VIDEO Max Reiss
DOT exploring options to rebuild I-84 viaduct going through Hartford
ANDREW LARSON
HARTFORD — The state Department of Transportation is studying ways to rebuild the viaduct that carries Interstate 84 through the capital city, including moving the highway to ground level and reconfiguring the Interstate 91 interchange.
During a news conference Thursday morning, DOT Commissioner Joseph Giulietti said the agency has expanded its study from focusing on just the viaduct to an option that would include revamping both structures.
“The need to reduce congestion through strategic bridge and highway investment could not be more obvious,” Giulietti said, pointing to a study showing congestion costs the state’s three largest metro areas 81 million hours in delays and $1.9 billion a year.
The study, which should be completed this year, is also looking at the possibility of opening up land for development by moving the highway underground.“We want to decrease the visual impact by putting the highway at ground level, or below ground level, reduce the overall footprint of the highway and create a multiuse greenway along the corridor, make safety improvements and free up land for transit-oriented development,” Giulietti said.
The viaduct, a raised structure that spans about a mile through downtown Hartford, was built in the 1960s and requires annual maintenance to keep it safe. It carries about 175,000 vehicles a day, which is about three times the capacity it was designed for.
“This was built decades and decades ago and it is now operating well past its sell-by date,” said Gov. Ned Lamont, who appointed Giulietti, a former president of Metro-North Railroad, last month. “What that means to us is we can’t put this off any longer. It’s costing us over 20 million a year just to maintain the viaduct on an annual basis, and that’s not good enough.”
A replacement is expected to cost between $2 billion and $5.3 billion, Lamont’s office estimated. Construction would likely take three to four years, Guilietti said.
Lamont said the project represents why the state needs to raise money to improve its transportation infrastructure by finding new sources of revenue.
“The number one issue that we hear from every business thinking about moving to Connecticut, or wondering about staying in Connecticut, is what are you doing about the transportation system,” Lamont said.
Construction industry union representatives attended the news conference, but did not stand beside Lamont as they often did with former Gov. Dannel Malloy when he touted the ongoing Interstate 84 reconstruction project in Waterbury.
Nate Brown, business and government relations representative for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478, said that while he supports highway construction projects, he’d rather see the money go toward fixing deficient bridges and other projects that are ready to break ground, such as the Interstate 91 Charter Oak bridge upgrade, scheduled to begin this year.
Donald J. Shubert, the president of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association, questioned if DOT was not already pushing back projects. He said the bid opening for one involving the Charter Oak Bridge appears to have been delayed two weeks.
“I think the department right now may be trying to figure out if they can do it,” Shubert said.
Capitol Bureau Chief Paul Hughes contributed to this report.
Lamont indicates preference for tolling cars and trucks
SUSAN HAIGH
Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Gov. Ned Lamont made it clear Thursday he believes tolling cars and trucks is preferable to tolling just trucks, despite offering both options in his budget proposal for lawmakers to consider.
The Democrat told reporters it was the "best long-term solution" for financing Connecticut's transportation needs.
Lamont, who supported only truck tolls during the campaign, said he's been advised by attorneys that Connecticut might not reap an anticipated $200 million a year in revenue from truck-only tolls because of a legal challenge of Rhode Island's truck tolls. He said there's a chance the judge could limit the tolls to only bridges under repair.
"That doesn't really give us enough money really to get started," he said, adding that's why he presented lawmakers with two options. Tolls on both cars and trucks are estimated to eventually generate about $800 million annually.
Lamont appeared Thursday with his budget director and transportation commissioner to stress the need for a reliable revenue stream for transportation projects. In the backdrop was the 50-year-old Interstate 84 viaduct in Hartford, which is costing the state about $20 million a year to maintain but is handling more than three times more traffic than it was designed to accommodate. It's one of many examples of aging transportation infrastructure across the state.
While there's agreement Connecticut's transportation infrastructure needs improvement, Lamont's latest call for wider-reaching tolls has sparked criticism.
"Many of us knew the governor's campaign promises could not be kept but sadly we're still the ones who will have to pay for them," said state Rep. Tim Ackert, R-Coventry.
Don Shubert, president of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association, said he supports Lamont's push for a long-term, dependable user-based funding stream for transportation. The state's transportation fund, currently financed mostly by gas tax receipts, faces solvency problems and Connecticut needs an estimated $2 billion a year over the next 30 years to maintain the current level of services. Connecticut currently spends about $1 billion a year.
"It's the only proposal that we've seen so far that doesn't put 100 percent of that huge cost onto Connecticut taxpayers," he said. "So for that reason alone, we think it's an idea that everybody seriously has to look at."
However, Shubert voiced concern with how Lamont's budget proposal eliminates $250 million in borrowing for transportation that was agreed upon last year. It's part of Lamont's push to limit state borrowing. Shubert said he's also worried about Lamont's plan to end a stop-gap plan instituted last year that diverts tax revenue from car sales to the state's transportation account.
"In the short-term, we may be in big trouble," he said, warning that some projects may have to be put on hold.
Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, accused Lamont of "undoing the bipartisan policies" lawmakers adopted to financially stabilize the transportation fund, forcing the state to put needed repairs on hold until tolls are up and running — a process that could take several years.
Lamont's budget chief, Melissa McCaw, said the planned diversion of tax revenue from car sales would create a hole in the state's main spending account and not solve the state's long-term transportation funding challenges.
Lamont on tolls: ‘If you have any better ideas, bring them’
"I've got a different relationship with the legislature than maybe they are used to in the past. I really want them at the table involved in what we are trying to do," Lamont said.
Instead, Lamont is trying to lead motorists and legislators to his conclusion: Only the electronic tolling of all motor vehicles will raise the revenue Connecticut needs for infrastructure, while the trucks-only proposal of his campaign would raise too little money and be subject to legal challenge by the trucking industry.
"I think at the end of the day, if we're going to really try to accelerate fixing our roads and bridges, accelerating Metro North, getting the state going again, we need a broader tolling system," Lamont said.
The administration's lobbying style, both for tolls and its pitch for the elimination of many sales-tax exemptions, turns on offering alternatives to legislators.
Don't like tolls? Then be prepared to raise the gasoline tax.
Don't like the idea of extending the sales tax to many exempt services and products? Then be prepared to raise the sales tax rate from 6.35 percent to 7 percent.
Lamont said he is open to any idea, so long as the numbers add up to a balanced budget.
Lamont was joined Thursday by Melissa McCaw, who oversees the state budget as secretary of policy and management, and Transportation Commissioner Joseph Giulietti. They stood on a fifth-floor patio outside McCaw's office, conveniently overlooking an elevated section of I-84 due for a replacement projected to cost between $2 billion and $5.3 billion.
The viaduct long has been the poster child for Connecticut's aging transportation infrastructure.
"We're looking at the best illustration of this need, the 50-year-old I-84 viaduct. We're spending more than $20 million a year just to keep it in a state of good repair," Giulietti said. "Ultimately it needs to be replaced. The stretch is the most congested in Connecticut, with more than 175,000 vehicles a day, and that's three times more than it was designed for."
It's a complex project in the design phase. Instead of a viaduct that cuts the city in two, the Department of Transportation is considering designs bringing the highway to grade, or below grade as it courses through the downtown.
On paper, the budget Lamont proposed Wednesday lays out two tolling options: Trucks-only, and all vehicles. But in the numbers as well as the narrative, the administration clearly favors the all-vehicles approach.
"I think it's the best long-term solution," Lamont said. "I think it's something we know we can do in a timely basis. I think it gets the job done, and if people push back and say, forget it, trucks only, then we say we presented you an option."
Budget documents show projections that tolling trucks only would raise between $45 million and $200 million per year. Tolling all vehicles would raise a projected $800 million per year.
Both projections assume toll revenues would not be available until sometime between 2023 and 2025. McCaw said Connecticut would be hard pressed to keep up basic maintenance on roads, bridges and rails by the mid-2020s absent a full-scale approach to tolling.
"It certainly doesn't allow us to improve and elevate" transportation infrastructure, she said.
Other aspects of Lamont's budget assumes the eventual collection of tolls, as it shifts other resources earmarked for transportation back to the rest of the state budget.
Lamont proposed a "debt diet" that restricts bonding for school construction and capital projects at state universities. The legislature had arranged for a portion of this bonding stream, about $250 million per year, to be available for transportation work. The governor's new budget would end that.
Lamont also wants to cancel a planned transfer of additional sales tax receipts to the budget's Special Transportation Fund, about $90 million next fiscal year and $175 million in 2020-21.
"The reality is Gov. Lamont's budget shortchanges transportation," said Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven. "He is repeating the sins of past administrations, stealing from the Special Transportation Fund and crippling transportation funding."
Fasano said Lamont is dealing a blow to transportation improvements, at least over the short term.
