SOUTHINGTON - The town has announced that work will begin on several local roads starting this week.
The work, which will include milling, reclaiming and paving operations, will affect Long Lane, Shweky Lane, Dunham St., Annelise Ave., Curtiss St., Spring Lake Road, Flanders St., Laning St., Hart St., Flanders Road, Lazy Lane, Rourke Ave. and Hill St..
The Highways and Parks Department requests that no vehicles be parked on the roadway during the work hours of 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
It is urging residents to find alternate routes when possible to avoid delays resulting from construction traffic.
Middletown project to connect multiuse trails will add 3 miles to passive recreation
MIDDLETOWN — The public will have the opportunity to hear from the engineering firm charged with creating a design to hook up Middletown’s multi-use trail system near the Cromwell line to Veterans Park.
Once complete, this portion of the city’s Complete Streets Committee vision — the Newfield Corridor Trail, which will unite the Mattabesset Bike Path off Tuttle Road and Veterans Park on Walnut Grove Road — will be a step closer to connecting pedestrians and cyclists to the downtown.
Staff from the Cheshire-based Milone & MacBroom engineering firm will give a presentation to the Public Works and Facilities Committee Wednesday night. They are expected to reveal the scope of the project, as well as a design for that 3-mile portion of the city’s trail system, according to Public Works Director William Russo.
The Newfield Corridor Trail will allow hundreds of students in high-density residential neighborhoods to bicycle or walk safely to Lawrence, Keigwin and Spencer elementary schools, as well as Middletown high, according to John Hall, executive director of the Jonah Center for Earth and Art and Complete Streets member.
Users will travel under Route 3 by way of the short path alongside the railroad tracks between Berlin and Newfield streets.
Once complete, those using the system will be able to access Main Street by picking up the existing bike trail, which goes along the Mattabassett River, crosses Westlake Drive, and continues via a wide sidewalk to Smith Street and the end of Tuttle Road.
The city won’t have to acquire property or easements to complete the route, because it has the right of way through the sanitary sewer system, Russo said.
His crews just finished up the Long Lane multi-use trail near Wesleyan University’s athletic fields. Russo said he’s received countless emails, phone calls and verbal compliments from those using it.Also, the road work now underway on Kaplan Drive at the entrance to Lawrence school will include a tiny portion of the recreation trail to get that ready for eventual connection, Russo said.
“If all these other sections get completed, of that 22.5 miles, there’s only 5.5 still needs to be planned and designed,” he said.
“It’s very exciting to begin the route designation, because this is going to provide a very important connection to all those residences in the Westlake area and a point close to downtown.
“It would also connect people to the rail line in Meriden, in addition to providing a thruway to connect the Airline Trail to the Farmington Canal Trail. It would also provide an alternate route for the East Coast Greenway, which moves from Key West, Florida, to Eastport, Maine.
In Connecticut, the Greenway makes its way through Simsbury to Hartford and Bloomfield, then picks up Hop River Trail in the Manchester area, Hall said.
A bill passed during this most recent legislative session will allow the state Department of Transportation to study the route.
The connector route would provide many benefits, according to the Jonah Center.
“It would enhance existing shorter walking and cycling trails by greatly increasing the accessible mileage of each. Bicycle travel for school children and bicycle commuters would be vastly improved.
“It would provide a bike route to the commuter rail hub in downtown Meriden, which cyclists could use to travel to New Haven, Hartford or Springfield and beyond.
“It would connect the Air Line Trail with the East Coast Greenway at two locations (Cheshire and Willimantic), thereby creating a 111-mile bike trail loop around the greater Hartford area. Such a facility would be sure to attract recreational bicyclists from a large surrounding area,” according to the Jonah Center.
All these multi-use trail systems throughout Middletown are heavily trafficked by residents, Russo said.“It’s a great, great thing for Middletown. You see the amount of people using the 1-mile loop at Pat Kidney Field. We made it pet-friendly, there are mothers with strollers, joggers, every facet of the city using them.
“It’s a home run for the city any time we invest in the multi-use trail system,” Russo added.
The Public Works and Facilities Commission will meet Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in Room 208 of City Hall, 245 deKoven Drive, Middletown.
