally deficient. The replacement, estimated to cost about $6 million, is state-funded.
Vinny Ianuzzi, owner of Vinny’s Deli, at 567 Center St., said the state has been accommodating in working with the business during peak hours.
“When it’s done it’s going to be really nice,” Ianuzzi said. “The bridge is going to be brand new. We’re looking forward to that day.”Work on the Center Street bridge began in April 2016. Project engineer Anil Sehgal told the Record-Journal at the time that a 32-month timeline is not unusual for such a project.
The new bridge will be about 13 feet longer and 1 foot wider than the old bridge, and it will have sidewalks on each side. It is being replaced in two sections to maintain traffic.
Before construction began, bridge utilities, including underground water mains, sewage pipes and overhead poles and wires, had to be removed and relocated. Some utilities had to be replaced.
Police Chief William Wright acknowledged the inconvenience of driving through the area, but he said he was looking forward to the final product once construction is completed.
“We look forward to that becoming a full-width travel area again,” he said.
The project, which is slated to take place on Saturday, Aug. 12, and Sunday, Aug. 13, calls for modular joint repairs to the I-95 southbound portion of the bridge over the Connecticut River, according to a DOT notice.
The DOT says that drivers can anticipate two left lane closures on I-95 southbound from Exit 71 to the Exit 69 off-ramp to Route 9 northbound.
The DOT will use traffic control personnel, a message board and signing patterns to help direct motorists through the work zone, the notice states.
The regular work schedule announced for the project is from 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 12, through 5 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 13.
Common Ground: Hidden infrastructure keeps Waterford’s water running
You seldom see it and only think about it when you get your quarterly bill from the Waterford Utility Commission. The extensive sewer system in Waterford was installed largely in the seventies and eighties when Millstone paid three-quarters of the taxes required to provide municipal services. Two years ago, the last sewer construction occurred in Harrisons’ Landing, a small development on the Thames River in Quaker Hill.
The Waterford sewer system is more extensive than the system in the City of Hartford. There are nearly 145 miles of sewer piping in town supported by 28 pump stations spread throughout the town.
Driving by a pump station, you see a small residential style building surrounded by a mowed lawn and a small driveway. The first four pump stations (Blue Hills, Bolles Court, Old Norwich Road, and Evergreen) went in service in 1976.
The Evergreen Station is the main pump station that sends all of Waterford sewage to the Thomas E. Piacenti Regional Water Pollution Control facility in New London. This plant is owned by the City of New London and managed by Veolia Water North America. The current inter-municipal contract among Waterford, East Lyme, and New London expires on Jan. 10, 2021.
Sewage is the responsibility of the Waterford Utility Commission until it reaches this facility located near Fort Trumbull.
There are almost 6,490 residential gravity flow customers, 306 residential grinder pump customers, 262 commercial gravity flow customers, seven with a consumer meter and 9 with a grinder pump. This provides a total of nearly 7,100 customers.
The Utility Commission has been trying for years to shift the responsibility of all grinder pumps to individual homeowners but, so far, the Representative Town Meeting has not been enthusiastic about changing this ordinance. Grinder pumps are also necessary to reduce solid waste to small enough particles to flow through the system.
The second largest pump station is located at Mago Point on the Niantic Bay and receives waste water from East Lyme and two beach associations in Old Lyme. Other beach associations and the Town of Old Lyme may also be required to connect to the system in the near future. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Senate approves amended gaming agreements between state, tribes
The state Senate on Monday endorsed amended casino agreements between the state and the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, who were expected to ship them immediately to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Within 45 days of receiving them, the BIA is expected to sign off on the documents, clearing the way for the casino-owning tribes to develop a commercial casino on nontribal land in East Windsor.
“Once again, state legislators have stood up to defend Connecticut jobs and revenue,” Rodney Butler, the Mashantucket Pequot chairman, said in a statement. “We want to thank the House and Senate and the governor for approving these changes and doing the right thing for the state.”
Added Kevin Brown, the Mohegan chairman: “We’re confident that the BIA will follow in the steps of the General Assembly, and that work will get underway very soon.”