"His budget makes it more difficult to start infrastructure projects. It will force the state to put needed repairs on hold until tolls are up and running," he said.
On Thursday, Lamont simultaneously defended his budget and welcomed changes by the General Assembly.
"I did the very best I could. Melissa didn't sleep for a month doing the same thing, trying to come up with the fairest way to come up with a budget that is actually in balance," he said. "We did that without raising the income tax. We did that without raising the rate on the sales tax."
Lamont said one of his goals was to construct a budget with stable revenue sources, allowing lawmakers to end the annual scramble to balance the budget, which often requires reneging on promises made to municipalities or diverting revenue collected on electric bills for energy-efficiency measures.
"Look, it ain't an easy budget," he said. "There's no question about it. We inherited a bit of a mess. I think this is an honest way to get going. It's a fair way to get going. And again, one more time, legislature: If you have any better ideas, bring them to me. My door is always open."
Lamont on tolls: All cars better for state finances; out-of-state trucks would collect less revenue
PAUL HUGHES
HARTFORD — Gov. Ned Lamont and his budget director said Thursday that imposing highway tolls on all cars and trucks makes more financial sense than Lamont’s other recommendation of targeting out-of-state trucks.
Lamont told reporters that he presented both options to give state legislators a choice and give his administration a running start should legislators authorize one or the other.
Yet, the governor and Melissa McCaw, the state budget director, stated that only an all-traffic tolling system will raise the levels of revenue needed to finance transportation spending.
“I think it is the best long-term solution. I think it is something we know we can do on a timely basis. I think it gets the job done, and if people push back, and say forget it, trucks only, then we say we presented you an option,” Lamont said.
McCaw said the truck-only option would still leave the Special Transportation Fund short of necessary financing. She warned the dedicated fund will start running an operating deficit in the 2023 fiscal year and will be insolvent within five years.
Truck-only tolls could be expected to raise $200 million once such a system is up and running, said Joseph Guiletti, the state commissioner of transportation.
THE LAMONT ADMINISTRATION estimated that could take 20 years, but an all-traffic tolling system could be fully operational in the 2025 fiscal year and potentially generate $800 million a year.
“Truck-only tolling requires an additional revenue source, and certainly doesn’t allow us to improve and elevate our investments,” McCaw said.
Lamont also said the Federal Highway Administration would only allow truck-only tolls on bridges and the receipts would have to be used for repairing or reconstructing the tolled bridges only.
“If all you can do it is on bridges, it doesn’t really get the job done. It doesn’t really begin to get the job done,” he said.
Lamont, McCaw and Giuletti discussed transportation funding a day after Lamont presented his two-year, $43.1 billion budget plan to the General Assembly.
In addition to the two tolling options, Lamont and McCaw advocated ending the transfer of sales taxes from car purchases to the Special Transportation Fund. The last legislature adopted a schedule to gradually shift 100 percent of those tax receipts over the next five fiscal years.
McCaw said the amount of revenue is insufficient to sustain the transportation fund, and the transfers also create a hole in the general fund.
“What the governor is saying is it doesn’t fix the problem. So, let’s stop with this gimmicky-type approach, and let’s come up with a sustainable solution,” McCaw said.
Lamont has also decided against allocating $250 million in previously authorized general obligation bonds to support transportation spending. He will only permit the use of $750 million in special tax obligation bonds.
The $750 million is inadequate, said Donald J. Shubert, president of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association. The state has been spending $1 billion a year, and the previous administration estimated $2 billion a year is needed over the next 30 years just to maintain the current level of services, he said.
“We need a user-based fee, some kind of user-based system to pay for transportation in Connecticut, and tolls is the only option we have seen so far where the Connecticut taxpayers are not on the hook for 100 percent,” Shubert said.
Republican legislators continued to advocate the GOP’s Prioritize Progress plan that would use more than $60 billion in general obligation bonds to finance transportation projects over the next 30 years.
Lamont and other advocates of tolls propose to take the easy way out, said House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby.
“He and other people are saying tolls are the only way to go, and we know they are not,” she said.
LAMONT CONTINUED TO DISMISS the Republican borrowing plan Thursday after knocking the proposal in his budget speech Wednesday, even though he also invited toll opponents to offer alternatives.
“I said just borrowing our way through it is just what got us in the mess Connecticut has been in the last 30 years. I don’t want to repeat that,” he said.
Klarides and Senate Minority Leader Leonard A. Fasano, R-North Haven, said they were disappointed Lamont is unwilling to consider the Prioritize Progress plan.