Getting There: When tolls fail in CT, what’s plan B?
Jim Cameron
It seems pretty clear that Gov. Ned Lamont’s tolling idea is dead. The Republicans say “no way, never” and his own Democrats can’t muster the guts to take an up or down vote because they’re so afraid of public reaction.
Oh, everyone in Hartford is still doing the usual square dance, posturing and politicking, but I doubt a special session to vote on tolls will ever happen: tolls are dead.
But ‘lest the anti-toll forces should start to rejoice, they may have won this battle but the war is far from over. Because when tolls go down to defeat, there are still plenty of secondary options, none of which you (or they) will like.
Our bridges are still corroding, our highways are still potholed and our trains are running slower than ever. Transportation is grinding to a halt, and with it our state’s economy. Something must be done. The money must be found.
So, if not tolls, where do we find the money?
Stop wasting money at state Department of Transportation: The Reason Foundation’s claim the state ranks 46th in the nation in spending efficiency is bogus and has been widely debunked. Even if we could save a few million by cutting the state DOT waste, we still need billions to repair our roads and rails.
Raise the gas tax: It hasn’t changed a penny since 1997, not even adjusting for inflation. Like tolling, the gas tax would be a “user fee” — though not paid by those driving electric cars nor by out-of-staters who don’t buy gasoline here.
Raise the sales tax: Easily done but fairly regressive as it would hit everyone in the state, even those who never drive on our highways. And again, out-of-staters get a free ride assuming they don’t stop to buy anything passing through.
Raise the income tax: Another easy revenue source, but even less popular than tolling and just as politically dangerous.
Vehicle miles tax: It works in Oregon, California and progressive EU countries, but when the idea was floated years ago by Malloy’s Transportation Finance panel it was immediately rejected. Democrats pushed through a law stopping the state DOT from even studying the concept. Paranoids fear “big brother” would be following where they drive, forgetting that their iPhones and Google (not to mention the NSA and FBI) can do so already.
Money for transportation will be found. If you’re not a fan of users paying their share (via tolling), get ready for the ugly alternatives.
Smiler’s Wharf hearing resumes Monday
Joe Wojtas
Mystic -- The Stonington Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to resume its public hearing on the controversial Smiler’s Wharf on Monday at 7 p.m. in the Stonington High School auditorium.
More than 300 people filled the auditorium on June 17 as the commission listened to four hours of testimony from the developers of the Seaport Marine site, supporters and opponents. The hearing will resume with more opponents speaking about the project followed by residents with general comments. Bill Sweeney, the attorney for the developers, will then offer rebuttal testimony. The agenda for the hearing also lists possible deliberations by the commission if it can close the hearing.
Noank Shipyard is seeking to rezone a 7.5-acre portion of Seaport Marine’s 11-acre site off Washington Street from marine commercial to Neighborhood Development District and obtain approval for the master plan for the site.
The plan calls for the demolition of all buildings on the site except for the popular Red 36 restaurant and construction of a five-story, 45-unit hotel; a 16,590-square-foot, three-story marine service and community event space; a three-story, 200-seat restaurant; a six-story, 25-unit apartment building; 16 townhouses; six units of multifamily housing; a kayak rental building; an open-air plaza; a park; 120 boat slips; a 200-foot public boardwalk extension; 130 feet of new coastal access; a new boat basin that will require the removal of 13,000 square feet of land and a new bulkhead to protect against storm surge.
Supporters say it will increase the grand list, create jobs, revitalize a property that contains deteriorating boatsheds, increase public access to the water and improve coastal resiliency.
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has recommended the PZC not rezone the property and that it is appropriately zoned for a boatyard use. It added that rezoning the site will result in the loss of water-dependent uses and place residences in a flood zone which would expose more people and property to risk. The DEEP has said it will not approve new bulkheads or flood control structures for the site if a hotel or residential development is built there.
Opponents say the project is not in compliance with the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development and the state’s Coastal Area Management Act and charge it would worsen traffic, parking and flooding problems in the neighborhood while damaging wetlands.
