Sound View sewer project could go to referendum in 2019
Kimberly Drelich
Old Lyme — While still being planned, a bonding proposal to bring sewers to Sound View and a neighborhood to the north of Route 156 could go to a referendum vote next year.
Water Pollution Control Authority Chairman Richard Prendergast said the date of the referendum is still to be determined, but the best estimate is that the town may hold it in the spring of 2019.
The cost of the project is estimated at $7.443 million, after factoring in a state grant, he said. Under the proposal, the town would bond the project, but residents of the impacted neighborhoods would pay for it through a sewer connection fee.
If approved at referendum, the project design would then be slated for 2019 or potentially 2020, with construction estimated for 2020-2023, he said.
Prendergast updated residents on the status of plans for sewers at Sound View, a project which he said has been coming for a long time, at a public information session last Thursday evening at Town Hall that attracted more than 120 people.
Prendergast said the town, which oversees Sound View and the nearby area north of Route 156, would partner with Miami Beach Association, Old Lyme Shores Beach Association, and Old Colony Beach Club Association — three chartered beach associations that have been planning a sewer project for the past eight years and are further along in the planning process — where it makes sense. The town and the three beach associations are working on a lease for a shared pump station that would provide cost efficiencies. While not yet settled, the current plan would be to locate the pump station at the parking lot at the end of Hartford Avenue in Sound View, he said.
Under the proposal, each equivalent dwelling unit, or a median-sized home, in Sound View and the neighborhood to the north, called Miscellaneous Town Area B, would pay $27,600 to cover the project's capital costs. Homeowners could pay the estimated $27,600 cost, comprised of a betterment fee and a facility connection fee, in a full one-time payment, or they could finance it over 20 years at a 2 percent loan, which equates to two payments of $841 per year.
Annually, homeowners would also pay an estimated $440 operations and maintenance fee.
In addition to the capital cost and the annual maintenance fee, homeowners would also be responsible for the plumbing cost to install the line from the house to the curb, according to the presentation.
As part of the project, the town is also negotiating with Connecticut Water Company to fund upgrades to water lines, according to the presentation.
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection published an Environmental Impact Evaluation of the town's coastal management plan, with the comment period ending earlier this month. The DEEP is expected to issue a Record of Decision around Sept. 14 with answers to the comments. That will likely trigger the state to direct the town to move forward with the recommended option of connecting Sound View and Town Area B to sewers that will send wastewater to New London.
Prendergast said when the WPCA receives that information, it can then work with First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder, the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance to schedule a referendum, most likely during the warmer weather months, when more residents of the beach neighborhoods will be in town. He said town officials had hoped to schedule a referendum for this summer, but it ended up not being feasible with the timing of the commenting period.
Prendergast said that while the Old Lyme WPCA has followed a "sewer avoidance" policy since the 1980s, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has decided that it is no longer effective for some high-density areas along the shoreline. In Sound View and Miscellaneous Town Area B, most lots are too small to support a "fully compliant" septic system, he said.
"Anyone growing up in Sound View or living in Sound View knows the houses are near each other, sometimes a driveway between one house and the next house," he said. "While that makes it great for meeting your neighbors and getting great relationships, it's difficult for a septic system on the property to do its job, and when you have that septic system next to another septic system, next to another septic system, you have overlap [that] makes it even harder."
Douglas Whalen, chairman of Old Colony Beach Club Association, said the three private beach associations want the town to join their project.
"We feel that if all three beaches are cleaning up their beaches, cleaning up the pollution, cleaning up Long Island Sound, we'd love for the town to come in," he said.
The three private beach associations have agreements to connect to East Lyme's sewer system and to treat wastewater in New London. Prendergast said the town hopes to join those agreements later.
Residents at the information session raised questions, such as if they would still need to pay the annual maintenance fee if they are a seasonal and not a year-round resident, and asked about the status of monitoring for the Hawk's Nest neighborhood.
