CT Construction Digest Monday September 30, 2019

Charter Communications’ future HQ rises in downtown Stamford
Paul Schott
STAMFORD — A year ago, a few pilings marked the future downtown home of the city’s sole Fortune 100 company. Today, 15 glass-sheathed floors tower over the neighborhood.

Telecommunications giant Charter Communications confirmed this week it plans to move in the first half of 2021 into the approximately 500,000-square-foot building that has taken shape at 406 Washington Blvd., next to the city’s main Metro-North Railroad station. While the project attests to the company’s significant growth and cements Stamford’s standing as the state’s leading corporate hub, it has also cast uncertainty over the future of Charter’s current address.

“We are excited to be continuing our growth in Stamford and look forward to the opening of our new headquarters,” Charter said in a statement. “Today, we are expanding in our current locations and will continue to evaluate our space needs for the future.”

Moving the main offices

While Stamford has seen a proliferation of residential development in the past decade, 406 Washington represents one of a handful of new office buildings to have risen during that span.

Only the 450,000-square-foot tower down the street, at 600 Washington Blvd. — which houses local hubs for Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS, Citizens Bank and Bank of America — rivals the scope of 406 Washington among office buildings constructed in the city in the past 15 years.

The lack of recent office construction reflects a market still recovering from the last recession. Citywide vacancy rates are still hovering around 30 percent, according to several commercial real estate firms.

But Charter’s burgeoning presence at its current downtown home, at 400 Atlantic St., convinced the company it needed a new building. It announced the relocation in October 2017, with a multmillion-dollar package of state subsidies supporting the project.

Since its 2012 headquarters relocation from St. Louis, Charter has expanded from one floor to nine levels, in the approximately 500,000-square-foot building at 400 Atlantic. It leases about 300,000 square feet there, according to some local commercial realtors’ measures.

Fueling its expansion into one of the country’s largest cable-and-internet providers, it acquired Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks for about $65 billion in 2016.

For the second quarter of 2019, the company’s revenues increased 4.5 percent year over year, to $11.3 billion. It now serves about 27 million residences and around 2 million small and medium-size businesses.

Today, the No. 70 company on this year’s Fortune 500 list employs about 1,300 in the city.

Tenant-landlord tensions

Charter’s pending relocation has complicated relations between the company and its landlord at 400 Atlantic.

In late 2017, Charter acquired 400 Atlantic’s loan for $100 million, representing about 40 percent of the $265 million principal originated in 2007.

Officials at The Landis Group — the owner and manager of 400 Atlantic and also the loan’s borrower, through an affiliated subsidiary group — saw the purchase of the note as undermining leasing talks between the two parties.

“It’s extremely unusual, to put it mildly, for a mortgage lender to sell a mortgage loan to the major tenant of the building,” Stephen Meister, an attorney for Landis and partner of the Manhattan law firm Meister Seelig & Fein, said in November 2017. “It’s particularly unusual — and, frankly, I think improper — when the lender knows that that sale is taking place during sensitive negotiations between the landlord and the tenant.”

Landis had contemplated legal action against Charter, according to Meister.

Messages left in the past week for Landis and Meister were not returned.

Charter also leases more than 50,000 square feet at the adjacent 201 Tresser Blvd.

In its statement, the company said that “we have no update to share regarding our plans for our existing space at this time.”

Meanwhile, city officials said they would be ready for Charter’s move.

“The building (at 400 Atlantic) will not be available to the market for another 24 to 36 months as Charter transitions to their new building,” said Thomas Madden, the city’s economic development director. “We will start talking to companies next year about the property, as it is approximately 18 months for most companies to make a decision when they are looking to move or expand.”

Ready for change

While the building at 406 Washington sports a complete shell, Charter has scheduled its move-in for the first half of 2021 because the new structure’s interior still needs to be built out.

Alongside that edifice, Charter secured the city zoning board’s approval in April for a second building at 406 Washington that would raise the property’s total footprint to about 777,000 square feet.

“We are still working on the details for the second building at 406 Washington and look forward to having more information to share at a later time,” Charter said in the statement.

An exemplar for a post-Charter era at 400 Atlantic could be the neighboring office complex at 677 Washington Blvd.

The approximately 700,000-square-foot property had languished as the city’s largest office vacancy following the 2016 relocation of UBS’ local offices to 600 Washington. Today, it has leased more than 70 percent of its space.

At the end of May, professional-services firm KPMG opened its new Stamford offices there, taking about 40,000 square feet. In March, WWE announced it would relocate its headquarters to the same site and take 415,000 square feet. Architectural firm Perkins Eastman moved into ground-floor offices last October.

Gov. Ned Lamont visited the new KPMG offices in July, and he again touted Stamford’s corporate growth, in a speech Thursday to the city’s Chamber of Commerce.“I love seeing those cranes, I love seeing Charter (grow),” Lamont said. “It gives you an idea of how change can be good as we move forward. And that’s what we’re trying to do around the state.”

 

Letter from legislators to Lamont opposes Killingly power plant

Matt Grahn

KILLINGLY - A group of 26 Connecticut state lawmakers signed a letter addressed to Gov. Ned Lamont this week opposing the construction of the Killingly Energy Center (KEC), a gas-fired power plant.
State Senator Mae Flexer (D-Killingly), Representatives Raghib Allie-Brennan (D- Bethel) and Pat Boyd (D-Brooklyn) are leading the charge, according to a press release.
KEC would produce more than 2.2 million tons of carbon dioxide, which is equal to 5% of Connecticut’s greenhouse gas emissions, the letter states. It also references an executive order Lamont signed earlier this month setting up a plan for the state to be able to produce 100% of its electricity without carbon emissions by 2040.
“Connecticut will continue to be a national leader in climate action,” Lamont said.
The letter encourages Lamont to join in the opposition to KEC. Flexer said that she is still researching what actions Lamont can take against the plant.
The Connecticut Siting Council approved the project June 6 on a 4-1 vote, with one member absent. The council said the plant had a public benefit and is “not in conflict with the policies of the state concerning such effects, and are not sufficient reason to deny the application.”