Monday’s Senate vote was 27-8. A week earlier, the House of Representatives approved the amended “compacts” and memorandums of understanding by a vote of 118-32. The documents specify that the tribes will pay the state 25 percent of the gross gaming revenue — from slot machines and table games — that the East Windsor casino generates.
MGM Resorts International, the Las Vegas-based gaming operator behind the Massachusetts project, has vowed to “pursue all legal remedies” in an effort to block the East Windsor development. It claims the Connecticut legislation that authorized the state’s third casino is unconstitutional.
MGM has asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to revisit a June decision in the state's favor.
Construction on new Derby High School athletic complex expected to start in January
DERBY >> Ground likely won’t be broken until January on a major-league facelift slated for the school district’s athletic complex.
That’s according to Superintendent of Schools Matthew Conway, who recently gave a brief update to the Board of Aldermen on the multimillion-dollar makeover. “We expect to have shovels in the ground in January,” said Conway.Two separate committees — the Athletic Complex Building Committee and the Field House and Baseball Field Committee — have been working with two architects on the projects. City Treasurer Keith McLiverty, chairman of the Athletic Complex Building Committee, said the magnitude of the projects, from the design process to acquiring the necessary approvals from land-use boards, takes time.
“This is the type of project where the up-front work, such as design and site plans, take longer than one would expect,” said McLiverty. McLiverty said once a Request for Quotes goes out to select contractors to put the designs in motion, the projects will move ahead more quickly.“We are balancing the privately funded project pace with the pace of the publicly funded project,” McLiverty said. “(The goal is) keeping both trains moving at the same speed to arrive at the station at the same end date. ... The coordination is a methodical process.” New Britain firm Kaestle Boos Associates Inc., the successful designer behind the minor league stadium that formerly housed the New Britain Rock Cats, is onboard as project manager, overseeing the design and construction of an artificial turf football field, multi-purpose field and eight-lane rubberized track at the Leo F. Ryan Sports Complex on Chatfield Street.
Derby received $2.9 million in funding from the state Bond Commission for that project.A second architect, Peter de Bretteville of Hamden, is working with the Field House and Baseball Field Committee in designing and overseeing construction of another major component of the overall makeover, though it’s being treated as a separate project. A new baseball field and state-of-the-art fieldhouse is being privately funded thanks to a $4 million donation from Joan Payden, founder, CEO and president of Los Angeles-based international investment firm Payden & Rygel. Payden made the donation in memory of her father, J.R. Payden, valedictorian of the DHS class of 1915, who was a fighter pilot for the Royal Flying Corps in England. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
DOT Announces Proposed Rule to Streamline Private Sector Involvement in Transit Projects
The U.S. Department of Transportation's (U.S. DOT) Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced July 31 a proposal to facilitate public-private partnerships in public transportation.
The newly proposed Private Investment Project Procedures (PIPP) for public transportation capital projects will help the federal government develop more effective approaches to spurring private participation and investment in areas such as project planning, development, finance, design, construction, maintenance, and operations.
As detailed in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), recipients of Federal funding for public transportation projects would be allowed to identify specific FTA regulations, practices, procedures or guidance documents that may be an impediment to the use of a public-private partnership (P3) or private investment in that project.
“One of the Trump Administration's priorities is to allow private sector resources and expertise to help rebuild America's infrastructure,” said U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine L. Chao. “This proposal will help us better understand the ways that unnecessary procedures may get in the way of building the best projects possible at the lowest cost to the public.”
Under the proposed PIPP system, recipients of federal assistance would be able to apply to FTA to request modification or waiver of specific FTA requirements if the recipient demonstrates that those requirements discourage the use of public-private partnerships. The FTA Administrator would then have discretion to grant a modification or waiver of a requirement if certain criteria are met.
However, the PIPP could not be used to waive any requirement under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) or any other provision of Federal statute.“As more public transportation project sponsors find willing and able private partners, we must ensure that federal regulations or procedures do not stifle innovation,” said FTA Executive Director Matthew Welbes. “FTA's Private Investment Project Procedures will help us maintain procedures that are truly beneficial while allowing for discretion to waive those that simply impede good projects.”
FTA will accept public comments on the NPRM until September 29, 2017.