Portland breaks ground on 2.3-mile Airline Trail slated to open in spring
PORTLAND — The town held a groundbreaking ceremony Saturday to mark the beginning of construction on the first phase of the Portland Air Line Trail: a 2.3-mile section of a linear park route for recreational use.
The trail will eventually connect to the Connecticut Air Line State Park Trail that runs from East Hampton to Putnam, and, ultimately, the town hopes to take the trail to downtown Portland, the Arrigoni Bridge and Middletown, according to a press release.
The section of the trail to be constructed runs 2.3 miles from Depot Hill Road to the YMCA Camp Ingersoll property with a trail head parking area on the former Keegan property off Middle Haddam Road. Dichello Construction will be doing trail work under the direction of Jacobson Engineering and town officials, the release continued. Construction should be completed and the trail opened for public use by spring.
The ceremony included representatives from various organizations that have supported or been involved in the project’s development: Jamie Lintner from Eversource Energy, who provided a lease for the land; Tom Tyler, state parks director for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, who provided grant funding for construction; state Rep. Christie Carpino, who provided legislative support; Portland First Selectwoman Susan Bransfield, who directed the town’s involvement for the Board of Selectmen; and Rosario Rizzo and Louis Pear, cochairs of the Portland Air Line Trail Steering Committee who oversaw development of the trail.
The first phase will be constructed on land used by the Air Line railroad that ran between New York and Boston between 1873 and 1955, according to the release. The Connecticut portion of the railroad east of Portland ceased operations in 1968, the tracks were abandoned, and the land between East Hampton and Massachusetts was purchased by the state for recreational use.
Since then, it has been gradually developed into the current Air Line State Park Trail. Due to a lack of interest at the time, the land in Portland was sold to private property owners, including CL&P, now Eversource Energy, the release continued.
In 2013, John Hall and John Shafer, members of the Jonah Center in Middletown, initiated an effort to develop the trail in Portland. This led to the formation of a town steering committee initially led by Shafer and later led by Rizzo and Pear. Working with town leaders, including Bransfield, and former town planner, Deana Rhodes, the committee was able to successfully negotiate a lease agreement with Eversource Energy to use a 2.3-mile portion of their land for trail use (referred to as “Phase 1”), according to the statement. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Connecticut regulators approve sale of water utility
As expected, Connecticut regulators approved Aquarion Water’s $1.7 billion sale to Eversource Energy, combining the largest energy and water companies in the state even as Eversource revealed plans to increase electricity rates beginning next May.
Eversource is paying $880 million in cash and assuming another $795 million in Aquarion debt to acquire the water company from Macquarie, with Aquarion’s assets valued at $1.1 billion as of March. Under CEO Chuck Firlotte, Aquarion generated revenue of $181 million last year from its Connecticut operations, and profits of $39.7 million. In Connecticut, the company serves some 625,000 customers.
“I think local ownership really means a lot,” said Lee Olivier, executive vice president of Eversource, during a July conference call with investment analysts. “If you look at the rationale for the sale of the company, it was strictly related to a fund that Macquarie had that … needed to be dissolved, and that could have gone in a lot of different directions. So having local ownership where we expect to keep the existing operations pretty much in place — as I said, we’re not in the water business. They have a great track record for operations.”
Eversource’s larger scale — it earned $950 million last year — will allow Aquarion to borrow at better interest rates to ultimately benefit customers, the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority ruled Friday, having signaled plans in mid-October not to oppose the deal. Aquarion recently won PURA approval to raise rates slightly to cover upcoming work on water systems in several local municipalities.
Last week, Eversource filed notice itself of plans to raise Connecticut rates 6.8 percent on average, following the expiration of a four-year freeze on rates as a result of its 2012 merger with Massachusetts-based NStar. The hike would result in an additional $337 million in revenue for Eversource over three years.
Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross told Hearst Connecticut Media last week that the main driver behind the increase is for improvements to the company’s electricity grid, to include stronger poles and wires. An overnight storm knocked out power Monday morning for large numbers of Eversource customers, with between 20 percent and 30 percent of Eversource customers in Bethel, Ridgefield and Westport waking up to blackouts.
Springfield vs. East Windsor: MGM is winning
It is stunning, really, that more than a month has gone by since a letter from the U.S. Department of the Interior threw into question whether the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Indians can build the casino in East Windsor approved by the General Assembly, and Attorney General George Jepsen has yet to weigh in on the legal controversy.
Jepsen says he has no official opinion because no one with the authority to ask for one has, including the governor or legislative leaders.