However, Flexer said that there are still permits that need to be given for the plant, including one for water.

“I’ve always been concerned about the water source, ” Flexer said. “Do they have to go private property owners to make the water source function the way that it needs to?”
The letter also mentions the vacant positions on the Siting Council that needed to be filled. Flexer said she hopes the new appointees value combating climate change and “that [it] will lead to a Siting Council that will make better decisions in the future.”
Tim Eves, vice president of NTE Connecticut, KEC’s developer, released a statement saying that the plant will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. As well, Eves said that KEC will “displace” older plants, reducing emissions and bringing more renewable energy sources into the electric grid “both of which will help Connecticut move toward its zero-carbon goal.”

Energy of Avon proposes Enfield solar farm
Jessica Lerner
NFIELD — Months after the state Siting Council issued a declaratory ruling allowing NextEra Energy Resources to build a 131-acre solar farm off Broad Brook Road, a second company is hoping to build the same thing although on a much smaller scale.
The company, Lodestar Energy of Avon, submitted a declaratory petition on Sept. 12 to the Siting Council, a body that has legal jurisdiction over the siting of power facilities, requesting approval to build a nearly 10-acre solar farm on Powder Hill Road.
The Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to discuss the petition during its meeting at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers at Town Hall but take no action on the matter.
In the petition, Lodestar, a limited liability company that develops renewable energy projects in Connecticut and New England, states that its goal is to design an environmentally compatible project that produces the maximum amount of energy while avoiding and minimizing adverse environmental impacts.

The petition also states the project will not have a substantial adverse environmental impact on the immediate and surrounding area.

Located on the east side of Powder Hill Road and north of the intersection of Monroe and Abbe roads, the property is owned by Powder Hill Sand & Gravel.
The site has historically been used as a gravel and sandpit as well as a storage and staging site for the owner’s landscaping and road construction business, according to the petition.
But Lodestar holds an option to lease the site and is in active discussions to purchase the entire property — all 24.42 acres — from Powder Hill Sand & Gravel.
If approved by the Siting Council, Lodestar would exercise its option and enter into a long-term lease for 20 years that will give it the right to construct, operate, and maintain the solar facility at the site.

The project construction period is estimated to take approximately four to six months from issuance of all required permits. Subject to regulatory approval, Lodestar anticipates starting construction in early 2020.

During a Town Council meeting July 1, members unanimously approved appointing Lodestar as the town’s authorized representative in regard to any submissions having to do with solar energy.
Jaime Smith, Lodestar co-founder, told the council at the meeting that his company develops solar power-generation facilities around the state and supplies the electricity to Eversource Energy, resulting in power credits to any towns, including South Windsor, Suffield, and Vernon, that sign up for it.
Smith explained that the electricity produced by the solar farm is sent to the grid, producing credits. Lodestar then communicates with Eversource, which provides the town’s electricity, to transfer the credits to the town’s account.
When the town receives its Eversource bill, it would be the normal amount, minus 15 cents per kilowatt hour in credits.

So essentially, the town would pay 85 cents on each dollar — instead of the full price — for the electricity costs on the top town-affiliated accounts, such as Enfield High School, John F. Kennedy Middle School, and the former Fermi High School building at 124 N. Maple St. that has been rebranded as the Enfield Town Annex.

As part of the agreement, the town has the ability to cancel Lodestar’s appointment at any time for any reason without further obligation.
It is estimated that the power purchase agreement will save the town of Enfield around $1.6 million in electricity costs over the next two decades.

CT Construction Digest Friday September 27, 2019

UPDATED: Route 8 ramp to I-84 WB repaired after ‘structural concerns’ found
WATERBURY — A ramp carrying Route 8 northbound traffic to Interstate 84 westbound reopened Thursday after being closed for about a day because of structural concerns workers discovered on the bridge.
The problem was fixed and access to Exit 33 via Route 8 northbound was restored at about 3:30 p.m., the state Department of Transportation said.
The ramp, which sits on top of Route 8 southbound, is part of the ongoing $153 Mixmaster rehabilitation project.
The right lane of Route 8 northbound has been closed to traffic while the bridge deck is being replaced. The left lane leads to Exit 33 and I-84 westbound. Route 8 traffic destined for points north of the Mixmaster is being diverted around the interchange and onto a temporary bypass that reconnects to mainline Route 8 northbound near Freight Street.
On Wednesday, the lane leading to Exit 33 was closed to traffic after workers found the problem. During the closure, drivers were directed to follow a U-turn at Exit 35 to get onto Route 8 southbound in order to access I-84 westbound.
The newly constructed Route 8 northbound bypass was not affected.

Lamont touts major transportation plans to Stamford Chamber of Commerce
Paul Schott
STAMFORD — Gov. Ned Lamont said in a speech Thursday he wanted to hammer out a deal with state legislators to support major mass-transit upgrades, but it remains unclear the extent to which his long-favored plan to install tolls on state highways would fit into that project.
Improving Connecticut’s aging and congested highways and rail lines represents a cornerstone goal for the Lamont administration, which sees those undertakings as critical to jump-starting the state’s still-sluggish economy. But a bipartisan agreement has so far proved elusive, with Lamont and many Democratic state lawmakers favoring tolls to largely fund the transit projects, and Republican legislators rejecting those fees and instead wanting to tap into more borrowing to finance those initiatives.

