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ATTENDANCE
IS NEEDED TO SHOW SUPPORT FOR TRANSPORTATION FUNDING
THE
TRANSPORTATION FUNDING LEGISLATION TO RESTORE THE $4.3 BILLION IN DEFERRED
PROJECTS IS SCHEDULED FOR A VOTE THIS WEDNESDAY AFTERNOONPlease join us at the State Capitol from 3pm until 7pm as we show support for the measure!
Date: Wednesday, May 2, 2018
Time: 3pm – 7pm
Location: State Capitol (Check in at the Legislative Office Building for t-shirts and post cards) 300 Capitol Avenue, Hartford Please plan time to park and walk across the tunnel to the Capitol***
Getting There: Transportation funding crisis postponed, not averted
Jim Cameron
There is an angry and confused tone among commuters as the clock ticks down on the Legislature’s efforts to avert service cuts and fare hikes. Most of those who attended a recent “listening session” in New Canaan cared little about U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy’s outline of his vision of national infrastructure. They were more worried about losing their midday and weekend branch line service on Metro-North under the state Department of Transportation’s proposed budget cuts that would take effect July 1.“We’re really fed up,” one person said.
“This kind of crisis has now been socialized,” said another person, predicting we’d be back dealing with such ideas again in another few years. “Was this a political ploy or a real crisis?” one skeptic asked.
Murphy clearly understood he was walking into a hornet’s nest. But the audience seemed surprised when he admitted he didn’t understand the extent of the proposed service cuts. Really?
“We need to refill the Special Transportation Fund,” Murphy said. “But I’ll stay out of the details of how to do it. I’m not plugged in at the state level.”
While state Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, tried to reassure attendees that the looming crisis has been averted, claiming there will be no service cuts or fare hikes on July 1, the details are fuzzy.
The proposed budgets by both political parties seem to find money to staunch the hemorrhaging of the STF. But sources tell me it’s the same old shell game. Take a little money from the rainy-day fund, divert the new car sales tax, maybe a booze bottle deposit tax, and yes, a four- to seven-cent increase in the gasoline tax. Even Boucher said a gas tax hike “would be fair.”
But no tolls? In an election year, that can has been kicked down the road once again. The proposed solutions are still evolving and could change. But they all seem like Band-Aids, not systemic changes in funding. Crisis postponed, not averted.
Meanwhile, Murphy was talking big picture: Infrastructure investment on a national, bi-partisan level measuring billions of dollars. He reminded attendees that while the U.S. spends 2 percent of gross domestic product on infrastructure, Europe spends 6 percent and China 12 percent.
He said Amtrak’s high-speed Acela turns a profit of $300 million a year that is used to subsidize slower, traditional Northeast Corridor trains. Acela could be privatized.
He praised the European model where the government owns and maintains the tracks while private companies pay to offer competitive service with their trains. Imagine having a choice of carriers to whisk you by rail to Washington.
What about Elon Musk’s Hyperloop? We can’t wait, Murphy said.
“It’s far from being proven as a technology,” he said.
Murphy admitted that U.S. roads and rails are too expensive and take far too long to build under current regulations. “The Republicans are going to have to accept new taxes and the Democrats some changes in labor and environmental rules,” he said.
It was the tale of two railroads.Murphy was dreaming of a 200-plus-mph, high-speed rail and most people in the room were just trying to save their one-track, “dink train” from New Canaan to New York.
Torrington’s KidsPlay museum, O&G partner for Touch-A-Truck May 12
TORRINGTON — KidsPlay Children's Museum has been named the beneficiary of O&G Industries annual Touch-a-Truck, held in May to cap off National Construction Safety Week.
The $2 per person admission will benefit a new construction exhibit at the museum, according to a press release.
This year, Touch-a-Truck will be held Saturday, May 12 ,.10 a.m.-1 p.m. at the O&G Maintenance Facility, 900 South Main St., Torrington.
