STAMFORD — Brianna de Moll prepared for a restful night of sleep last Wednesday at her Atlantic St. apartment like anyone else would. She fluffed her pillows, spread out her blanket and closed her eyes.
It would have been normal, had she not been sleeping in a bathtub.
De Moll, 27, laid down her couch cushions in the tub in an effort to reclaim as many hours of sleep as she could, but to no avail. De Moll and her neighbors at 101 Atlantic St. have been losing sleep for nearly two weeks to the sound of late night construction outside of their windows. It often starts around 9:30 p.m. but becomes increasingly disruptive until even past 2 a.m, she said.
De Moll resorted to sleeping in her bathroom that night because it is located in the back of her apartment, further from the noise. It didn’t help.
“I’ve been getting less than three hours of sleep every night,” she said.
Another resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the drilling is “very loud” and that she wishes the city notified them beforehand.
Crews have been working at Atlantic St. between Bank and Broad Streets to put in new drainage pipes and a new manhole because a building on the southeast corner is flooding, according to Ted Jankowski, the city director of public safety, health and welfare.
Construction takes place at night for safety reasons, he said.
He also indicated that the late-night construction was approved by two noise waivers signed by the Health and Engineering Departments. The first was for work from Oct. 15-20. The second was for work from Oct. 19-26. “No parking” signs on parking meters in the area have the dates 10-15 to 10-17 scribbled out, replaced with 10-23 to 10-27.
The drainage phase of the project is hoped to be completed after night work on Wednesday. Paving and milling is to tentatively start on Oct. 31 and completed on Nov. 3.
This means de Moll and her neighbors will experience late-night noise for more than another week. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Connecticut budget impasse blamed for loss of 7,900 jobs
HARTFORD - There's growing concern that Connecticut's economy already has taken a hit from the protracted state budget impasse, which legislators hope they're close to finally ending in the coming days.
Connecticut economist Pete Gioia said new labor statistics show the state lost 7,900 during the last three months, the same period as the after-innings budget negotiations. That's meant most of the job gains from earlier in the year have been erased.
“I think that this should set off some alarm bells with our policymakers and tell them the economy and job recovery is job one,” he said.
Democratic and Republican legislative leaders announced early Tuesday they had reached an agreement on details of a proposed two-year budget. Rank-and-file lawmakers were slated to learn more about the plan later in the day during closed-door meetings. The proposal also needs to be presented to Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who has been skeptical about whether he'll be able to sign the deal into law.
Connecticut has been without a two-year budget since the fiscal year began July 1. Malloy has been using his limited executive spending authority to run the state.
Malloy said he agrees with Gioia that the impasse has taken its toll on the jobless numbers. He said the construction industry has complained that there isn't a bigger pipeline of state-funded projects.
“They're having to make decisions about whether they retain employees or whether they let them go, particularly as they approach the end of the building season,” Malloy said of the state's construction industry. “This has an effect, and I think it already has had an effect, quite frankly.”
Malloy said Connecticut also hasn't been able to replace large numbers of its workers who've left state service, further adding to the job loss numbers.
Don Shubert, president of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association, said his organization has seen a slow-down in projects. He said it's “hard to put a finger on what's causing it,” but acknowledges the state's budget woes could be partly to blame. He notes how the state Department of Transportation scaled back road pavement work earlier in the year when initial state budget proposals were released.
“It's a funny situation right now,” he said. “When you see the state's construction go down during the busy season, that might be an indication of a much larger problem around the state.”
Betsy Gara, executive director of the Council of Small Towns, said municipalities, including Plainfield and Prospect, have delayed road projects due to the budget impasse, concerned about when or if the state might release grant funds. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Windsor Locks Officials Break Ground On Complete Streets Project
First Selectman Chris Kervick and town and state officials kicked off the Main Street - Complete Streets Project, with a groundbreaking ceremony Oct. 13.
The first phase of the project will realign the sidewalk between Spring and Church streets.
The new sidewalk will be farther back from Main Street, tracing a safer and wider path by the shops and apartments at Waterside Village, according to Kervick. The project will incorporate reclaimed railroad tracks, a nod to Windsor Locks' industrial past.
The major portion of the project is funded by a $3 million Complete Street Grant. State funding will cover most of the construction costs.
The initial phase will reverse the order of the current configuration, with the shop's parking lot closer to Main Street, a landscaped area and, finally, the wider sidewalk. Pedestrians will stroll on the shop side once construction is completed.
The ceremony was brief, as crews readied to pour concrete for the sidewalks. Preliminary work began a few days before.
"This will become the main public right of way. There will be no sidewalk out in the road," Kervick said.
He added the shops and apartments are consistent with his vision for reviving Main Street, which was basically raised in the 1970s. His plans call for mixed-use or residential over retail establishments."We can't move the buildings to the street. Eventually, we're going to move the street to the building," he said. Kervick has spoken with potential developers over the past few months, but nothing is solid at this point. He expects the Complete Streets Project will generate interest from developers. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Op-Ed: John Larson's Tunnel Undermines A Real Project
It is alarming to read of U.S. Rep. John Larson's far-fetched I-84 and I-91 tunnel project — particularly because he appears to be deliberately positioning it to displace the I-84 viaduct project, a real project with 10 years of work behind it, a lot of people rooting for it and a possible construction start within two to five years.
