Connecticut’s deteriorating transportation infrastructure, and the lack of sufficient funding to make needed improvements, have been in the news often in recent months. While not an immediate solution to pressing challenges, an announcement from the U.S. Department of Transportation may provide encouragement for those seeking longer-term remedies.
The U.S. DOT has selected the University of Maine to lead the creation of a highly competitive University Transportation Center (UTC), to focus on “improving the curability and extending the life of transportation infrastructure.”
The initiative, to include the University of Connecticut and the Connecticut Department of Transportation, will be called the Transportation Infrastructure Durability Center (TIDC). TIDC aims to help save taxpayer dollars by extending the life of transportation assets, including bridges, roads and rail.
The U.S. DOT will provide as much as $14.2 million over five years for the UMaine-led coalition including UConn, University of Rhode Island, University of Massachusetts Lowell, University of Vermont, and Western New England University.
Additional partners include representatives from the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT), Vermont Agency of Transportation, Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT), Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT), and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Transportation and Development Institute.
“Along with our partners from all New England states, we look forward to leading research to extend the life of existing bridges, construct longer-lasting assets, and reduce costs for the DOT and the public,” said Dr. Habib Dagher, founding executive director of the UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center, and center director of the newly formed TIDC Center.
Officials explain that working with state DOTs, the new TIDC will seek to identify new materials and technologies that maximize the impact of transportation infrastructure investments. The center will work along four pathways:
- develop improved road and bridge monitoring and assessment tools;
- develop better ways to strengthen existing bridges to extend their life;
- use new materials and systems to build longer-lasting new bridges and accelerate construction; and
- use new connectivity tools to enhance asset and performance management while promoting workforce development, the release said.
“Together, they advance U.S. technology and expertise in the many disciplines comprising transportation through education, solutions-oriented research and technology transfer, and the exploration and sharing of cutting-edge ideas and approaches,” USDOT explains.
The U.S. DOT will provide as much as $14.2 million over five years for the UMaine-led coalition including UConn, University of Rhode Island, University of Massachusetts Lowell, University of Vermont, and Western New England University.
Additional partners include representatives from the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT), Vermont Agency of Transportation, Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT), Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT), and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Transportation and Development Institute.
“Along with our partners from all New England states, we look forward to leading research to extend the life of existing bridges, construct longer-lasting assets, and reduce costs for the DOT and the public,” said Dr. Habib Dagher, founding executive director of the UMaine Advanced Structures and Composites Center, and center director of the newly formed TIDC Center.
Officials explain that working with state DOTs, the new TIDC will seek to identify new materials and technologies that maximize the impact of transportation infrastructure investments. The center will work along four pathways:
- develop improved road and bridge monitoring and assessment tools;
- develop better ways to strengthen existing bridges to extend their life;
- use new materials and systems to build longer-lasting new bridges and accelerate construction; and
- use new connectivity tools to enhance asset and performance management while promoting workforce development, the release said.
“Together, they advance U.S. technology and expertise in the many disciplines comprising transportation through education, solutions-oriented research and technology transfer, and the exploration and sharing of cutting-edge ideas and approaches,” USDOT explains.
“As a regional and national leader in transportation-related research, UMaine is prepared and ready to take on this work,” said U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine. “The creation of this new center will allow the university to expand its efforts to tackle the infrastructure problems facing communities not just in Maine, but across the country. This project has the potential to save taxpayer money and improve quality of life.”
“We are eager to partner with this program to support research that will offer new technologies and techniques that ensure taxpayer investments continue to be maximized while also extending the lifespan of our investments,” said Maine DOT Commissioner David Bernhardt. Officials noted that member universities of the new TIDC have an extensive record of accomplishments in transportation infrastructure research, education and technology transfer.
New England’s transportation infrastructure faces unique challenges due to harsh winter weather and short construction seasons. According to ASCE, Nearly 30 percent of New England roads are rated in poor condition which, on average, costs each motorist $584 annually in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs. Nationally, driving on roads in need of repair costs U.S. motorists $120.5 billion.
Since 1987, the UTC program has advanced transportation research and technology at colleges and universities across the country. Every five years, academic institutions nationwide compete to form their region’s UTC.
I-95 bridge, often hit by trucks, to be raised in Norwalk
Jim Shay
The state Department of Transportation is moving ahead with a $10 million project to raise an I-95 bridge that has been hit several times by trucks.
DOT says it’s been struck so many times the bridge is “structurally deficient and functionally obsolete.” In 2015, one truck strike was so severe it damaged steel girders and a waterline underneath the bridge.