“We’ve been addicted to debt for a long time in the state, I think it’s the wrong way to go,” Lamont told about 240 people gathered at the Stamford Hilton hotel for the Stamford Chamber of Commerce’s 32nd annual meeting and awards ceremony. “That’s why I’ve supported the user fees. … I’m ready to make a deal; I’m ready to sit down; I’m ready to reach a compromise. I just want to get this thing going.”

Lamont did not specify how much of the new transit funding he wanted to come from tolls.
At the same time, he cited the potential of below-market federal financing for the infrastructure improvements. Federal transportation officials are advocating for the state to take advantage of such support, he said
“They said ‘This is the time for you to make those investments. We have 2 percent financing available,’” Lamont said. “It’s a unique time for us to be able to do this. We have real partners coming out of Washington, D.C.”
Forging interstate alliances would also be key to tackling the transportation issues, Lamont said. He jokingly described New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as his “new best friend.”
“We are neighboring states, and it’s just absolutely imperative that Connecticut be aligned with New York in so many things, starting with transportation,” Lamont said. “I can fix a couple of bridges, I can do some (rail) signalization, I can take 10, 12, 15 minutes off that commute from Stamford to New York, but I can’t do it if I don’t do it with New York City. (I) can’t do it if I don’t do it with New York.”

Among other issues, Lamont said he was heartened by Stamford’s robust economic performance and the expansion of the University of Connecticut’s downtown campus.“There’s a global search for talent,” he said. “I’ve got to double down and make sure we have the best-trained most productive workforce in the world. We don’t have natural gas and silicon, but we’ve always had the best-trained and most-productive workers.”

Lamont’s remarks appeared to have been well-received, with the first-term Democrat receiving strong applause at the end of his speech.
“We’ve seen very positive progress in the state since he took office,” Heather Cavanagh, Chamber’s CEO and president, told Hearst Connecticut Media after Lamont’s speech. “He’s trying to create partnerships with bordering states such as New York and trying to take a broader perspective. I think it’s really important to have those dialogues and discussions about those issues such as transportation that affect Connecticut and neighboring states. We’re all in this together.”

Lamont announces $13 M in federal grants to assist affordable housing projects
Keith M. Phaneuf
Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration awarded 13 cities and towns a total of $13 million Thursday to finance housing rehabilitation to support low- and moderate-income households.
“These grants go a long way toward improving neighborhoods so that we can make our communities more attractive and encourage continued growth for the benefit of all of our residents,” Lamont said.
The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant  Small Cities program. The distribution of those funds in Connecticut is administered by the state Department of Housing, which awards specific grants.
Without those federal dollars, Connecticut likely would not be able to assist as many low- and moderate income residents as it currently does, said state Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno.
“Whether it’s helping a family to complete essential renovations on their homes such as repairing a leaking roof, making a senior living facility ADA compliant, or improving the habitability of a domestic violence shelter — CDBG Small Cities funding is an important program,” the commissioner said.
Projects eligible for Small Cities program funding must be located within a municipality with fewer than 50,000 residents and must focus on eliminating blight, attracting economic development and on overall neighborhood improvement.
Rehabilitation awards and recipients include:

• $800,000 for energy and safety related improvements for 23 units at the the Cherry Hill Apartments in Chester. This will include replacement of doors, windows heating pumps and siding, handicapped access upgrades, minor painting and sidewalk and parking repaving.
• $1 million to create three new handicap code-compliant residential units at CiCia Manor in Derby.
• $650,000 for handicapped accessibility upgrades and other bathroom improvements at Park Hill in East Windsor.
• $175,000 for electrical system upgrades at the Green Valley Village and Laurel Park complexes in Enfield.
• $900,000 for general renovations to New Horizons Village, a Farmington housing community for low- and moderate income residents with disabilities.
• $1.5 million for handicapped access improvements and other upgrades to Mystic River Homes in Groton.
• $350,000 for staff to run a shelter diversion program to serve the Greater New Haven Coordinated Access Network.
• $700,000 to install highly insulated doors, replace water heaters, install a solar panel and make various site improvements at Stone Craft Manor in Hebron.
• $1.5 million to support the second phase of upgrades to the Concord Meadows complex in Madison.
• $1.5 million to modernize the Centerview Village and Woodmoor Manor senior housing complexes in Plainville.
• $1.1 million to make heating and ventilation improvements and bathroom accessibility renovations to the Harry Stern Center, a 36-unit housing project in Trumbull.
• $1.3 million for site improvements, roof replacement new windows and lighting, fire alarm upgrades and other improvements at John Savage Common in Wallingford.
• And $1.5 million to continue modernization of Nathan Hale Terrace, a 100-unit rental community for low- and moderate income households in Windham.

The release of this funding is as expected and does not signal a broader agenda for the Lamont administration surrounding housing. The Department of Housing is, however, considering repurposing how this federal pool of funding is spent but has not provided any details other than to say it is being looked at.

Despite the announcement of these grants, the Lamont administration has yet to release a broad policy agenda surrounding housing. Housing advocates have said Lamont’s proposed “debt diet,” which would restrict state borrowing in several areas, could hinder future affordable housing development.