Connecticut quarry owner agrees not to sell material for 2 more years
HARTFORD (AP) — The owner of the Connecticut quarry linked to the crumbling foundations problem has agreed to not sell any material for residential concrete foundations for another two years.
Becker Construction Co. in Willington has signed off on a voluntary agreement with the state Attorney General and the Department of Consumer Protection commissioner, agreeing not to sell any aggregate or crushed stone from the quarry containing the mineral pyrrhotite for use in residential concrete foundations in Connecticut.
A previous one-year voluntary agreement had been set to expire on June 30. Democratic Attorney General William Tong says he pushed for the longer agreement.
Hundreds of homes in northeastern and central Connecticut have foundations that are cracking or crumbling due to the iron sulfide reacting over the years with water and oxygen.
Toll calculus: Lamont can’t figure it out
Paul Choiniere
It appears Gov. Ned Lamont did not think this thing through.
Before signing off on the increase in the minimum wage to $15, before putting signature to the paid family leave bill, before making any number of deals, the governor needed to make it clear to his fellow Democrats in the legislature that he first needed them to step up and make a difficult choice. He needed them to approve a plan to implement tolls in the state.
That is the kind of realpolitik that Lamont is not good at. He instead is leaning on the logical argument that generating toll revenues is the only practical way to pay for upgrading and maintaining the state’s transportation infrastructure, vital to the state’s economic future.
Good luck with that.
Lamont, his Department of Transportation Commissioner Joseph Giulietti, and Office of Policy and Management Secretary Melissa McCaw have been lobbying editorial writers, yours truly included, local chambers of commerce and any group willing to listen on why tolls make sense. And they do, even though no one likes the idea of paying to use roads we can all now traverse for free.
Starting in fiscal year 2024 when a toll system could be in place, revenues from tolls, the car sales tax and existing gas taxes could generate the $1.2 billion annually necessary to make needed investments to upgrade our highways and mass transit systems and keep things in good repair, according to the DOT and OPM.
Tolls would collect user fees from the out-of-state drivers who, unless they gas up in Connecticut, now pass through the state without contributing anything to the upkeep of its highways. An estimated 40 percent of the toll revenue would come from these out-of-state vehicles.
The Republican alternative — borrow the money — makes no practical sense. Not only would it exacerbate the state’s indebtedness, it would continue placing almost the entire burden of paying for highway maintenance and improvements on state taxpayers.
It does, however, make good political sense. Republicans have made the calculation that if Democrats, with their strong majorities in the Senate and House, want to implement tolls they can fully own the unpopular idea. Whether tolls are implemented or not, expect Republicans to run against them in the next couple of election cycles.
House Majority Leader Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, and Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, have talked of putting some kind of package together — perhaps fewer than the roughly 50 electronic toll gantries now envisioned and perhaps offsetting tax cuts — that can gain some Republican votes. Knowing a few Republicans are onboard would make some reluctant Democratic lawmakers feel better about extending their political necks.
I just don’t see it happening.
That means Lamont needs to get enough Democrats to step up and make the tough vote. And if not now, when? In 2020, Blue State Connecticut will be heading into a presidential election with Donald Trump at the top of the ticket. Democratic turnout should be strong, disdain for the Republican Trump helping the party’s cause. There will be no better time to weather the fallout from a toll vote.
But in a special session, Lamont lacks the political levers to gain votes. He cannot provide or withhold his support for this or that legislation. His “debt diet” largely takes bonding for local pet projects off the table. And with legislative campaigns largely publicly financed in Connecticut, the governor can’t win votes by promising to fundraise for particular candidates.
Lamont doesn’t have the votes. If he did, we’d have that special summer session by now. Unless the governor can figure out the right political calculation, all those transportation calculations will do him little good.
Paul Choiniere is the editorial page editor.
The Highways and Parks Department requests that no vehicles be parked on the roadway during the work hours of 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
It is urging residents to find alternate routes when possible to avoid delays resulting from construction traffic.
Middletown project to connect multiuse trails will add 3 miles to passive recreation
MIDDLETOWN — The public will have the opportunity to hear from the engineering firm charged with creating a design to hook up Middletown’s multi-use trail system near the Cromwell line to Veterans Park.