The problem with the 60-year-old Strawberry Hill Avenue bridge is not enough clearance over I-95.
Plans include increasing the clearance from 14 feet, 1 inch to 16 feet, 3 inches so trucks, hopefully, won’t slam into it.
The bridge is located about a half-mile from (East Avenue) Exit 16, an area that’s often a traffic choke point during peak drive times.
Once a truck hits the bridge, it often becomes stuck, causing a traffic nightmare with closed lanes, detours and hours of cleanup and removal.
With planning in the final design phase, construction is anticipated to begin next spring. It should take two years to finish.
But before work can begin, a public hearing will be held on Thursday, June 28 in Norwalk City Hall. An open forum for individual discussions with DOT reps will begin at 6:30p.m., followed by a formal presentation at 7 p.m.
Among the key features of the project:
The new bridge will maintain the existing Strawberry Hill Road travel and turn lane configuration.
Raising of the bridge requires modification to the Norwalk’s local roads in order to meet the new bridge elevation. These modifications will extend several hundred feet north and south along Strawberry Hill Avenue, east along Norden Place, and west along Beacon Street.
One travel lane in each direction will be maintained along Strawberry Hill Avenue during peak hours.
Alternating one-way traffic operations and occasional temporary detours will be in place.
Lane shifts and periodic lane reductions will occur along both directions of Interstate 95 as required during allowable periods.
Last year, the DOT altered its schedule for overhauling the Strawberry Hill Avenue Bridge by removing it from an Interstate 95 project involving median reconstruction and roadway resurfacing.
Norwalk officials were concerned that DOT was not coordinating the work with the Walk Bridge (project) and using Strawberry Hill as a major bypass and detour.
DOT says now that the Strawberry Hill Avenue bridge has been broken out as a separate project it will have a lessened “simultaneous traffic impact” with the Walk Bridge work.
Progress continues on Centre Square access road
BRIAN M. JOHNSON
“Over the last couple of weeks, Eversource has concluded the installation of gas main within the area of the new road,” added Rogozinski. “The gas line on Laurel Street still has to be upgraded to connect to the existing gas line on West Street.”
The final connectors between the road’s electrical system and Riverside Avenue and North Main Street will occur in the next couple of weeks, Rogozinski said, as will landscaping.
“The first part of the pavement will be installed on the road July 9,” Rogozinski said.
When completed, the 1,000-foot road will begin at the intersection of North Main and Laurel streets and cut through Centre Square to Riverside Avenue. It will connect with the Bristol Hospital Ambulatory Care Center, also under construction.
Rogozinski said the blasting that passers-by have seen and heard in recent weeks was the excavation of the foundation for the Bristol Hospital building. That work is now complete.
While work on the Ambulatory Care Center is taking place, a “driveway apron” has been built to replace the original entrance to the parking lot, providfing parking for visitors to several Main Street businesses.
East Windsor Casino Wins Crucial Local Zoning Approval
Kenneth R. Gosselin
Plans for the state’s first casino off a tribal reservation won a crucial local zoning permit late Tuesday, but the future of the $300 million gambling venue remains uncertain because it still lacks a critical sign-off from the federal regulators.
East Windsor’s planning and zoning commission unanimously granted a zoning permit for the development proposed by MMCT Venture LLC, a partnership of the tribal operators of Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun.
Commission members praised the project as significant economic development for a town that has struggled to build its tax base and attract visitors to patronize local businesses. The casino also would replace a long-vacant eyesore, they said.
Tuesday’s approval comes as the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes wait for federal regulators to publish a notice that would legally assure the state that the expansion of casino gambling off tribal lands would not affect its revenue-sharing agreements with the two tribes.
The notice was published for the Mohegans on May 31, and a companion for the Mashantucket Pequots was expected soon after, but it has yet to surface. The federal regulator, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
The final connectors between the road’s electrical system and Riverside Avenue and North Main Street will occur in the next couple of weeks, Rogozinski said, as will landscaping.
“The first part of the pavement will be installed on the road July 9,” Rogozinski said.
When completed, the 1,000-foot road will begin at the intersection of North Main and Laurel streets and cut through Centre Square to Riverside Avenue. It will connect with the Bristol Hospital Ambulatory Care Center, also under construction.
Rogozinski said the blasting that passers-by have seen and heard in recent weeks was the excavation of the foundation for the Bristol Hospital building. That work is now complete.
While work on the Ambulatory Care Center is taking place, a “driveway apron” has been built to replace the original entrance to the parking lot, providfing parking for visitors to several Main Street businesses.