W. Hartford council OKs senior-housing overhaul
Joe Cooper
West Hartford’s town council has approved redevelopment plans for a nonprofit landlord to raze and remake its 50-year-old, senior-housing community on Starkel Road.
The council’s unanimous approval on Tuesday will allow West Hartford Fellowship Housing to tear down all but one of 24 buildings at the affordable housing complex.
According to plans, the nonprofit will increase its affordable housing capacity from 213 to 300 units after adding six multi-story buildings with 264 new studio and one-bedroom units. The one remaining building contains 44 units.
The nonprofit will also add a new maintenance building in addition to upgrading its existing building, parking areas, landscaping and pedestrian walkways, among other improvements.

“The design will also allow the buildings to be situated a greater distance from the single family residential neighborhood to the north, a change that may be more harmonious with regard to that neighborhood,” Robin Messier Pearson, an attorney representing the fellowship, wrote in an application letter to the town council. 

“There will be no deleterious change in the character of the area as a result of this redevelopment,” Pearson continued.
The community, spanning over 8 acres on town-owned land, is occupied by those ages 65 and older and individuals with disabilities.
Phased construction is expected to begin next spring and will take at least three years to complete, project officials have said.
It was not immediately clear how much the redevelopment will cost.

Also Tuesday, council members voted to waive $26,100 of the nonprofit’s $26,735 application fee.

CT Construction Digest Thursday September 26, 2019

Large employer winners reflect Connecticut economy
Dan Haar
We can see a remarkable sweep of the state’s commerce in the top three winners of the Hearst Connecticut Media Top Workplaces contest among large employers. If that’s a sign of broad strength, or at least potential, then other employers with hundreds of people on their payrolls may take notice, to the benefit of the state.
Finishing as No. 1 in 2019, for the second year in a row, is Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties, one of the region’s largest residential real estate brokerages — a unit of the corporation headed by Warren Buffett.
O&G Industries, of Torrington, comes in at the No. 2 position among large employers, bringing heavy construction, quarrying and mason materials — including several retail locations — to the top tier of Top Workplaces. O&G’s three-person leadership group, all in the Oneglia family, won this year’s top leadership awards among large employers.

Indeed, the online employment and staffing firm, rounds out the top three at No. 3. Indeed won the contest in its first year, 2016.

For all three companies, Connecticut in 2019 presents a challenge along with opportunity. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices — and William Raveis Real Estate, Mortgage & Insurance, another winning company in the large employers category for 2019 — must navigate a housing market that’s largely flat in the state, in contrast, for example, to fast-growing Massachusetts.
They do it by making communications and analysis tools available to agents and staff, and by maintaining flexible working conditions.
O&G faces two challenges in public-sector spending. First, the state and municipalities are building many fewer new schools because the number of students is decreasing. And second, the debate over tolls vs. borrowing to finance the next generation of bridge and highway upgrades is having the effect of tamping down state spending.
O&G nonetheless added people in 2019 compared with 2018. The family-owned, diversified company is in the transition from the third-generation leadership to the fourth, with four family members in mid-career preparing to take over from their three forebears.
“Let the fourth generation take it over now, and they’ll take it to the next level,” said David Oneglia, the president.

Indeed has shown consistent growth of jobs in Connecticut since the company, a subsidiary of a Japanese corporation, was founded with ofices in Austin, Texas and Stamford in 2004. Indeed recently passed the 1,000-person mark locally — in sales, client service, finance and human relations — and has said it will reach 1,700 in about a decade.

Indeed faces many of the same challenges it solves for countless other employers.
“We are in a tight labor market, and employers need to be aggressive to both attract and retain talent. Employer branding has become more important — employers are looking to showcase the unique aspects of their workplace, opportunities for growth that are available to employees, and the impact that a company’s work has in the world,” said Dave O’Neill, the Indeed COO, in written responses to questions.
At Indeed, he said, “We’ve found the combination of meaningful, engaging work in an enjoyable environment is what really resonates with employees today.”That’s the goal for all thriving companies and the three at the top among large employers represent a great cross-section of Connecticut.