“I don’t know why he wouldn’t be willing to take a look at it,” Klarides said.
The two GOP leaders also slammed Lamont for seeking to end the transfer of sales tax receipts from car sales to the transportation fund.
“He is undoing the bipartisan policies lawmakers adopted to immediately stabilize and invest in transportation,” Fasano said. “His budget makes it more difficult to start infrastructure projects. It will force the state to put needed repairs on hold until tolls are up and running.”
Summer bridge work to cause traffic detours in Danbury
Zach Murdock
DANBURY — Improvements to a pair of small Danbury bridges over the Still River could cause large headaches for some commuters this summer.
The plans call for the closure of the Triangle Street bridge, just north of the Department of Motor Vehicles office, for about a month in mid- to late summer to make repairs to the innards of the short span.
Water intrusion has slowly damaged some of the concrete around the piers of the bridge over many decades and it needs a new drainage system to alleviate some of that pressure, said city engineer Thomas Altermatt.
The detour is expected to turn cars on Triangle away from the bridge at Lee Mac Avenue to the south, where the DMV is, and Taylor Street to the north, where the enormous electrical transformers are, according to the plans. Drivers would be expected to get around the work using Sheridan and Casper streets just west of the river.
The detour should last no longer than a month — “worst case scenario” — but it could extend the life of the bridge another 30 or even 35 years, said Rifat Saleh, president and chief engineer at RHS Consulting, who designed the project.
At the same time in the heart of downtown, crews also will entirely rebuild the connector bridge that links the north end of the White Street shopping center parking lot to Crosby Street.
State inspections of the bridge over the past two years have found the bridge is in “very poor condition,” Altermatt said. The decades-old span simply needs to be replaced with new concrete beams and a new slab, instead of further rehabilitation, he added.
That will not require lane closures on Crosby, but the bridge will be completely closed to both cars and pedestrians during the three-month construction. Traffic and in out of the shopping center will be limited to its White Street driveway and the narrow exit onto Main Street for Webster Bank customers.
Crews have planned the project, also slated to start in mid- to late summer, with the help of businesses in the center to reduce the project’s footprint and keep almost all of the parking lot open, Saleh and Altermatt said.
The Triangle Street project will cost $500,000 and the Crosby Street project is estimated at $1.5 million, with state funding picking up half the costs for each. Both projects are in their final design and permitting phases and will be bid early this spring, Altermatt said.
The projects pale in comparison to an upcoming plan to rebuild a portion of the Kennedy Avenue bridge, which is hardly noticed as a bridge at all.
State inspectors have found that bridge and channel — taking the Still River past Kennedy Flats and underneath Kennedy Avenue and Kennedy Park — also need repairs after more than 50 years.
That work is still in its early design phases, but it will require opening up both the park and Kennedy Avenue to repair the structure and put a protective slab over it — causing major traffic snarls in the process, not only for the thousands of drivers who pass through there but for the regional bus transfer station that sits directly on top of the work site.The project is slated for construction in spring 2020 and much more work needs to be done to plan the timing and traffic detours necessary to complete it as quickly as possible, once it does start, Saleh said. The work is estimated to cost $2.9 million, half of which the state will fund.
“We know there will be substantial impacts to the commuters and public, but it needs to be done,” Altermatt said. “This bridge was built back in 1964. It’s time to repair it so we get another 20, 25 years out of it. It’s a major structure to the city.”
Bridge swap city — Stamford to see another project in late spring
Barry Lytton
STAMFORD — The ambitious Atlantic Street bridge replacement in the city’s South End, which just started detouring traffic this week, isn’t the only multimillion-dollar bridge swap in town.
Just head 1.5 miles east on Interstate 95 and you will come across another replacement in the works, although it won’t change traffic patterns until late spring.
There, where Route 1 spans five lanes of I-95, the state Department of Transportation is now working in a nearby field erecting the superstructure of a new bridge. Those odd looking yellow towers in the middle of the off ramp circle are the temporary supports. The agency will slide the bridge spans into place over two weekends in late May and early June.
Each span, weighing 900 tons, will be trucked in on the weekends of May 31 and June 7, said project manager Louis Eveno. That’s when that sliver of Route 1 will close to traffic.
Here’s the timetable for the bridge replacement.
Once the work begins,both northbound and southbound drivers will be forced to travel on Hamilton Avenue and Courtland Avenue, where, yes, the state is now working on another congestion-inducing project.