Once complete, this portion of the city’s Complete Streets Committee vision — the Newfield Corridor Trail, which will unite the Mattabesset Bike Path off Tuttle Road and Veterans Park on Walnut Grove Road — will be a step closer to connecting pedestrians and cyclists to the downtown.
Staff from the Cheshire-based Milone & MacBroom engineering firm will give a presentation to the Public Works and Facilities Committee Wednesday night. They are expected to reveal the scope of the project, as well as a design for that 3-mile portion of the city’s trail system, according to Public Works Director William Russo.
The $4 million in funding will be paid for from the 2015 parks bond.
“We want everyone to see it, and leave with ideas. We want a lot of community input,” said Russo, who expects the firm to return quarterly to provide updates.The Newfield Corridor Trail will allow hundreds of students in high-density residential neighborhoods to bicycle or walk safely to Lawrence, Keigwin and Spencer elementary schools, as well as Middletown high, according to John Hall, executive director of the Jonah Center for Earth and Art and Complete Streets member.
Users will travel under Route 3 by way of the short path alongside the railroad tracks between Berlin and Newfield streets.
Once complete, those using the system will be able to access Main Street by picking up the existing bike trail, which goes along the Mattabassett River, crosses Westlake Drive, and continues via a wide sidewalk to Smith Street and the end of Tuttle Road.
The city won’t have to acquire property or easements to complete the route, because it has the right of way through the sanitary sewer system, Russo said.
His crews just finished up the Long Lane multi-use trail near Wesleyan University’s athletic fields. Russo said he’s received countless emails, phone calls and verbal compliments from those using it.Also, the road work now underway on Kaplan Drive at the entrance to Lawrence school will include a tiny portion of the recreation trail to get that ready for eventual connection, Russo said.
The 3-mile section, added to 4.5 miles of the existing Mattabessett and Westlake bike paths will complete nearly 8 miles of the proposed 18 mile Air Line Trail - Farmington Canal Connector Route, a regional project involving Portland, Meriden and Cheshire that the Jonah Center has been spearheading.
About a third of that 22.5-mile route been built, and a third has been planned and/or is in the design phase, with parts in Meriden, Portland and Middletown. “This is Middletown’s part of that,” Hall said.“If all these other sections get completed, of that 22.5 miles, there’s only 5.5 still needs to be planned and designed,” he said.
“It’s very exciting to begin the route designation, because this is going to provide a very important connection to all those residences in the Westlake area and a point close to downtown.
“It would also connect people to the rail line in Meriden, in addition to providing a thruway to connect the Airline Trail to the Farmington Canal Trail. It would also provide an alternate route for the East Coast Greenway, which moves from Key West, Florida, to Eastport, Maine.
In Connecticut, the Greenway makes its way through Simsbury to Hartford and Bloomfield, then picks up Hop River Trail in the Manchester area, Hall said.
A bill passed during this most recent legislative session will allow the state Department of Transportation to study the route.
The connector route would provide many benefits, according to the Jonah Center.
“It would enhance existing shorter walking and cycling trails by greatly increasing the accessible mileage of each. Bicycle travel for school children and bicycle commuters would be vastly improved.
“It would provide a bike route to the commuter rail hub in downtown Meriden, which cyclists could use to travel to New Haven, Hartford or Springfield and beyond.
“It would connect the Air Line Trail with the East Coast Greenway at two locations (Cheshire and Willimantic), thereby creating a 111-mile bike trail loop around the greater Hartford area. Such a facility would be sure to attract recreational bicyclists from a large surrounding area,” according to the Jonah Center.
All these multi-use trail systems throughout Middletown are heavily trafficked by residents, Russo said.“It’s a great, great thing for Middletown. You see the amount of people using the 1-mile loop at Pat Kidney Field. We made it pet-friendly, there are mothers with strollers, joggers, every facet of the city using them.
“It’s a home run for the city any time we invest in the multi-use trail system,” Russo added.
The Public Works and Facilities Commission will meet Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in Room 208 of City Hall, 245 deKoven Drive, Middletown.