During Touch-A-Truck, children can touch and climb on the vehicles on display — more than 25 pieces of equipment from O&G including along with a dozen pieces of equipment from O&G’s guests and local first responders. Activities for children include sand art, face painting, and more. Food truck vendors including Frankie's World Famous Hot Dogs, Kona-Ice and Bella Sera have been invited.
Parking is available at O&G’s Bogue Road Facility at 255 Lower Bogue Road, Harwinton, across the street from Iffland Lumber in O&G’s staging lot, or the commuter lot located next to Ron's Automotive at 22 Thomaston Road, Litchfield. Shuttle buses are available to take guests from the parking lot to the event.
KidsPlay Children’s Museum is a not-for-profit 501-c-3 institution with over 11,000 square feet of interactive hands-on exhibits and many educational programs. In this space, children and their families practice pre-academic skills, build curiosity and explore through developmental play. The museum is open to the public Wednesdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Thursday to Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, visit www.kidsplaymuseum.org.
DOT would pay Maritime Aquarium $34.5M to replace IMAX, lost exhibits spaces
NORWALK — The state would pay the Maritime Aquarium $34.5 million to rebuild the IMAX Theater and undertake other new construction necessitated by the replacement of the Walk Bridge over the Norwalk River.
The city, which owns the property from which the aquarium operates at 10 North Water St., would be paid $2.165 million for easement rights needed by the Connecticut Department of Transportation to replace the 122-year-old bridge that carries Amtrak and Metro-North Railroad trains across the river.
Those are the key elements of a proposed settlement agreement reached between the city and DOT, and headed to the Common Council’s Land Use and Building Management Committee for review Wednesday evening.
Corporation Counsel Mario Coppola, head of the city’s law department, identified the theater, the seal exhibit, an annex building with animal exhibits, and the deck and dock from which the aquarium research vessel “Spirit of the Sound,” operate as areas that will be demolished to accommodate replacement of the Walk Bridge. “Fortunately, the State has agreed to functionally replace all of the above described areas of the building and other improvements at the Aquarium rather than just providing the City and Aquarium with a payment for the current value of these areas of the building and other improvements as they currently exist and based upon their current age,” Coppola wrote in a memorandum to the committee. “The cost to functionally replace these areas of the building and other improvements is estimated to cost $34,552,395.00, whereas the appraised value of these areas of the building and improvements is $22,520,000.00.”
Major upheaval
The DOT plans to begin replacing the Walk Bridge in 2019 and raze the existing IMAX Theater at the south end of the aquarium campus to creating staging space for the project. The bridge bisects the aquarium.
Aquarium and DOT officials on Monday spoke only generally about the agreement without delving into dollars.”We are negotiating for the full cost of ‘functional replacement,’ which includes several animal exhibits and the theater,” said aquarium spokesman Dave Sigworth.
DOT spokesman Judd Everhart said the department was not in a position to divulge information regarding compensation. ‘We do not have a fully executed agreement nor has it gone through the State Properties Review Board,” he said Mayor Rilling described the discussions between the city, aquarium and DOT as “complex.”
“They (DOT) has never done a functional replacement in the state of Connecticut, as far as we know, so there’s a lot of things that needed to be resolved,” Rilling said. “There’s a whole lot of things that had to be worked out and have to be worked out. So we’re doing our best to make sure that we get everything right and we protect the best interests of The Maritime Aquarium and the city.”
Better theater, new exhibit spaces
The aquarium, upon learning that the DOT intended to raze the theater, advanced a plan to build a new a 4D theater as well as new exhibit space.
The plan, prepared by architect Beyer Blinder Belle and approved by the council last fall, calls for a two-story, 11,939-square-foot addition on the east of the existing main entrance. The addition would house a 4D, 178-seat theater, entrance lobby, ticket area and other space. Four-dimensional technology allows theatergoers to feel wind and rain and sense smell. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Is It Safe? Tests Determine If ABC Construction Can Hold Up Against Earthquakes
Good news: A series of tests at the Earthquake Engineering Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno, has determined that accelerated bridge construction methods are safe and ready to be used on job sites.