That project, to add a left-turn-only lane at the busy intersection of Courtland and Route 1 while adding sidewalks to the west side of Courtland and making other intersections — with Seaton Road and Hamilton Avenue — handicap accessible.
Eveno said the plan is for work on Courtland to cease before his project begins.
CCSU opens the doors to renovated Willard-DiLoreto buildings
Chris Fazio
NEW BRITAIN - The atrium in the new $63 million Willard-DiLoreto building at Central Connecticut State University was packed for the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday.
Students, staff and distinguished guests lined both the first and second floors to witness the grand opening of CCSU’s newest building.
Willard and DiLoreto halls were both completely renovated and an atrium was constructed to connect the two buildings. The building now houses the Carol A. Ammon College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences.
Ammon, a CCSU alumna, was in attendance Tuesday to help with the ribbon-cutting ceremony. She said that she was overwhelmed with the building and the turnout for the event.
“To any student who’s out there, right now, listening I would say you’re starting on a journey that will be incredible because of the preparation that you will get at this university,” Ammon said.
The ceremony started with opening remarks from Vice President for Institutional Advancement Christopher Galligan. Galligan stressed that the buildings weren’t constructed overnight, saying, “Today we officially open this remarkable facility, these things aren’t certainly done in any kind of vacuum, it takes years to get these things to come together to officially open.”
The groundbreaking ceremony took place on Nov. 9, 2016. Although CCSU President Dr. Zulma R. Toro was not officially employed by the university, she was present at the groundbreaking ceremony.
“Even though I had not officially started at the university I was invited to help break ground on this project. I have been able to observe and adhere its progress from start to finish, and I am thrilled with the result,” said Toro.
Chief Architect David Barkin explained that although the Willard-DiLoreto complex is officially open, there will still be continuous upgrades to the building as time goes on.
“We hope to see this project connected via pedestrian bridge to the planned garage across Manafort Drive,” said Barkin.
Mark Ojakian, president of Connecticut State Colleges and Universities, expressed gratitude towards Ammon during his remarks, saying, “Over 170 students have benefited from your generosity. Well over $360,000 has been awarded from the Ammot Scholarship fund.”
Both Willard and DiLoreto halls received major upgrades during the construction, including 24 new classrooms, five instructional labs and 57 academic offices.
The new 143,000 square foot buildings house four major departments which include Philosophy, English, Journalism and Modern Languages.
The atrium is dedicated to students. It houses 50 different offices dedicated to key student support services including Financial Aid, Registrar, Veterans Affairs and the Learning Center.
Willard and DiLoreto halls were both completely renovated and an atrium was constructed to connect the two buildings. The building now houses the Carol A. Ammon College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences.
Ammon, a CCSU alumna, was in attendance Tuesday to help with the ribbon-cutting ceremony. She said that she was overwhelmed with the building and the turnout for the event.
“To any student who’s out there, right now, listening I would say you’re starting on a journey that will be incredible because of the preparation that you will get at this university,” Ammon said.
The ceremony started with opening remarks from Vice President for Institutional Advancement Christopher Galligan. Galligan stressed that the buildings weren’t constructed overnight, saying, “Today we officially open this remarkable facility, these things aren’t certainly done in any kind of vacuum, it takes years to get these things to come together to officially open.”
The groundbreaking ceremony took place on Nov. 9, 2016. Although CCSU President Dr. Zulma R. Toro was not officially employed by the university, she was present at the groundbreaking ceremony.
“Even though I had not officially started at the university I was invited to help break ground on this project. I have been able to observe and adhere its progress from start to finish, and I am thrilled with the result,” said Toro.
Chief Architect David Barkin explained that although the Willard-DiLoreto complex is officially open, there will still be continuous upgrades to the building as time goes on.
“We hope to see this project connected via pedestrian bridge to the planned garage across Manafort Drive,” said Barkin.
Mark Ojakian, president of Connecticut State Colleges and Universities, expressed gratitude towards Ammon during his remarks, saying, “Over 170 students have benefited from your generosity. Well over $360,000 has been awarded from the Ammot Scholarship fund.”
Both Willard and DiLoreto halls received major upgrades during the construction, including 24 new classrooms, five instructional labs and 57 academic offices.
The new 143,000 square foot buildings house four major departments which include Philosophy, English, Journalism and Modern Languages.
The atrium is dedicated to students. It houses 50 different offices dedicated to key student support services including Financial Aid, Registrar, Veterans Affairs and the Learning Center.