Prendergast said that all homeowners, whether year-round or seasonal residents, will need to pay the annual maintenance fee. He likened it to when people buy equipment at the store, they have to pay the same price whether they use the equipment a lot or a little.
He said that Hawk's Nest is separate from the Sound View sewer project and has monitoring wells and is being studied for multiple years, as Hawk's Nest has both high density and low density sections. The results of that testing will then be evaluated.
How one contractor helped design and build the state's $769M Hartford rail line
Sean Teehan
The new Hartford Line barreled out of the station in June to strong initial ridership numbers, with the high-speed, New Haven-to-Springfield train service tallying more than 21,000 passenger trips during its first two weeks.
While early revenue figures aren't available yet, rail officials say the $769 million rail line — among the largest investments in intercity train service in the nation — is off to a promising start.
But efforts to get the eight-year project over the finish line were exhausting and complicated, and while the state Department of Transportation has been the face of the service since its launch, there was another, behind-the-scenes player that did a lot of the heavy lifting.
New York civil engineering firm WSP USA received $58.6 million to date to oversee development of the Hartford Line, a project that included laying down 27 miles of new double track, creating a new signal and control system, repairing or rehabbing numerous bridges and culverts, among many other projects.
While there were challenges in designing the line and laying a second track connecting Hartford to Springfield — in addition to a late-in-the-game controversy surrounding the use of 30-year-old, out-of-commission trains from the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority — the project largely ran on schedule, and was buoyed by consistent communication across stakeholders, said Rob Yirigian, who oversaw the project for WSP.
What is now the Hartford Line used to be just a portion of a train route built in 1844 that ran from New Haven to Boston, according to Speedlines. Amtrak acquired it in 1976, and pulled up one of the two tracks between Hartford and Springfield.
Decades later, in 2009, an initial $120.9 million in federal funds became available for a project to reestablish that stretch of track for the Hartford Line. DOT officials hired WSP to oversee the project the following year.
The firm assisted in everything from raising funds to pay for the train service to overseeing design and construction.
It helped DOT apply for various federal grants, including from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the controversial stimulus program passed by the Obama administration in 2009. Ultimately, the project was granted $204.8 million in federal funds, and $536.7 million from the state.
When WSP started work in late 2010, designing and replacing the second track presented immediate obstacles, Yirigian said.
"In some areas we were at the top of an embankment, some areas it was at the base of a trough of a hill, and we needed to deal with some structural and geotechnical issues," Yirigian said.
Environmentally sensitive areas in Windsor, Windsor Locks and other locales also limited the distance the two tracks could be spread apart.
Slope stability analyses were performed to figure out how much space workers needed to leave between the tracks, Yirigian said. Some track needed extra support because of the terrain.
WSP also took care of the train schedules, using a Rail Traffic Controller algorithm software that allowed designers to factor in things like the number of Amtrak trains already running on the tracks and train speeds and conflicts.
But the largest challenge was working with the nearly 1,500 DOT and Amtrak staffers, contractors and consultants who toiled on the project, Yirigian said.
"Coordination is paramount because that's where you end up with problems; things don't get communicated properly and slip through the cracks," Yirigian said. "We made it a point as corporate managers to really push that issue."
That meant monthly coordination meetings across multiple groups on the senior-management and working levels, Yirigian said. WSP also held quarterly meetings with top brass from the Federal Railroad Administration, DOT and Amtrak, which still owns the track.
That kind of frequent communication was necessary during construction, when WSP shut down certain trains on the Amtrak schedule, Yirigian said, which allowed for a larger daytime window for crews to work. WSP provided busing for Amtrak passengers whose trains were cancelled.
"As part of this effort, our communications team worked tirelessly to ensure that the public was informed well in advance of any changes to service," Yirigian said.
A hiccup
By 2015, the design phase was complete, after about 3½ years of work, Yirigian said.