Costco gears up to open in East Lyme on Nov. 14
Mary Biekert
East Lyme — After months of clearing, blasting and building, officials from the Costco big box store under construction off Interstate 95 confirmed Tuesday the date that the wholesale club will officially open
“It took a little while to nail down the exact date, but yes, it is happening on Nov. 14,” Joe LaCerva, general manager of the East Lyme Costco, said Tuesday morning. He added, “We are very excited to be here in East Lyme.”
As part of recent preparations leading up to the store’s opening, the wholesale chain has placed large blue and red brand signs along the side of its newly constructed building off Exit 74 — which can now clearly be seen from the highway — and also has opened a membership sign-up center at Route 161’s Midway Plaza so as to “offer a space to sign up before the building opens and to avoid those lines,” LaCerva said.
The center is open seven days a week, and offers prospective customers the opportunity to speak to representatives about membership options, as well as potential employment. As part of the sign-up period leading up to the store’s opening, Costco is offering pre-opening incentives for new members, LaCerva said.
He said those interested in signing up can either purchase a Gold Membership for $60 annually or a $120 Executive Membership, which gives buyers 2 percent cash back on all their purchases, as well as other bonuses. Shoppers must have a membership to make purchases at Costco.
LaCerva also stated that those who have a membership have a money-back guarantee. Both annual memberships will extend through November 2020 and allow members to immediately make purchases online with their membership cards before the East Lyme store opens.
He said the store will hire more than 230 employees in coming months, with more than 160 to be brought on by November. He said most employees will be hired from the surrounding area and those interested can fill out an application on the Costco website before coming in to interview at the membership sign-up office.
When asked how membership sign-ups have been coming along, LaCerva said that while the office has been busy, he expects sign-ups to pick up steam come October, when Costco starts sending out mail blasts to surrounding area residents.
Developers building the more than 158,000-square-foot store, as well as the 680-lot parking lot and 18-pump gas station, broke ground in March, and have moved quickly to clear 14.7 acres of land, install underground pump-station and holding tank equipment, and reconfigure roads throughout the Exit 74 interchange area to accommodate an expected higher amount of traffic once the store opens.
As construction has ramped up over the last couple of months in the Exit 74 area, and as roadwork faced delays in August, town officials, the project’s developers, town police and contractors worked together to help alleviate traffic issues in the area. On Tuesday, while speaking by phone, First Selectman Mark Nickerson said that “we may still struggle with a little more traffic than what we are used to” once the store opens but “we are ready for it.”
LaCerva said the DOT confirmed that road construction will be finished by opening day.
“We are excited for opening day,” Nickerson said.
“It’s been nearly 20 years,” Nickerson said. “The Zoning Commission had this land zoned for a planned development, including retail and residential components, for over 20 years. So we are glad. There were many stops and starts for different projects trying to come in over that time. So the fact that the Costco building is up now and they are putting the finishing touches on it, is great.”
“It will be a new chapter,” he added.
The store is being built as part of a larger development plan known as Gateway Commons, which is being jointly developed by The Simon Konover Co. of West Hartford and KGI Properties of Providence, and which was approved by the town in 2015. The Costco store will close out the second phase of that plan. The developers also are moving forward with constructing 120 condo-style rentals over the next year to complete an existing 280-unit residential development at Exit 73 known as The Sound at Gateway Commons.
A possible commercial addition also was included in the Gateway Commons masterplan, but developers have not yet outlined what might be placed there and it may take them years to determine that as the Department of Transportation plans for bigger changes at the Exit 74 interchange, Newton C. Brainard, vice president of development and acquisition for The Simon Konover Co., said last week.
Nickerson said Monday that tax revenue generated from the Gateway Commons plan, once fully built, could amount to more than $2.5 million. The first phase of the Sound at Gateway Commons apartments generated more than $756,000 for the town in 2018, assessor Diane Vitagliano said Tuesday, and Costco is expected to generate about $400,000 in taxes.
Another $350,000 is expected to come from phase II of the Sound at Gateway Commons apartments, while another million may come from the additional commercial properties to be built in the last phase.

$10M spruce-up underway at Wallingford’s Gaylord Specialty Healthcare
Matt Pilon
Wallingford long-term care hospital Gaylord Specialty Healthcare is in the midst of a major renovation of two wings built back in the 1950s and 1970s.
Gaylord has mapped out $10 million in modernizing improvements to 100 inpatient rooms located on four floors in its Lyman and Hooker wings.
The hospital is installing new ceiling-mounted patient lifts and smart televisions in each room. It’s also installing new toilets, sinks and window blinds, and rearranging some of the “headwall” medical fixtures at the head of patient beds to meet more modern standards.
It is also renovating and rearranging nurse stations, staff rooms and storage areas located outside the patient rooms.

In an interview Tuesday, Tara Knapp, Gaylord’s vice president of development, marketing and public relations, said the hospital wants to spruce up the two older wings in order to better match Gaylord’s 36-room Milne Pavilion, built in 2008.

“That is the standard we really want to apply to our more dated facilities,” Knapp said.
The older rooms are generally tighter on space, which can make it more difficult for providers to maneuver, particularly if a patient has visitors.
Rearranging available space and getting rid of large shelving and other furniture installed decades ago, when patient stays were longer, will free up valuable inches for reconfigurations, Knapp said.
While Gaylord isn’t knocking down walls or resizing the rooms, the project still presents an intricate puzzle, she said, since the hospital must also continue to conduct its business.

“We have to treat our patients, so we can only do a handful of rooms at a time,” Knapp said. “It adds a lot of time.”

Work on the first floor of Lyman began in March and is expected to wrap in October. Next up will be the first floor of Hooker, which is expected to take until April. Branford’s O,R&L Construction is the main contractor for the project.
As of right now, redoing two floors will exhaust Gaylord’s budget. Since last year, the hospital has raised $5.3 million toward the $10 million price tag, mostly from private donors, with an $890,000 assist from the Governor’s Nonprofit Grant Program.
“We can do the first two floors and are actively raising money to complete the other two,” Knapp said.
She hopes to cover more fundraising ground as soon as possible, and with that in mind, Gaylord has organized a “hard hat” tour and reception on Thursday afternoon to show off the work that’s been completed thus far.

Local officials, former patients and Gaylord CEO Sonja LaBarbera are scheduled to attend.

 

Electric Boat facing mounting challenges as sub work ramps up

Ana Radelat

Washington – Earlier this month, Electric Boat broke ground on the centerpiece of the company’s expansion plan in preparation for the construction of a new line of submarines.But a new Congressional Research Service report shows there are continued concerns about EB’s abilities to build the new Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine alongside the smaller Virginia-class attack submarines that have for nearly 20 years been the mainstay of that shipyard.
The report also cited a number of other problems in the construction of submarines by Electric Boat and its partner, Virginia’s Newport News Shipbuilding.
One is the result of a big change in the Virginia-class submarine program.

The Navy plans for Electric Boat and Newport News to continue to build two of these submarines a year, and three of them in 2023. The Virginia-class attack submarine was designed to be less expensive and better optimized for post-Cold War missions than older fleets of U.S. subs.

But the Navy wants to boost the attack power of the Virginia-class boat. The next block of subs will be larger, adding dozens of missile tubes and about 85 feet to each of  the new Virginia Payload Module (VMI) subs. The cost will also increase, from about $2.8 billion to roughly $3.2 billion for each submarine.
Last spring, Electric Boat and Newport News struggled to meet scheduled delivery times as the Virginia-class program transitioned from production of two “regular” Virginia-class boats per year to two VPM-equipped boats per year.
“As a result of these challenges…the program has experienced months-long delays in efforts to build boats relative to their targeted delivery dates,” the report said.
The shipbuilders have also had problems with design work and welding.

