State DOT: Walk Bridge design unlikely to changeRobert Koch
NORWALK — Despite public outcry from local groups, the state Department of Transportation says it is unlikely they will change the design concept for the Walk Bridge replacement project.
“We believe we have chosen the best overall design for the replacement of the bridge and at this point I would say it’s unlikely that the design concept itself will change to something else,” said DOT spokesman Judd Everhart.
The DOT will provide an update on the project during a public information meeting set for Wednesday, Nov. 28, at Norwalk City Hall, 125 East Ave. The meeting will be conducted in two identical sessions, the first at 4:30 p.m., the second at 6 p.m. The DOT and its consultants will update the public on the bridge replacement project and answer questions.
“We have and will continue to invite public comment on the Walk Bridge program,” Everhart said.
Topics will include the replacement plan, environmental impacts, mitigation efforts, recently completed and upcoming construction activities, and findings from an archeological excavation. In August, arrowheads, traditional shell beads, European flints and iron trade tools were discovered at the east base of the bridge as part of a survey undertaken under an agreement with the DOT.Legal challenge remains
Norwalk Harbor Keeper, a local nonprofit environmental group which sued state and federal agencies over the design of the new bridge, plans to attend the meeting.
“The state continues to spend money on bridge design even though it knows the litigation could send it back to study a fixed-bridge alternative. The state’s continued spending is at their own risk and a reckless use of taxpayer monies,” said Harbor Keeper President Fred Krupp. “The state is charging ahead and creating a poster child of Connecticut’s poor fiscal management, a billion-dollar boondoogle.”
In January 2018, Norwalk Harbor Keeper filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, challenging the DOT, Federal Transit Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation to rethink the bridge replacement plan. The group asked the court to invalidate the state and FTA’s plan to replace the Walk Bridge with a new 240-foot lift bridge and instead “fully evaluate a fixed bridge alternative.”
The DOT was to discuss with the Norwalk Harbor Management Commission on Thursday evening its pre-application plans for the bridge replacement project. The city’s Harbor and Shellfish commissions must review those plans before the DOT may apply for the necessary permits from the state Department Energy and Environmental Protection as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The meeting was canceled because of the snowstorm.
Preparation work underwayIn fall 2019, the DOT plans to begin replacing the 122-year-old bridge, which carries Amtrak and Metro-North Railroad New Haven Line trains over the Norwalk River. Preliminary track-and-signal upgrades are underway on both sides of the river.
On Nov. 6, pile-driving operations aimed at getting a better handle on soil conditions and potential noise-and-vibration effects began from a barge near the bridge. The Test Pile Program will allow the DOT to develop the best construction methods, recognize limitations of operations, confirm underlying soil conditions and determine the viability of steel support piles for bridge construction, Everhart said.
“The test operations help identify potential effects of noise and vibration on the area neighboring the Walk Bridge and provide information to establish a noise and vibration control plan to mitigate construction impacts during replacement of the bridge,” the DOT spokesman said.
The piling driving was scheduled for Nov. 12 through Nov. 16, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., at five locations near the Walk Bridge. Intermittent noise and vibration was anticipated, according to the DOT.
The existing Walk Bridge, a swing-span structure built in 1896, has failed to close properly on numerous occasions. The structure has outlived its 100-year life span and must be replaced. The bridge carries roughly 200 trains across the Norwalk River each day, according to the DOT.
The DOT plans to replace the existing swing-span bridge with a 240-foot, vertical-lift bridge. Of all alternatives considered, the DOT said the design offers the least disruption to the community, including rail and harbor traffic, and has the shortest construction duration — four to five years.
Meriden plans to begin sewer plant overhaul in summer
Matthew Zabierek
MERIDEN — The city expects to enter a construction contract for sewer plant upgrades by July 1, a deadline it must meet to receive the maximum grant funding possible for the $48 million project.
Wastewater treatment plant manager Frank Russo said the design phase should be finished next month, at which point the city will submit the designs to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Upon approval, the city will put a contract out to bid with a goal of starting construction, expected to take 3 years, this summer.
The project is presently estimated to cost $48.4 million, according to draft minutes from a Public Utilities Commission meeting last month.
The upgrades are needed to meet stricter phosphorus discharge limits enacted by the state and federal governments. The work will also update the computerized monitoring systems and replace aging equipment that is "beyond its useful life." Some is around 40 years old, Russo said, well past its useful life of about 20 to 25 years.
Meriden is one of several municipalities, including Wallingford, planning work to meet the new phosphorus limits. Phosphorus is considered an environmental hazard because it causes algae bloom, which depletes oxygen in water bodies and poses a threat to wildlife, according to DEEP. Some municipalities, like Cheshire, have already completed the phosphorus upgrades.
In addition to grant funding, municipalities are also eligible for a 20-year, low-interest state loan. The city’s portion of the cost will, at least in part, be paid for through water and sewer rate increases.