The tests, which were performed on enormous shake tables, took place on April 24, put a 70-ton, two-span, 70-ft.-long bridge through simulations of a 7.5-magnitude earthquake. Six different types of bridge connections, built into one bridge, were tested; previously each connection had undergone its own separate test at the University, Nevada Today reported.
“The individual connection tests had given us very good results for each connection,” said Dr. Saiid Saiidi, director for the Center for Advanced Technology in Bridges and Infrastructure, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Nevada and the project's principal investigator. “And for the first time, our study combined these connections in a single bridge which endured realistically strong earthquakes. We knew that going into this that our individual positive tests did not inherently mean that all of the connections would work together, making this a necessary test.”
The tests had two key outcomes that Saiidi's team looked for:
Four of the six connections were built to remain undamaged during large-scale earthquakes, and
Two connections were meant to take on a certain amount of damage. By breaking they absorbed some of the forces exerted on the structure from the earthquake.
The results looked good.
“Along with avoiding collapse, the outcome of our study showed that all of the six connections performed as expected,” said Saiidi. “It will be a few months before we can evaluate date from the 280 sensors that we had in the bridge to get more insight about the connections … but we are now confident to recommend these connections for application in real bridges.”
The Bigger Picture
The study, which was part of the University of Transportation Center on Accelerated Bridge Construction project (ABC-UTC), was funded by the U.S. DOT, Nevada Today reported.
“There are many aspects of bridge construction and safety that ABC-UTC is researching, such as ease of construction and durability of joints,” said Saiidi. “The University of Nevada, Reno is part of the seismic performance portion of ABC-UTC Seismic, which is the most critical aspect when it comes to bridge connections.”
ABC-UTC Seismic's key goal is to develop a series of precast bridge components and systems that are earthquake-resistant, as well as translate their research data into design guidelines to help boost the usage of ABC construction methods in areas where moderate to high seismic activity occurs, Nevada Today reported.
Torrington council rejects bid for wastewater facility
TORRINGTON – The lone bid for the major upgrades to the city’s wastewater treatment facility was rejected on Monday and the city will go out to bid again for the project.
The City Council, acting as the Water Pollution Control Authority, voted 4-0 to reject the one bid from C.H. Nickerson for the project to help the plant meet phosphorous and nitrogen limits set by the state and federal governments and new flood control measures. The project is not related to the proposed sewer line from Woodridge Lake Sewer District.
The City Council had little choice but to go out to bid again after the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection rejected the bid because of concerns about the bidding process. Two addendums were issued too late in the process and there were concerns about the items listed in follow-up answers by the engineering firm assisting the city in the project.
WPCA Administrator Ray Drew said he was disappointed by DEEP’s decision. He said the law cited by DEEP in its letter to the city rejecting the bid was published in the request for proposals documents.
Drew believes engineers’ responses to the questions by the manufacturers during the bid process was the issue that prompted the rejection.
The vote means the project to upgrade the wastewater treatment facility on Bogue Road will be delayed and the project’s completion may likely go past April 2020, when the city’s permit from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection expires. A delay was of little concern to City Council member Paul E. Cavagnero, who said DEEP has shown itself to be very “lenient” when it came to enforcing its own consent order on Woodridge Lake Sewer District with little action for decades.
There were concerns that going out to bid will result in the city only receiving one bid again. Drew said Nickerson was upset that its bid was made public. State statute says the city has to go out to bid for 30 days but DEEP recommends 60 days.
Mayor Elinor C. Carbone said DEEP told the city it could go with a 30-day requirement since the project was already out to bid. Cavagnero said he was in favor of the 60-day timetable because he was not concerned with DEEP’s timeline since it has poor enforcement track record in the region.
In total, $71.3 million was appropriated. C.H. Nickerson’s bid was $58.8 million, about $237,000 more than what was budgeted for the project.
City Council member Frank Rubino, who works for O&G, abstained from the vote and Marie P. Soliani was out of state and did not attend.