“Program officials said vendor quality issues with welding on VPM have caused a 3.5-month delay in the schedule for the payload tubes for the first two submarines with VPM,” the report said.

Right now, Congress is struggling to pass a 2020 defense budget that would substantially boost the Navy’s budget for submarines. The CRS said “another issue for Congress concerns three Virginia-class boats that were reported in 2016 to have been built with defective parts, and the operational and cost implications of this situation.”
Electric Boat declined to respond to concerns raised in the report, referring all questions to the Navy.
The Navy had no response to the issues raised in the report.
The U.S. Senate, in its draft 2020 defense spending bill, demanded the Navy submit a slew of reports on the Virginia-class submarine program by October 1. Those include reports on the cost to repair the rubber-like quieting material that has started to peel off the hulls of the newer Virginia-class subs.

But the bigger problem is staffing.

In 2021, construction of the massive, new Columbia-class ballistic submarine will coincide with the continued construction of the Virginia-class subs.
Once the Virginia Payload Module is added, Virginia-class subs will require 25% more work.  And the Columbia subs will require about 2.5 times more work than an original Virginia sub.
To prepare for the boost in construction, the workforce at Electric Boat’s shipyard in Quonset Point, R.I., where the  Columbia is already in production, has been increased from about 2,000 workers a couple of years ago to roughly 4,250 today, on its way to about 6,000.
But Electric Boat’s facility in Groton is facing a dip in employment before it ramps up its production on the Columbia.

The shipyard’s planned overhaul of the USS Hartford will help ease the dip in employment, but a gap in 2023 remains.

And, according to the U.S. Naval Institute, Electric Boat yards have significantly less experience per employee than they did previously. The average worker at Groton had 23 years of experience in 2010 and just 13 now, and the average Quonset Point worker had 15 years of experience in 2010 compared to 7.6 years now.
The Senate defense bill said “expanding the capability and capacity of the submarine industrial base workforce is imperative to keeping pace with Navy shipbuilding requirements.”
“Numerous manufacturing capabilities must be addressed, including the need for more qualified and Navy-certified welders,” the bill said. “The committee is concerned that the Navy-certified welding workforce may be insufficient to meet Navy demands on time with the required quality.”
The committee recommended the Navy increase its research and development budget for submarine workforce development by $8 million and “develop and implement a strategy for strengthening the workforce pipeline for critical defense industries, including new submarine construction.”

For nearly a year, the Navy and Electric Boat have been struggling to finalize a contract for “Block V” or the next group of Virginia-class submarines.

Yet Electric Boat officials were upbeat at the Sept. 13 groundbreaking ceremony for the yard’s $850 billion expansion project.
“We hope to continue to hire and train thousands of new employees and will help grow our supply base of more than 3,000 companies to ensure the successful execution of the Columbia program,” said Jeffrey S. Geiger, president of Electric Boat, at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Later that same day, amid mounting challenges, Electric Boat announced that within two weeks it would replace Geiger with Kevin Graney, president of General Dynamics’ NASSCO shipyard in San Diego.
And, as the Navy is months behind schedule getting its latest batch of Virginia-class subs under contract and no solution appears imminent, there are increasing concerns that Virginia-class delays will affect the Navy’s top acquisition priority, the Columbia-class submarine.

Demolition, redevelopment moving forward for West Hartford senior housing complex
Emily Brindley

A proposal to demolish and rebuild the affordable housing complex on Starkel Road is now moving forward, after the West Hartford town council unanimously approved it Tuesday evening.

The Starkel Road complex sits on town-owned land and is home to senior citizens and residents with mobility challenges.

Advertisement

The nonprofit group West Hartford Fellowship Housing has proposed to demolish 22 of the 23 buildings at the accessible and affordable housing complex, and then build six new residential buildings.

Under the proposal, the complex would expand from 213 to 300 units.Fellowship Housing representatives said at a public hearing earlier this month that the current units are in desperate need of upgrades.
Immediately before voting, the town councilors talked about their excitement for the project.

Minority leader Chris Barnes said the revamped complex will fill a need in town.

“It’s something that’s well-needed in town and the fact that we’re expanding it to be able to provide more housing to more people in our community is great," Barnes said.
The town council — with the exception of Councilor Leon Davidoff, who recused himself from this issue and ceded his vote to Zoning Alternate Kate Farrar — then voted unanimously to approve the project, moving it one step closer to breaking ground.

The council also voted unanimously to waive the proposal’s application fees, which would have cost more than $26,000.

Under the proposal, all of the new units would be significantly larger and either handicap accessible or handicap adaptable. The complex as a whole would boast a more community-friendly layout.In an effort to avoid displacing residents, the proposal calls for four phases of construction. Each phase would last 18 months to two years, and current residents would be shifted into vacant and new units as much as possible.Still, some residents expressed concerns about the project. At the public hearing earlier this month, a couple residents spoke about displacement fears and related worries, while a handful more expressed their support for the proposal and excitement for new apartments.Clare Kindall — the chair of the West Hartford Housing Fellowship’s redevelopment committee and also the state solicitor general — said at that public hearing that the project would greatly benefit current and future residents.“We are going to dramatically increase the quality of living for our residents,” Kindall said.