The City Council voted last year to increase utility rates over a three-year period to fund the project. The second phase of the rate hikes is planned for this fall, with customers expected to see a 5.7 percent increase.
Public Utilities Director Dennis Waz couldn’t be reached for comment Friday.
Russo said the city plans to meet the stricter phosphorus limits by implementing a removal process called "upflow sand filtration," which the city selected after piloting several methods. Russo said the process was deemed the most cost-effective.
PURA Draft Decision Deems Millstone "At Risk"
Benjamin Kail
It's a designation long sought by owner Dominion Energy and lawmakers concerned about the potential economic and environmental impacts of an early Millstone closure.
In the draft decision, PURA said Dominion "sufficiently disclosed its financial data in a manner that facilitated the authority's review of Millstone's actual financial circumstances in recent years, as well as the company's projections on its financial condition going forward."
The information provided by Dominion "provided a clearer picture of the business and financial risks facing Millstone," wrote PURA, which found that "demonstrated reductions in market revenues along with the comparatively high fixed costs associated with operating a nuclear facility are critical factors affecting the viability of the Millstone units."
The Department of Energy & Environmental Protection is reviewing dozens of bids from hydropower, solar and wind facilities and two nuclear plants — Millstone and Seabrook Station in Seabrook, N.H. — in the zero-carbon auction. DEEP paved the way for nuclear power to compete in the auction this summer, after repeated pushes from lawmakers and local leaders and warnings from Dominion that Millstone faced early closure largely because the wholesale market is dominated by cheaper natural gas.
Proposals from at-risk energy producers will be scored by DEEP on environmental and grid benefits along with price; those without the at-risk designation will be scored on price alone. It's up to PURA to determine whether Millstone is considered at risk of closure, and the final decision should come later this winter after further comments from Dominion, regulators and utilities.
After DEEP selects winning proposals in the auction, the selected energy producers will hammer out contracts with Eversource and United Illuminating. Those contracts must be approved by PURA early next year. Prices and amounts of electricity offered have been redacted in public versions of proposals during the auction.
DEEP expects to select winning auction proposals by the end of the year. But PURA's draft decision is another win for Dominion, which received support from DEEP and the Office of Consumer Counsel in September, when both agencies urged PURA to grant at-risk status for Millstone.
Dominion earlier this year had submitted the confidential financial data — redacted in public versions — to show PURA that without an at-risk determination in the zero-carbon auction, Millstone faced a mix of lower revenues and high operations, maintenance and security costs that all threatened the plant.
In a previous briefing to PURA, Dominion noted that in 2012 it "prematurely retired a very well-run, but uneconomic" nuclear plant in Wisconsin, the Kewaunee Power Station, which faced similar price pressures due to low-cost natural gas. Kewaunee was licensed to operate until 2033. Millstone Units 2 and 3 are licensed with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission until 2035 and 2045, respectively. Unit 1 was decommissioned in 1998.
"We are pleased to see that the Public Utility Regulatory Authority agrees with Dominion Energy that Millstone is at risk," plant spokesman Ken Holt said Friday. "They have been given access to our confidential information, have done their own analysis, and reached their own conclusion."
"We are now focused on the zero carbon procurement," he added. "We made numerous offers that would both ensure Millstone's continued operations and provide benefits to Connecticut ratepayers ranging from the hundreds of millions of dollars to billions of dollars."
Competitors, utilities, environmental groups and even consultants hired by DEEP have disputed Dominion's threats of closure, arguing that the plant remains profitable. Regulators consistently said, however, that early plant closure would spark heavy job losses, grid unreliability and spikes in greenhouse gas emissions from replacement power sources.
Regulators and Dominion's critics also have argued the cost of shedding capacity obligations to the New England power grid would be so expensive that Millstone could not feasibly close until those obligations expired in June of 2023.
PURA's draft decision noted that Dominion argued the obligations would "not impact the decision to retire, though perhaps are a factor on when to wind down operations, and while the one-time cost to shed these obligations is uncertain, it might be the appropriate course of action for Dominion to take."
Dominion must decide whether to participate in ISO New England's next Forward Capacity Auction — which would include capacity commitments from June 2023 through May 2024 — by next spring, PURA said.
PURA said that even though DEEP believes the plant is not at risk until 2023, DEEP took the proper approach by allowing at-risk energy producers to be selected for contracts "even if it is determined ... to be at risk for only part of the period covered in its bid and not at risk for another part of the period." This determination could give Millstone an edge against zero-carbon competitors as soon as next year, which Dominion claimed was necessary to maintain continued operations.
Eversource and UI have argued that to protect ratepayers, PURA must limit contracts between Millstone and utilities to amounts required to simply alleviate the plant's at-risk status.
The utilities also argue that as proposed contracting partners, they should gain access to Dominion's confidential financial data.