Getting There: When tolls fail in CT, what’s plan B?
Jim Cameron
It seems pretty clear that Gov. Ned Lamont’s tolling idea is dead. The Republicans say “no way, never” and his own Democrats can’t muster the guts to take an up or down vote because they’re so afraid of public reaction.
Oh, everyone in Hartford is still doing the usual square dance, posturing and politicking, but I doubt a special session to vote on tolls will ever happen: tolls are dead.
But ‘lest the anti-toll forces should start to rejoice, they may have won this battle but the war is far from over. Because when tolls go down to defeat, there are still plenty of secondary options, none of which you (or they) will like.
Our bridges are still corroding, our highways are still potholed and our trains are running slower than ever. Transportation is grinding to a halt, and with it our state’s economy. Something must be done. The money must be found.
As one senior Lamont staffer told me, “The governor refuses to preside over another Mianus River bridge collapse. We cannot put politics ahead of peoples’ safety.”
It is clear that the Special Transportation Fund is headed into the red unless additional funding can be found. And if the STF is going to be insolvent, the state won’t be able to borrow on Wall Street for anything, transportation or otherwise. Our bond ratings will rival a third-world nation.So, if not tolls, where do we find the money?
Stop wasting money at state Department of Transportation: The Reason Foundation’s claim the state ranks 46th in the nation in spending efficiency is bogus and has been widely debunked. Even if we could save a few million by cutting the state DOT waste, we still need billions to repair our roads and rails.
Raise the gas tax: It hasn’t changed a penny since 1997, not even adjusting for inflation. Like tolling, the gas tax would be a “user fee” — though not paid by those driving electric cars nor by out-of-staters who don’t buy gasoline here.
Raise the sales tax: Easily done but fairly regressive as it would hit everyone in the state, even those who never drive on our highways. And again, out-of-staters get a free ride assuming they don’t stop to buy anything passing through.
Raise the income tax: Another easy revenue source, but even less popular than tolling and just as politically dangerous.
Raise fares and cut service: This is what I call the Doomsday Scenario — worsening train and bus service, driving more people back to their cars. It’s a sure way to save money, but at the expense of those using mass transit and adding to traffic.
Partial tolling: Maybe go back to the trucks-only option, not everywhere but just on bridges most needing repairs? Makes sense, but the toll cynics won’t believe it will be so limited.Vehicle miles tax: It works in Oregon, California and progressive EU countries, but when the idea was floated years ago by Malloy’s Transportation Finance panel it was immediately rejected. Democrats pushed through a law stopping the state DOT from even studying the concept. Paranoids fear “big brother” would be following where they drive, forgetting that their iPhones and Google (not to mention the NSA and FBI) can do so already.
Money for transportation will be found. If you’re not a fan of users paying their share (via tolling), get ready for the ugly alternatives.
Smiler’s Wharf hearing resumes Monday
Joe Wojtas
Mystic -- The Stonington Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to resume its public hearing on the controversial Smiler’s Wharf on Monday at 7 p.m. in the Stonington High School auditorium.
More than 300 people filled the auditorium on June 17 as the commission listened to four hours of testimony from the developers of the Seaport Marine site, supporters and opponents. The hearing will resume with more opponents speaking about the project followed by residents with general comments. Bill Sweeney, the attorney for the developers, will then offer rebuttal testimony. The agenda for the hearing also lists possible deliberations by the commission if it can close the hearing.
Noank Shipyard is seeking to rezone a 7.5-acre portion of Seaport Marine’s 11-acre site off Washington Street from marine commercial to Neighborhood Development District and obtain approval for the master plan for the site.
The plan calls for the demolition of all buildings on the site except for the popular Red 36 restaurant and construction of a five-story, 45-unit hotel; a 16,590-square-foot, three-story marine service and community event space; a three-story, 200-seat restaurant; a six-story, 25-unit apartment building; 16 townhouses; six units of multifamily housing; a kayak rental building; an open-air plaza; a park; 120 boat slips; a 200-foot public boardwalk extension; 130 feet of new coastal access; a new boat basin that will require the removal of 13,000 square feet of land and a new bulkhead to protect against storm surge.