CT Construction Digest Wednesday September 25, 2019

CRDA offered Northland $4.5M for XL Center space
Greg Bordonaro
The Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) earlier this summer offered $4.5 million to purchase a key portion of XL Center's atrium and adjoining retail space currently owned by Northland Investment Corp., the Hartford Business Journal has learned.
Northland, however, rejected the bid, arguing it was a low-ball offer, officials said.
The purchase attempt represents the latest wrinkle in an ongoing saga to try to determine the future of the XL Center, including the space owned by Northland.
Negotiations between CRDA and Northland reached a tipping point last year when, after several failed purchase attempts, CRDA considered using eminent domain to take over Northland’s entire XL Center space, which includes the aging facility’s atrium, retail and office space and other areas.

CRDA backed off that threat, however, after a group of Republican state senators raised concerns about the potential move.

The latest $4.5 million purchase offer in July included less space than CRDA previously sought, according to Mike Freimuth, the quasi-public agency’s executive director.
According to a July 29 letter CRDA sent to Northland, the $4.5 million purchase offer was for XL Center’s “atrium area, the retail space on the first floor,” elevator and escalator systems on the second and third floors and the Church Street overhead bridge.
The purchase offer, which CRDA says was based on independent appraisals, did not include commercial space on the second and third levels, or parking spaces in the adjoining garage to Hartford 21, which Northland built and owns.
Northland Principal Larry Gottesdiener did not comment for this story but previously told HBJ he is not interested in carving up his XL Center holdings, which could eventually benefit from either a redeveloped arena or a new mixed-use development in the area.

Gottesdiener also previously noted that more than $200 million was invested in the area around XL Center, including the Hartford 21 apartments. Northland alone invested $65 million of that money, he said.

CRDA has said the XL Center property owned by Northland is crucial to the short-term operations and long-term redevelopment of the arena.
CRDA, however, has failed to convince the legislature on several occasions to provide funding for a major arena renovation.
CRDA a few years ago recommended a $250 million overhaul of the XL Center, concluding that the building's functionality and ability to generate revenue are severely limited by its age and obsolete design, among other problems.

State lawmakers, which have been battling budget deficits for years, balked at that price tag, forcing CRDA to eventually lower its ask to $100 million.

Lawmakers have not funded that request either, although tens of millions of dollars in renovations have been done on the facility since 2014.
There have also been attempts to sell the arena to private developers, but they haven’t come to fruition.
Meantime, CRDA at its recent September meeting agreed  to rehire Texas-based consultancy Conventions, Sports & Leisure International to perform a new market demand and financial feasibility study of the venue. 

Take a peek inside the SoNo Collection, a new luxury mall in South Norwalk that is set to open on Oct. 11
Amanda Blanco

After more than two years of construction, the SoNo Collection, a new South Norwalk mall, will open next month. The three-story Brookfield Properties project features 725,000 square feet of retail space, three atriums, a bowling alley, and a top-level garden.

As brick-and-mortar stores close across the nation, Sono Collection’s team is confident it will succeed. “Our CEO says, ‘The bazaar was here in 600 B.C., it will be here in 6,000 A.D.,'" said Matt Seebeck, the center’s senior general manager during a tour on Tuesday. “Because we’ve built a smaller shopping center at around 700,000 (square feet), we’ve been able to be more selective and focused on what the customer here wants.”Seebeck said Brookfield Properties, which owns 170 shopping centers nationally, tailors each center towards the local market. The company found that Norwalk-area residents favor housewares over apparel, so they focused 20% of retail on home-wares. “It’s a market we identified in southwestern Connecticut," said Seebeck. “So we’re responding to that."An eight-level parking garage, Bloomingdale’s, and Nordstrom anchor the center, which does not have a food court. “We’ve shifted away from [the food court] because again, our customer is shifting the way that they shop,” Seebeck said. Instead, the mall will feature several co-working spaces.Similar to WeWork offices, the spaces are designed for use as a community office space or meeting place with free wifi. “We’re focused on providing gathering places,” he said. “If you want to hold an event, a meeting, a gala, we can also accommodate that.” Curated murals, trees, and interactive light installations will decorate the indoor and outdoor community spaces.About 90% of retail space is already leased. Nordstrom and some select stores will be ready for shopping when the mall opens on Oct. 11 and more will open throughout the end of the year, into 2020. Retailers include Sephora, Pandora, Bath & Body Works, sit-down restaurants, and food vendors. Since construction began in May 2017, the center has created about 6,000 construction jobs and is expected to create thousands more in retail, security, maintenance, and office work.Come November, the SoNo Collection will forgo the traditional mall Santa for “first-to-portfolio” holiday experience. “Santa will walk through the shopping center and engage with guests," said Seebeck. The mall will also have a “whispering grove,” where children can whisper their holiday wishes to Christmas trees and have them travel to the North Pole. “We’re constantly looking for new concepts,” he said.A full list of retailers and restaurants will be available on the SoNo Collection’s website by October 8.