Many of us organized in 2006 after reading a state Department of Transportation-commissioned report on the deteriorating condition of the Aetna viaduct, the two-mile stretch of highway west of downtown Hartford. By 2010, the Hub of Hartford report, commissioned by the city of Hartford and the Capitol Region Council of Governments, had become the basis for the current DOT design and engineering work.
The DOT began work in 2012, and we community activists became part of its Public Advisory Committee — a 52-member body representing neighborhoods, corporations, federal, state and local government agencies, nonprofit organizations, highway users and others. Remarkably, this cumbersome group has achieved consensus so far, despite lively debate. This is in part due to DOT's outstanding public-involvement process, for which the agency should receive a national award.
The committee has become educated in the costs and difficult choices that a redesign of a major urban highway poses — because the new plans correct so many of the egregious errors of the original Aetna viaduct design. The new plans bury the highway and the rail line at the key location where they cross Asylum Avenue, eliminating on- and off-ramps and liberating 20 acres there and another 20 acres at Sisson Avenue — land that can go back to the city's tax base. CLICK TITLETO CONTINUE
“I think that this should set off some alarm bells with our policymakers and tell them the economy and job recovery is job one,” he said.
Democratic and Republican legislative leaders announced early Tuesday they had reached an agreement on details of a proposed two-year budget. Rank-and-file lawmakers were slated to learn more about the plan later in the day during closed-door meetings. The proposal also needs to be presented to Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who has been skeptical about whether he'll be able to sign the deal into law.
Connecticut has been without a two-year budget since the fiscal year began July 1. Malloy has been using his limited executive spending authority to run the state.
Malloy said he agrees with Gioia that the impasse has taken its toll on the jobless numbers. He said the construction industry has complained that there isn't a bigger pipeline of state-funded projects.
“They're having to make decisions about whether they retain employees or whether they let them go, particularly as they approach the end of the building season,” Malloy said of the state's construction industry. “This has an effect, and I think it already has had an effect, quite frankly.”
Malloy said Connecticut also hasn't been able to replace large numbers of its workers who've left state service, further adding to the job loss numbers.
Don Shubert, president of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association, said his organization has seen a slow-down in projects. He said it's “hard to put a finger on what's causing it,” but acknowledges the state's budget woes could be partly to blame. He notes how the state Department of Transportation scaled back road pavement work earlier in the year when initial state budget proposals were released.
“It's a funny situation right now,” he said. “When you see the state's construction go down during the busy season, that might be an indication of a much larger problem around the state.”
Betsy Gara, executive director of the Council of Small Towns, said municipalities, including Plainfield and Prospect, have delayed road projects due to the budget impasse, concerned about when or if the state might release grant funds. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Windsor Locks Officials Break Ground On Complete Streets Project
First Selectman Chris Kervick and town and state officials kicked off the Main Street - Complete Streets Project, with a groundbreaking ceremony Oct. 13.
The first phase of the project will realign the sidewalk between Spring and Church streets.
The new sidewalk will be farther back from Main Street, tracing a safer and wider path by the shops and apartments at Waterside Village, according to Kervick. The project will incorporate reclaimed railroad tracks, a nod to Windsor Locks' industrial past.
The major portion of the project is funded by a $3 million Complete Street Grant. State funding will cover most of the construction costs.
The initial phase will reverse the order of the current configuration, with the shop's parking lot closer to Main Street, a landscaped area and, finally, the wider sidewalk. Pedestrians will stroll on the shop side once construction is completed.
The ceremony was brief, as crews readied to pour concrete for the sidewalks. Preliminary work began a few days before.
"This will become the main public right of way. There will be no sidewalk out in the road," Kervick said.
He added the shops and apartments are consistent with his vision for reviving Main Street, which was basically raised in the 1970s. His plans call for mixed-use or residential over retail establishments."We can't move the buildings to the street. Eventually, we're going to move the street to the building," he said. Kervick has spoken with potential developers over the past few months, but nothing is solid at this point. He expects the Complete Streets Project will generate interest from developers. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Op-Ed: John Larson's Tunnel Undermines A Real Project
It is alarming to read of U.S. Rep. John Larson's far-fetched I-84 and I-91 tunnel project — particularly because he appears to be deliberately positioning it to displace the I-84 viaduct project, a real project with 10 years of work behind it, a lot of people rooting for it and a possible construction start within two to five years.
Many of us organized in 2006 after reading a state Department of Transportation-commissioned report on the deteriorating condition of the Aetna viaduct, the two-mile stretch of highway west of downtown Hartford. By 2010, the Hub of Hartford report, commissioned by the city of Hartford and the Capitol Region Council of Governments, had become the basis for the current DOT design and engineering work.
The DOT began work in 2012, and we community activists became part of its Public Advisory Committee — a 52-member body representing neighborhoods, corporations, federal, state and local government agencies, nonprofit organizations, highway users and others. Remarkably, this cumbersome group has achieved consensus so far, despite lively debate. This is in part due to DOT's outstanding public-involvement process, for which the agency should receive a national award.
The committee has become educated in the costs and difficult choices that a redesign of a major urban highway poses — because the new plans correct so many of the egregious errors of the original Aetna viaduct design. The new plans bury the highway and the rail line at the key location where they cross Asylum Avenue, eliminating on- and off-ramps and liberating 20 acres there and another 20 acres at Sisson Avenue — land that can go back to the city's tax base. CLICK TITLETO CONTINUE