Jepsen seems to be dodging a pressing issue of the day. Would the attorney general need someone to ask for an opinion whether to evacuate the building, if the fire alarms were sounding?
At the very least, if he really thinks he can't freelance, he should suggest to someone that they ask. It is his job to provide some clarity about the new casino law, which already has gone up on the rocks and appears to be headed to court.
Never mind an official opinion. How about some simple legal guidance?
And why has no one asked for that official opinion, since the prevailing interpretations of the Department of the Interior letter, from opposing sides of the issue, could not be more divergent.
A lot is at stake here, not the least of which are the thousands of casino jobs lawmakers said they were trying to preserve with the creation of an East Windsor casino.
Don't any of them wonder where it all stands, curious enough to ask the attorney general for some insight? After all, they failed to heed his advice suggesting they were heading into murky legal waters when they approved East Windsor in the first place.
Former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, now a hired legal gun for MGM, which is trying to stop the East Windsor plan, as it finishes its own casino in Springfield, Mass., wrote Jepsen on Sept. 17. He said in the letter that the Department of the Interior failed to approve an amendment to the tribes' gaming compact with the state that would ensure the tribes keep paying the state a share of reservation gambling, even if the East Windsor facility were to open.
Interior approval of the amendment to the gaming compact is specifically required in the law establishing the East Windsor casino.
"The letters explicitly state that Interior is acting to 'maintain the status quo,'" Salazar wrote. "It therefore necessarily follows that by 'maintaining the status quo,' Interior is withholding express or implicit approval." CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Options Emerge For New Hartford Train Station As Part Of I-84 Reconstruction
Five options for a new train station in Hartford that would be built as part of the I-84 reconstruction project are in contention to replace the 128-year-old Union Station.
All five are located atop Asylum Hill. Three options are north of Asylum Avenue, just to the west of the existing highway overpass. And two are to the south of Asylum, on the corner of Broad Street and Farmington Avenue. State and city planners expect a selection will be made by early next year — but construction would still be years away, part of the much larger reconstruction project expected to cost $3 billion to $5 billion.
A new, combined train station and bus depot is needed because the reconstruction calls for lowering the aging elevated highway just slightly below grade and shifting it to the west. Such a dramatic change requires moving the path of the train tracks to the west of the new highway. The options were unveiled Monday at the latest in a series of I-84 project workshops seeking comments from the public. Officials cautioned that the drawings were still in the early stages and would be reworked in the coming weeks.
The options to the north of Asylum Avenue include:
“Asylum Plaza” that would include a pedestrian plaza between the new train station and Asylum Avenue. A bus depot and parking garage would be located about 100 feet to the north.
A second option combines the train station, bus depot and parking garage in the same area but brings the station closer to Asylum Avenue.
A third option places the train station farther west but essentially separates the train station from the bus depot and the parking garage. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
CEO Finds Robotic Solution to Industry Labor Shortage
Steve Muck, CEO and chairman of Pennsylvania-based Brayman Construction Corp., has joined forces with Jeremy Searock, former technical program manager of Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Center, to find a robotics-based solution for the labor shortage in the construction industry.
The pair created Advanced Construction Robotics Inc., whose first product, a rebar-tying robot named Tybot, is market-ready, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. For Muck, the idea for a rebar-tying robot stemmed from the fact that contractors have a tough time finding crews to do the work on bridge projects each summer. Muck said that often, it's the same crew moving from job to job, performing the same work, which can lead to slow-downs and even delays.
“This was the problem that was at the forefront of my mind,” said Muck. “The process of finding workers has become more and more difficult in the last 10 years.”
How It Works
Tybot performs work across a frame that can expand 140 ft., the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. A robotic arm ties the rebars together where they intersect, and only needs one worker to supervise the process. The company believes Tybot could slash the labor hours required for such a project in half. What's more, Tybot can work round the clock, if necessary.
“[Tybot] both speeds up the work and reduces the number of people to do it,” Muck said. “This is the construction industry looking to the robotics industry for a solution to a business problem.”
What's more, Muck said Tybot can also reduce the injuries workers get while tying the rebar by hand.
Test Run
Brayman Construction recently used Tybot in a bridge-building project in Beaver County, Pa. According to Jim Foringer, acting executive of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's District 11, the robot seems to be an encouraging tool, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
“A lot of this will take the human error and human judgment out of the work, said Foringer. “The more efficient a contractor can be, that con only benefit the agency.”
The company expects to start selling the robots in the spring of 2018, and while there is no word yet on the price of the product, Muck did say that the cost was “in the sweet spot” for make it worthwhile for contractors, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE