SHELTON-The massive Towne Center at Shelter Ridge project planned on 121 acres off Bridgeport Avenue has hit a roadblock as it passes through the city approvals process. City Engineer Robert Kulacz found “two major deficiencies” involving water flow and soil erosion in the Trumbull developer’s application that he believes could result in flooding at least four backyards of single family homes on Mill Street.
In a letter to John R. Cook, the city’s wetlands coordinator, Kulacz recommends the current application before Inland Wetlands be denied..
Kulacz’s recommendation comes just days before Inland Wetlands Commission’s Feb. 22 public hearing on the application. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in city hall, 54 Hill Street.
Tetro said several members of his group will be speaking before the commission. If time runs out before everyone can address the commission, the hearing will be continued on March 1 and if necessary, March 15, according to Gary Zahornasky, the commission’s chairman.
“Save Our Shelton believes our greatest fears are being realized,” said Greg Tetro, a leader in the group. Kulacz’s biggest concern was a deficiency he discovered in the Stormwater Calculations document submitted by the developer The city engineer determined that the downstream path from 92 acres could flood backyards of single family homes at 77, 79, 91 and 97 Mill Street
Meanwhile Dominick Thomas Jr., a Derby land use lawyer who represents Sirjohn Papageorge, the lead Trumbull developer, said he has not seen Kulacz’s letter. “I am surprised how these reports go to the public and media and not the developer,” Thomas said. “I’m sure our own engineers will address these concerns.” In addition to Cook, Kulacz sent copies to Richard D. Schultz, the city’s Planning and Zoning administration; the city’s Conservation Commission; Neil Creem, ConnDOT’s district drainage engineer as well as ConnDOT’s District 3 permit section and engineer. The project heralded as one of the largest ever in Fairfield County calls for building 375 upscale apartments, a retail outlet rivaling Clinton Crossing and medical and professional offices on mostly farmland and forest abutting the Paugussett Trail. It requires blasting rock, clearing trees and redesigning roadways, particularly Bridgeport Avenue Kulacz’s recommendation also comes at a time when a lawsuit against the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission is pending in Hartford Superior Court. The suit brought by Save Our Shelton members accuses the commission f overstepping their bounds by approving the zone change to allow the project to go forward.
The commission approved the zone change by a 4-2 vote. That ended nearly a year of public hearings during which the great majority of residents spoke out against the project. In his letter to Cook, Kulacz outlined the two deficiencies he found. The first involved the “lack of detailed information for the widening of Bridgeport Avenue adjacent to Wells Hollow Brook.” One of his concerns was the lack of “erosion and sediment control measures” along the brook’s 2,000 foot reach.
“Of significant concern is the assumption that the Connecticut Department of Transportation will permit the installation of 870 linear feet of retaining wall abutting Wells Hollow Brook to support the required widening of Bridgeport Avenue,” Kulacz determined. “Before the (Inland Wetlands) Commission can even consider action on this project, a concept approval for the retaining wall installation must be provided by ConnDOT, since they will be assuming the ownership and maintenance responsibility for this significant structure.”
He did suggest widening Bridgeport Avenue solely to the west might eliminate his concerns.
Kulacz biggest concern was the Stormwater Management Calculations document which he found was flawed and incorrect. “We determined that the downward path would take the Watershed A (which is 92 acres) runoff westerly than southerly through the backyards of single family homes located at 77, 79, 91 and 97 Mill Street, under Mill Street to the Farmill River,” he wrote. “There is no physical way that this watercourse and our Mill Street culvert could convey these pre-construction runoffs without flooding and other severe impacts. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Stamford’s East Main Street I-95 overpass to be replaced
By Angela Carella
STAMFORD — The State Bond Commission has OK’d $20 million to replace the 60-year-old bridge that spans Interstate 95 on East Main Street, near where it intersects Courtland Avenue. The project is scheduled to go out to bid Feb. 28, according to a statement from state Sen. Carlo Leone and state Rep. Dan Fox, Democrats from Stamford Funding for the work on one of the heaviest-traveled bridges in Connecticut comes from the 2015 state bonding bill, Leone said in the statement. East Main Street is Route 1, a state road.
“Even with some of the difficult financial choices we are facing regarding transportation infrastructure projects in Connecticut, this Route 1 bridge replacement is a priority and is something we’re committed to getting done,” Leone said in the statement.
The project includes safety netting for the bridge, which has a fence that is only about waist-high. It has been the site of a number of suicides in recent years. Traffic will be rerouted during construction, expected to begin this summer. The project should be completed in fall 2020, state Department of Transportation officials have said. “Investing in transportation is necessary for our state economy and job growth,” Fox said in the statement. “The bridge replacement project will be a huge infrastructure improvement for the district.”
The new bridge will be built beside the old one. Then, in one weekend, the old one will be lifted out and the new one dropped in its place, DOT officials have said. The method is called Accelerated Bridge Construction and was used to replace an I-84 overpass in Southington.
The East Main Street bridge, built in 1958, carries 30,000 vehicles a day over a portion of I-95 that has an average traffic volume of 140,000 vehicles a day, according to the statement.