Supporters say it will increase the grand list, create jobs, revitalize a property that contains deteriorating boatsheds, increase public access to the water and improve coastal resiliency.
Opponents say the project is not in compliance with the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development and the state’s Coastal Area Management Act and charge it would worsen traffic, parking and flooding problems in the neighborhood while damaging wetlands.
Connecticut quarry owner agrees not to sell material for 2 more years
HARTFORD (AP) — The owner of the Connecticut quarry linked to the crumbling foundations problem has agreed to not sell any material for residential concrete foundations for another two years.
Becker Construction Co. in Willington has signed off on a voluntary agreement with the state Attorney General and the Department of Consumer Protection commissioner, agreeing not to sell any aggregate or crushed stone from the quarry containing the mineral pyrrhotite for use in residential concrete foundations in Connecticut.
A previous one-year voluntary agreement had been set to expire on June 30. Democratic Attorney General William Tong says he pushed for the longer agreement.
Hundreds of homes in northeastern and central Connecticut have foundations that are cracking or crumbling due to the iron sulfide reacting over the years with water and oxygen.
Toll calculus: Lamont can’t figure it out
Paul Choiniere
It appears Gov. Ned Lamont did not think this thing through.
Before signing off on the increase in the minimum wage to $15, before putting signature to the paid family leave bill, before making any number of deals, the governor needed to make it clear to his fellow Democrats in the legislature that he first needed them to step up and make a difficult choice. He needed them to approve a plan to implement tolls in the state.
That is the kind of realpolitik that Lamont is not good at. He instead is leaning on the logical argument that generating toll revenues is the only practical way to pay for upgrading and maintaining the state’s transportation infrastructure, vital to the state’s economic future.
Good luck with that.
Lamont, his Department of Transportation Commissioner Joseph Giulietti, and Office of Policy and Management Secretary Melissa McCaw have been lobbying editorial writers, yours truly included, local chambers of commerce and any group willing to listen on why tolls make sense. And they do, even though no one likes the idea of paying to use roads we can all now traverse for free.
Starting in fiscal year 2024 when a toll system could be in place, revenues from tolls, the car sales tax and existing gas taxes could generate the $1.2 billion annually necessary to make needed investments to upgrade our highways and mass transit systems and keep things in good repair, according to the DOT and OPM.
Tolls would collect user fees from the out-of-state drivers who, unless they gas up in Connecticut, now pass through the state without contributing anything to the upkeep of its highways. An estimated 40 percent of the toll revenue would come from these out-of-state vehicles.
The Republican alternative — borrow the money — makes no practical sense. Not only would it exacerbate the state’s indebtedness, it would continue placing almost the entire burden of paying for highway maintenance and improvements on state taxpayers.
It does, however, make good political sense. Republicans have made the calculation that if Democrats, with their strong majorities in the Senate and House, want to implement tolls they can fully own the unpopular idea. Whether tolls are implemented or not, expect Republicans to run against them in the next couple of election cycles.
House Majority Leader Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, and Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, have talked of putting some kind of package together — perhaps fewer than the roughly 50 electronic toll gantries now envisioned and perhaps offsetting tax cuts — that can gain some Republican votes. Knowing a few Republicans are onboard would make some reluctant Democratic lawmakers feel better about extending their political necks.
I just don’t see it happening.
That means Lamont needs to get enough Democrats to step up and make the tough vote. And if not now, when? In 2020, Blue State Connecticut will be heading into a presidential election with Donald Trump at the top of the ticket. Democratic turnout should be strong, disdain for the Republican Trump helping the party’s cause. There will be no better time to weather the fallout from a toll vote.
But in a special session, Lamont lacks the political levers to gain votes. He cannot provide or withhold his support for this or that legislation. His “debt diet” largely takes bonding for local pet projects off the table. And with legislative campaigns largely publicly financed in Connecticut, the governor can’t win votes by promising to fundraise for particular candidates.
Lamont doesn’t have the votes. If he did, we’d have that special summer session by now. Unless the governor can figure out the right political calculation, all those transportation calculations will do him little good.
Paul Choiniere is the editorial page editor.