As track was being laid according to design, WSP ran into a snag when it came to finding trains to run on them.
Under the original plan, the Hartford Line was supposed to take 16 diesel trains from the Shoreline East rail line, which was set to receive a new fleet, Yirigian said. But in the intervening years, Shoreline East's rail service increased enough that it couldn't spare any equipment.
After a nationwide search, they decided to lease 16 trains — each about 30 years old — that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority had taken out of commission. The three-year, $4.45 million lease with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation includes refurbishing costs.
The deal sparked concerns among state legislators, culminating with lawmakers demanding answers from DOT about why they were using such old rail cars for a new service.
"They're all service ready, they all meet [Federal Railroad Administration] requirements," Yirigian said. "If they didn't, we wouldn't be able to run them on the line."
DOT plans to replace the leased rail cars with new ones that will be used on the Hartford, Shore Line East, Waterbury and Danbury lines, said Rich Andreski, DOT's bureau chief of public transportation. He expects the first of those cars to be delivered as soon as 2022.
Looking forward
Passenger service between Hartford and Springfield consists of seven Amtrak trains, one Vermonter and four CTrail round-trip trains. There are 12 daily round trips from Hartford to Springfield and 17 between New Haven and Hartford.
Initial rider numbers are strong, Andreski said. If they continue at around the pace of the first couple of weeks, ridership may exceed forecasts of 1,950 trips per day.
From Yirigian's perspective, continued public interest in the line seems likely.
"This program always was something that the public embraced, and people were looking forward to," Yirigian said.
Naugatuck will rededicate Whittemore Bridge after reconstruction complete
NAUGATUCK – With the Whittemore Bridge reconstruction project nearly complete, borough officials are contemplating building a monument to honor John Howard Whittemore, the bridge’s namesake.
Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess said the monument would recognize everything Whittemore did for Naugatuck. Hess called Whittemore one of the “greatest citizen of all time in the history of Naugatuck.
“The bridge was dedicated to John Whittemore, who, without question, is the person who has contributed more to the borough of Naugatuck than anyone else. Probably a thousand times over,” said Hess as the Board of Mayor and Burgesses discussed the idea this month.
Whittemore, who was born in 1837, founded the Naugatuck Malleable Iron Company alongside Bronson Tuttle in 1958. During his life, Whittemore donated a number of buildings to the borough, including the library, now known as the Howard Whittemore Memorial Library, and Salem School, now Salem Elementary School.
The bridge itself was dedicated to Whittemore in 1914, four years after his death. It was severely damaged during the Flood of 1955.
The borough began reconstructing the bridge, which spans the Naugatuck River along Maple Street, in June 2016 to restore it to how it looked before the flood. The project included bricks along the roadway and solid stone, rather than rails, along the edges of the bridge.
The project included a small “pocket park” on the eastern side of the bridge. The park is slated to be the site of the new monument.
Public Works Director James Stewart presented a number of options for the memorial.
The most expensive option was a bronze bust of Whittemore on a granite pedestal and a bronze sign. Officials rejected this idea due to the cost, which was estimated at $28,000, and fear of vandalism.
“That’s the scary part about the bust, what if somebody decides to decapitate Mr. Whittemore,” Assistant to the Director of Public Works Sandra Lucas-Ribeiro said.
The board agreed on a monument that would be either a granite or stone slab with a bronze plaque.
The monument is estimated to cost $15,000. Stewart is expected to present exact details about the monument, such as size and design, at the board’s meeting in September.
The board plans to use money from the state Local Capital Improvement Program grant or from a special account of fees collected by the town clerk to pay for the monument.
The monument would not be the only place on the bridge that Whittemore is recognized. There is a bronze plaque near the train trestle at the end of the bridge, which was placed in 1914, stating the bridge was dedicated to Whittemore. A second bronze replica of that plaque was placed in the center of the bridge during the reconstruction project. C:ICK TITLE TO CONTINUE