The condition of the concrete deck is rated “poor” and the steel beams are rated “satisfactory” according to the press release, with minor rusting and loss of section in the webs. The caps and columns of the substructure have hairline cracks, patched areas that show signs of leaking, and hollow areas, resulting in a rating of poor.
Transportation officials plan fare hikes, cuts in service
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — The Connecticut Department of Transportation is proposing fare increases on rail and bus lines along with cuts in service, a plan some residents say will make public transportation worse.
The department presented its plan during a public hearing in New Haven Tuesday. Rail fares would increase in three phases, starting with a 10 percent increase in July. Bus fares would increase by 25 cents, and fares for two ferries would go up by $1.
Service cuts may include weekend service on the New Canaan, Danbury and Waterbury lines as well as reduced weekday off-peak service.
A DOT spokesman says the changes are needed because of a budget shortfall in the state's Special Transportation Fund. The spokesman says the changes could be avoided if the General Assembly takes action.
WestRock plans repairs for Oxoboxo Lake dam in Montville
Montville — The owner of a shuttered corrugated cardboard packaging plant and several surrounding properties here plans to repair a leaking dam on the southern end of Oxoboxo Lake.
WestRock recently applied for a construction permit and water quality certification through the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, saying the repair plans could affect watercourses associated with Oxoboxo Lake and Oxoboxo Brook.
WestRock proposes to repair the dam's spillway, which DEEP says does not meet state regulations, and fix the upstream wall and downstream channel walls.
The most recent inspection, from December of 2016, showed two small leaks pose a serious seepage problem: about 50 to 60 gallons per minute leak through one spot on the masonry wall, and about 10 gallons leak through another spot, according to Art Christian, the supervising civil engineer in DEEP's dam safety division.
Christian and Montville Fire Marshal Raymond Occhialini said on Tuesday the lake likely would be drained during the repairs.
Christian said WestRock and DEEP renewed talks about repairs to the dam late last year. He added he expects the permitting process to take two to three months. Occhialini said it was his understanding the repairs would be completed by September.
"We've been working with (WestRock) for a long time," Christian said. "They're trying to do the right thing and be responsible."
The dam and lake have been the responsibility of the company that owned the cardboard mill for decades.
Continental Can Co., Newark Boxboard Co., Stone Container Corporation, Smurfit-Stone Container Enterprises and RockTenn CP LLC all have claimed ownership of the mill and dam over the years. WestRock closed the facility in February 2016.
The dam has been raised and rebuilt several times. Montville's 2010 conservation and development plan says the impoundment dates to the 1880s, when "the Oxoboxo River provided waterpower for 15 cotton, woolen, and paper mills."
WestRock, which did not immediately respond to messages Tuesday, previously tried patching the upstream dam wall a few years ago, but Christian said that effort was unsuccessful.
Occhialini applauded WestRock for the proposed repairs and for creating a dam safety plan a few months ago. He called the plans positive moves compared to previous rumors of removing the dam, a decision that would have left several lakefront property owners unhappy and firefighters with one less source of water, he said. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Ground Broken On Apartment Project
Town, state, and federal officials broke ground Feb. 9 on the $62 million Montgomery Mills project, which will convert the long-shuttered J.R. Montgomery Co. factory into 160 mixed-income apartments.
Beacon Communities, a Boston-based firm, secured $14 million in public money, and $34 million in state and federal grants, loans, and tax credits, to fund the project. Beacon will manage the property when construction is completed in late 2019.
The project bolsters the state's focus on transit-oriented developments along the Hartford Line, a return to commuter rail in May. A commuter rail platform is slated for construction next to the Old Rail Station, a short walk to Montgomery Mills.
First Selectman Christopher Kervick was joined on the factory's northside by Gov. Dannel Malloy , U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Department of Transportation Commissioner James P. Redeker, Department of Housing Commissioner Evonne Klein, and Catherine Smith, the state's Economic and Community Development commissioner.
Sixty-five apartments will be set aside for low-income tenants.
Kervick said state officials recognized the project's importance to Windsor Locks and to the region. "The grounds we're standing on are a result of a public-private partnership that occurred in 1825," he said, when the canal was planned.
The initial investment generated economic growth that ran the length of the canal."That little spark, little public-private partnership that was provided, led to all of that. Now, here we are again where the state has been generous to Windsor Locks in trying to provide that spark," Kervick said.
Malloy said the state remained steadfast over the years to renovate the factory. He added that Beacon and state officials had to line up complex funding for the development.
"We did want to see this get done," he said.
He thanked the slew of state commissioners in attendance.
"These are remarkable investments," said Kervick.
The governor added the project is about transportation and mobility, the ability to live in a place like Montgomery Mills and commute to Hartford or New Haven.
"We need to remain committed to transportation in the State of Connecticut, to undo some of the harm that we've done ourselves by underinvesting," he said.
Like the adjacent canal, dug by 400 Irish immigrants, Montgomery Mills sets Windsor Locks on a path to prosperity, he said.
Blumenthal, who cast a 3 a.m. vote on the Senate floor to keep the federal government funded and operating, said, "Housing and transportation bring together these communities in a way that is truly Connecticut."
He noted that President Donald Trump planned to announce a $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan in the coming days. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE