BRIDGEPORT — The city will be preparing roads for paving beginning Thursday, the mayor’s office announced Wednesday.
The milling process will begin Thursday and run through Friday, July 6. It will remove the current surface area of the road to level and smooth roadways for pavement.
After the milling process wraps up in early July, paving will being the week of July 16
Milling will start in Black Rock and on the West Side before moving east across the city. Paving will begin on the east side of the city and move west.
As the city works to mill and pave roads, there will be posted no parking signs that must be followed during roadwork. The no parking signs will be posted 24 hours before milling or paving begins. Anyone who does not adhere to the signs could have their cars towedDetour signs will be posted during the construction work. These detours made add extra time to travel routes so plan accordingly.
WALLINGFORD — Mayor William Dickinson Jr. is balking at a plan to spend $86 million to upgrade the town’s wastewater treatment system in order to comply with more strict state and federal mandates regarding the discharge of phosphorus into the Quinnipiac River.
“The fiscal impact of this is a vital question here because we can’t ignore who is going to be paying for this,” Dickinson said. “There has to be some common sense applied here. Can we afford it or not?”
Dickinson made his comments during a workshop Tuesday night attended by members of the town’s Public Utilities Commission, Town Councilor John LeTourneau, state Rep. Mary Mushinsky, D-Wallingford, and a few members of the public.
Officials with the Public Utilities Commission have not yet calculated what the financial impact of the project would be to ratepayers. Chairman Robert Beaumont said Public Utilities Director Richard Hendershot will likely develop estimates of cost to ratepayers over the next several months.
“It’s not going to be chump change, I can tell you that,” Beaumont said during the meeting.
The town is under a July 1, 2019, deadline to have a contractor selected to do the work, he said later. If the PUC misses that deadline, the amount of state reimbursement for the project would drop 20 percent from nearly half of the price tag for the work, according to Beaumont.
Construction must get started by April 1 2020, Beaumont said. The work must be completed by April 1, 2022, at which time ratepayers would begin to see the financial impact of the project impact their bills, he said.
Dickinson said that while some upgrades are need at the nearly 30 year old treatment plant, the vast majority of the work being proposed as part of the upgrade is to comply with state and federal standards regarding the discharge of phosphorous into the river.
“This is not a public health issue,” he said. “We need to make it known that this (the cost associated with the upgrade project) is just plain unreasonable.”
The mayor stopped just short of saying whether he would support the town engaging in a legal fight against the strict phosphors discharge mandates.
Having too much phosphorus and nitrates introduced into a body of water can speed up the growth of algae, according to information put out by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. That hurts the ecosystem of the body of water and makes it more difficult for aquatic insects and fish to survive, according to EPA.
Wallingford has battled with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection for much of the current decade over phosphorus level discharge. At one time, the town was not alone in this fight, with officials from Cheshire, Southington, Meriden and Danbury also battling with DEEP over the issue, Beaumont said.
“One by one, each of the other towns got picked off,” he said. “Now, it’s just us.”
Wallingford’s protracted fight with state environmental officials make its highly unlikely that the town will be granted a waiver from having to comply with the more strict phosphorus levels, Mushinsky said.
“They’re not going to make Cheshire do it (comply), make Southington do it and make Meriden do it, then turn around and grant us a waiver,” Mushinsky said.
First phase of upgrades at Bradley International Airport slated for fall completion
WINDSOR LOCKS — It’s hard to imagine during a busy Wednesday in late June, but the first phase of a construction project that will ultimately result in a new ground transportation center at Bradley International Airport will be completed this fall.
The first phase of the project involves reworking the Route 20 entrance to the airport, which includes realigning Schoephoester Road along with a portion of the airport’s lower roadway system. The $11 million project includes the installation of a traffic roundabout where traffic enters the airport grounds from Route 20.
Bob Bruno, director of planning, engineering and environmental services for the Connecticut Airport Authority, said the roundabout is what is known in the transportation community as a “traffic calming” tool, designed to reduce the speed of vehicles as they come off Route 20 and onto the airport grounds. The authority oversees the operation of Bradley International.
“It will still allow us to maintain high levels of traffic,” Bruno said. Construction of the new roadway system began in June 2017. The project is being paid for with money collected from passenger facility charges and other customer fees.
Kevin Dillon, executive director of the Airport Authority, said that “for the most part, this construction has been conducted without any delays.”
The flow of traffic from Route 20 to the airport will not be interrupted, Dillon said. Instead, the changeover to the new road system will take place in series of steps over the next six months.We just think its important for the public to be aware that multiple traffic changes will be occurring,” he said. “This is one of the first projects of what we envision will be a bright future here at Bradley Airport. We believe there is a lot of potential in this market and as we look to fulfill that (potential), we’re going to have to continue to pay attention (to) infrastructure.”
Dillon said Airport Authority officials are in early stages of discussions about providing a shuttle service between the airport and the Windsor Locks train station. With the launch of the Hartford Line commuter rail service between New Haven and Springfield, Massachusetts earlier this month, more trains will be stopping at the Windsor Locks train station, which is located a few miles away from the airport, he said.
Changing traffic patterns at the airport will free up 19 acres where a multi-level ground transportation center will be built staring next spring, Dillon said. Building the transportation center is scheduled to take two or three years, he said.
The transportation center will include a new parking garage on two lower levels and car rental locations on multiple levels above the parking garage. Currently, car rental locations that serve Bradley are located on the periphery of the airport grounds, requiring customers to take a shuttle to get to them.
“The fiscal impact of this is a vital question here because we can’t ignore who is going to be paying for this,” Dickinson said. “There has to be some common sense applied here. Can we afford it or not?”
Officials with the Public Utilities Commission have not yet calculated what the financial impact of the project would be to ratepayers. Chairman Robert Beaumont said Public Utilities Director Richard Hendershot will likely develop estimates of cost to ratepayers over the next several months.
The town is under a July 1, 2019, deadline to have a contractor selected to do the work, he said later. If the PUC misses that deadline, the amount of state reimbursement for the project would drop 20 percent from nearly half of the price tag for the work, according to Beaumont.
Construction must get started by April 1 2020, Beaumont said. The work must be completed by April 1, 2022, at which time ratepayers would begin to see the financial impact of the project impact their bills, he said.
“This is not a public health issue,” he said. “We need to make it known that this (the cost associated with the upgrade project) is just plain unreasonable.”
The mayor stopped just short of saying whether he would support the town engaging in a legal fight against the strict phosphors discharge mandates.
Having too much phosphorus and nitrates introduced into a body of water can speed up the growth of algae, according to information put out by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. That hurts the ecosystem of the body of water and makes it more difficult for aquatic insects and fish to survive, according to EPA.
Wallingford has battled with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection for much of the current decade over phosphorus level discharge. At one time, the town was not alone in this fight, with officials from Cheshire, Southington, Meriden and Danbury also battling with DEEP over the issue, Beaumont said.
“One by one, each of the other towns got picked off,” he said. “Now, it’s just us.”
Wallingford’s protracted fight with state environmental officials make its highly unlikely that the town will be granted a waiver from having to comply with the more strict phosphorus levels, Mushinsky said.
“They’re not going to make Cheshire do it (comply), make Southington do it and make Meriden do it, then turn around and grant us a waiver,” Mushinsky said.
First phase of upgrades at Bradley International Airport slated for fall completion
WINDSOR LOCKS — It’s hard to imagine during a busy Wednesday in late June, but the first phase of a construction project that will ultimately result in a new ground transportation center at Bradley International Airport will be completed this fall.
The first phase of the project involves reworking the Route 20 entrance to the airport, which includes realigning Schoephoester Road along with a portion of the airport’s lower roadway system. The $11 million project includes the installation of a traffic roundabout where traffic enters the airport grounds from Route 20.
Bob Bruno, director of planning, engineering and environmental services for the Connecticut Airport Authority, said the roundabout is what is known in the transportation community as a “traffic calming” tool, designed to reduce the speed of vehicles as they come off Route 20 and onto the airport grounds. The authority oversees the operation of Bradley International.
“It will still allow us to maintain high levels of traffic,” Bruno said. Construction of the new roadway system began in June 2017. The project is being paid for with money collected from passenger facility charges and other customer fees.
Kevin Dillon, executive director of the Airport Authority, said that “for the most part, this construction has been conducted without any delays.”
The flow of traffic from Route 20 to the airport will not be interrupted, Dillon said. Instead, the changeover to the new road system will take place in series of steps over the next six months.We just think its important for the public to be aware that multiple traffic changes will be occurring,” he said. “This is one of the first projects of what we envision will be a bright future here at Bradley Airport. We believe there is a lot of potential in this market and as we look to fulfill that (potential), we’re going to have to continue to pay attention (to) infrastructure.”
Dillon said Airport Authority officials are in early stages of discussions about providing a shuttle service between the airport and the Windsor Locks train station. With the launch of the Hartford Line commuter rail service between New Haven and Springfield, Massachusetts earlier this month, more trains will be stopping at the Windsor Locks train station, which is located a few miles away from the airport, he said.
Changing traffic patterns at the airport will free up 19 acres where a multi-level ground transportation center will be built staring next spring, Dillon said. Building the transportation center is scheduled to take two or three years, he said.
The transportation center will include a new parking garage on two lower levels and car rental locations on multiple levels above the parking garage. Currently, car rental locations that serve Bradley are located on the periphery of the airport grounds, requiring customers to take a shuttle to get to them.