East Windsor Casino Wins Crucial Local Zoning Approval
Kenneth R. Gosselin
Plans for the state’s first casino off a tribal reservation won a crucial local zoning permit late Tuesday, but the future of the $300 million gambling venue remains uncertain because it still lacks a critical sign-off from the federal regulators.
East Windsor’s planning and zoning commission unanimously granted a zoning permit for the development proposed by MMCT Venture LLC, a partnership of the tribal operators of Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun.
The venue — to be built on the site of the now-demolished Showcase Cinema movie theater off I-91 — is intended to blunt the competitive impact of a new, $960 million casino in Springfield on revenue and jobs tied to Connecticut’s gambling industry. MGM Springfield opens Aug. 24.
If construction begins this fall, the East Windsor casino would not open until the spring of 2020. Initially, the tribes had hoped to beat the opening of MGM Springfield, but the project was delayed by a longer than expected site search. “We’ve taken a huge step tonight,” Joseph Ouellette, the planning commission’s chairman, said, after Tuesday night’s vote. “We’re almost over the finish line as far as the local approval process.” Commission members praised the project as significant economic development for a town that has struggled to build its tax base and attract visitors to patronize local businesses. The casino also would replace a long-vacant eyesore, they said.
Tuesday’s approval comes as the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes wait for federal regulators to publish a notice that would legally assure the state that the expansion of casino gambling off tribal lands would not affect its revenue-sharing agreements with the two tribes.
The notice was published for the Mohegans on May 31, and a companion for the Mashantucket Pequots was expected soon after, but it has yet to surface. The federal regulator, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
A sign-off by the federal government was required by the state law authorizing the expansion to East Windsor. MGM Resorts International, the developer of the Springfield casino, also has vowed to continue fighting MMCT in court. It has argued its Constitutional rights were violated because it was not allowed to compete at the same time and on equal footing with the tribes to establish Connecticut’s first commercial casino.
New renderings of the planned East Windsor last show a one-story casino with an attached five-story parking garage nestled into a former movie theater site. The proposed casino would have about 2,000 slot machines and 60 games, restaurants, bars and entertainment space.
“It creates a development, we believe, of a very high quality to attract people from near and far to this site to create a regional destination to be a showcase for the town of East Windsor — a different kind of showcase — and to set the bar for redevelopment,” Dorian Reiser Famiglietti, an attorney for MMCT, told the commission Tuesday.
The planning commission still must give site plan approval to the details of the casino design. Commission members say they remain concerned about the flow of traffic to and from the casino, especially as it affects Route 140. The issue will have to be worked out with MMCT, they said.
Commission member Marti Zhigailo said she wasn’t bothered by the more modest, 188,000 square foot size of the casino, smaller than a Super Walmart that’s nearby.
“I think sometimes bigger is not better,” Zhigailo said. “I think a mid-size or a manageable facility is — let’s face it older people don’t like to walk forever — so if you make it convenient, in-out, day trippers and a shuttle from some of the community developments we have for our residents, I think it will be a nice destination point.
Zhigailo added: “And yes, it fits our town, it fits that space, it has the highway access. Let’s get the traffic worked out, and I think it will go.”
New Haven’s new technology hub to benefit from Comcast donation
Luther Turmelle
NEW HAVEN — The business development arm of media giant Comcast is contributing $700,000 in cash and in-kind services to help bolster District New Haven as new technology business hub.
Paul Savas, vice president of the western New England region for Comcast Business, said about 60 percent of the total value of the company’s donation will involve outfitting District’s Innovation Center with ultra-high-speed Internet for business, a cloud-based telephone system and other important technology services. The remaining 30 percent of the company’s donation will be in cash, which translates into about $230,000.
The design for the Innovation Center is being worked on and Savas said no opening date has been scheduled yet for that portion of District New Haven.
“By taking part in this, we’re looking to help provide the city and the region with a really solid talent base as the technology sector grows,” Savas said.
District New Haven’s Innovation Center also will benefit from $850,000 in funding over the next five years that is coming from CTNext, a subsidiary of the the state’s quasi-public technology investment agency. The Innovation Center will receive $50,000 this year and $200,000 in each of the next four years from CTNext. How that money will be used at the Innovation Center will be overseen by the Elm City Innovation Collaborative, which also is being funded by CTNext
Elinor Slomba, implementation manager for the Elm City Innovation Collaborative, said the contributions from Comcast and the state support “our mission to build on New Haven’s strengths as a city that nurtures innovative companies and hubs.”
“It’s amazing to see a project of this magnitude flip the switch and open for business,” Slomba said in a statement.
District New Haven opened earlier this year after $25 million worth of renovations over two years, converting the former Connecticut Transit bus garage at the corner of James and State streets into a technology hub. Digital Surgeons, the anchor tenant for the technology hub, moved its new home in February.
Digital Surgeons helps client companies switch their marketing and promotion from traditional channels such as print and broadcast advertising to digital, social and mobile channels.
A co-working space opened in District New Haven in May.
District New Haven is the brainchild of David Salinas, who co-founded Digital Surgeons and spearheaded the renovation effort. Salinas also founded the District Innovation and Venture Center, a non-profit that is based at the District New Haven campus.
“As a result of (Comcast’s) investment, we have been able to rally the support of additional partners and vendors and will be announcing education and workforce development programming in critical areas starting with Software Engineering and Data Science,” Salinas said in a statement explaining part of the Innovation Center’s purpose..
Savas said in addition to Comcast’s investment, the media giant will produce and air public service announcements promoting the education and workforce effort at the Innovation Center.
New renderings of the planned East Windsor last show a one-story casino with an attached five-story parking garage nestled into a former movie theater site. The proposed casino would have about 2,000 slot machines and 60 games, restaurants, bars and entertainment space.
“It creates a development, we believe, of a very high quality to attract people from near and far to this site to create a regional destination to be a showcase for the town of East Windsor — a different kind of showcase — and to set the bar for redevelopment,” Dorian Reiser Famiglietti, an attorney for MMCT, told the commission Tuesday.
The planning commission still must give site plan approval to the details of the casino design. Commission members say they remain concerned about the flow of traffic to and from the casino, especially as it affects Route 140. The issue will have to be worked out with MMCT, they said.
Commission member Marti Zhigailo said she wasn’t bothered by the more modest, 188,000 square foot size of the casino, smaller than a Super Walmart that’s nearby.
“I think sometimes bigger is not better,” Zhigailo said. “I think a mid-size or a manageable facility is — let’s face it older people don’t like to walk forever — so if you make it convenient, in-out, day trippers and a shuttle from some of the community developments we have for our residents, I think it will be a nice destination point.
Zhigailo added: “And yes, it fits our town, it fits that space, it has the highway access. Let’s get the traffic worked out, and I think it will go.”
New Haven’s new technology hub to benefit from Comcast donation
Luther Turmelle
NEW HAVEN — The business development arm of media giant Comcast is contributing $700,000 in cash and in-kind services to help bolster District New Haven as new technology business hub.
Paul Savas, vice president of the western New England region for Comcast Business, said about 60 percent of the total value of the company’s donation will involve outfitting District’s Innovation Center with ultra-high-speed Internet for business, a cloud-based telephone system and other important technology services. The remaining 30 percent of the company’s donation will be in cash, which translates into about $230,000.
The design for the Innovation Center is being worked on and Savas said no opening date has been scheduled yet for that portion of District New Haven.
“By taking part in this, we’re looking to help provide the city and the region with a really solid talent base as the technology sector grows,” Savas said.
District New Haven’s Innovation Center also will benefit from $850,000 in funding over the next five years that is coming from CTNext, a subsidiary of the the state’s quasi-public technology investment agency. The Innovation Center will receive $50,000 this year and $200,000 in each of the next four years from CTNext. How that money will be used at the Innovation Center will be overseen by the Elm City Innovation Collaborative, which also is being funded by CTNext
Elinor Slomba, implementation manager for the Elm City Innovation Collaborative, said the contributions from Comcast and the state support “our mission to build on New Haven’s strengths as a city that nurtures innovative companies and hubs.”
“It’s amazing to see a project of this magnitude flip the switch and open for business,” Slomba said in a statement.
District New Haven opened earlier this year after $25 million worth of renovations over two years, converting the former Connecticut Transit bus garage at the corner of James and State streets into a technology hub. Digital Surgeons, the anchor tenant for the technology hub, moved its new home in February.
Digital Surgeons helps client companies switch their marketing and promotion from traditional channels such as print and broadcast advertising to digital, social and mobile channels.
A co-working space opened in District New Haven in May.
District New Haven is the brainchild of David Salinas, who co-founded Digital Surgeons and spearheaded the renovation effort. Salinas also founded the District Innovation and Venture Center, a non-profit that is based at the District New Haven campus.
“As a result of (Comcast’s) investment, we have been able to rally the support of additional partners and vendors and will be announcing education and workforce development programming in critical areas starting with Software Engineering and Data Science,” Salinas said in a statement explaining part of the Innovation Center’s purpose..
Savas said in addition to Comcast’s investment, the media giant will produce and air public service announcements promoting the education and workforce effort at the Innovation Center.