 

CT Construction Digest Tuesday September 24, 2019

I-84 Widening Project is Finalist for National Award
Twelve winning transportation projects from four U.S. regional competitions, including the I-84 widening project in Waterbury, will battle it out in this year’s America’s Transportation Awards competition, with two $10,000 cash awards for a charity or transportation-related scholarship of the winners' choosing at stake. The broad scope of the projects in the final round include one credited with using drone technology to get transportation systems back up and operating after a devastating hurricane as well as others that endeavor to incorporate citizen feedback and involvement in project design and development.
"This is a significant honor and an affirmation of the innovative approach we have been taking in recent years for major projects," said CTDOT Commissioner Joseph Giulietti. "I am proud of the work everyone did and congratulate the team on becoming a finalist in this prestigious competition. Many of you will recall that the Q Bridge project won the Grand Prize from AASHTO in 2016."
Sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, AAA, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the competition evaluates projects in three categories: Quality of Life/Community Development; Best Use of Technology & Innovation; and Operations Excellence. The projects are also divided into three sizes: small (less than $25 million); medium ($25 million to $200 million); and large (more than $200 million).
The 12^th America’s Transportation Awards competition attracted 81 project nominations from 39 state DOTs this year. The three highest scoring projects from each of four regional contests earned a place in the “Top 12” national finals, competing for the national Grand Prize and the People's Choice Award. Both prizes come with the aforementioned $10,000 cash awards.
“These final projects are just a small sampling of the many ways in which state DOTs are making communities safer and supporting economic development,” said Jim Tymon, AASHTO executive director. “Whether deploying innovations to save time and money or exploring strategies to move more people and goods, state DOTs are delivering projects and programs that create a more efficient transportation system for the movement of goods and services.”
An independent panel of transportation industry experts will select the Grand Prize winner, while the general public will decide the People's Choice Award winner through online voting. Online votes will be weighted to each state's population, allowing for greater competition between states with larger and smaller populations. The winners will be announced at the AASHTO Annual Meeting in St. Louis on October 8^th.
Online voting is under way and ends at 11:59 p.m. eastern time on Sunday, Oct. 6. Cast your vote at http://AmericasTransportationAwards.org. Individuals can cast no more than one vote per day.
The Top 12 projects in alphabetical order are:
California Department of Transportation – Highway 1/Mud Creek Emergency Restoration – Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Medium category.
Connecticut Department of Transportation – I-84 Waterbury Widening Project – Operations Excellence, Large category.
Florida Department of Transportation – SunRail Southern Expansion – Quality of Life/Community Development, Large category.
Georgia Department of Transportation – Northwest Corridor Express Lanes – Operations Excellence, Large category.
Maryland Department of Transportation – Dover Bridge Project – Quality of Life/Community Development, Medium category.
Missouri and Illinois Departments of Transportation – Improvements for Downtown City of St. Louis – Quality of Life/Community Development, Large category.
North Carolina Department of Transportation – UAS Hurricane Florence Response – Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Small category.
Ohio Department of Transportation – I-71 & Martin Luther King Jr. Interchange – Quality of Life/Community Development, Medium category.
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation – PennDOT Connects/Connecting Communities – Quality of Life/Community Development, Small category.
Texas Department of Transportation – US 290 Reconstruction from I-610 to Beltway 8 – Quality of Life/Community Development, Large category.
Washington State Department of Transportation – I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East Project, Phases 1 and 2A – Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Large category.
Wisconsin Department of Transportation – Zoo Interchange Core and Adjacent Arterials – Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Large category.
Learn more about the America's Transportation Awards and vote for your favorite Top 12 projects at www.AmericasTransportationAwards.org.


GOP leaders want Lamont to loosen development grants for small towns
Keith M. Phaneuf
Gov. Ned Lamont’s fellow Democrats in the legislature aren’t the only ones waiting for him to loosen his hold on the state’s credit card.Republican legislative leaders want the administration to release long-stalled financing for a program designed to help small towns’ economic development initiatives.
The Small Towns Economic Assistance Program, commonly known as STEAP, “helps out the small communities that give so much to the state,” Sen. Kevin Witkos, R-Canton, told Lamont at last week’s State Bond Commission meeting.
Witkos added some of these small communities’ residents provide Connecticut significant tax revenues but “sometimes don’t get anything back in return.”
The 2001 legislature and then-Gov. John G. Rowland created STEAP to complement the state’s already established Urban Act, which funneled tens of millions annually into initiatives to grow jobs and expand development in Connecticut’s largest cities.
STEAP grants initially were restricted only to communities with populations under 30,000 when the program was enacted, and that still remains largely the case. But the program was amended in 2005 to include six towns larger in population than that limit, yet still ineligible for Urban Act awards.
Though eligible communities received about $230 million in STEAP grants between 2011 and September 2016 under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, the program fell into limbo after that.The governor’s budget office has sole authority to determine whether any town’s application for a STEAP grant meets state criteria. The administration also holds tremendous sway over the bond commission, which has sole authority to determine whether to authorize state financing for most projects and initiatives.
Legislators struggled for 10 months in 2017 to adopt a new state budget and bonding package, ultimately excluding the Malloy administration from negotiations that year and again in 2018.
Malloy didn’t approve any more STEAP awards during his final two years in office. Lawmakers authorized $30 million in new borrowing for STEAP grants before Malloy left office, and that authorization still is in force.
But Lamont, whose tenure began this past January, also has been at odds with the legislature over the state’s credit card. He also has not opted not to approve any more STEAP grants at this time.
Connecticut has more than $25 billion in bonded debt and ranks among the nation’s most indebted states on a per capita basis.
The governor initially recommended that lawmakers authorize no more than $1 billion per year in general obligation, or G.O., bonding, two-thirds of what it issued on average between 2012 and 2019. G.O. bonds are repaid with income tax receipts and other revenues from the budget’s general fund and are used to fund more capital projects not involving transportation.
Lamont also wants to ramp up state investments in transportation, but favors electronic tolling, which would provide hundreds of millions of dollars in receipts that Connecticut could use to pay cash for projects instead of more borrowing.
Lawmakers, to date, have declined to adopt tolls. And since Lamont says Connecticut’s aging, overcrowded highways and rail lines must be repaired, will the state try to put more borrowing on an already maxed-out credit card?

Until that question is answered, the administration said in July, bonding for non-essential projects must wait.

But Witkos said STEAP grants mesh perfectly with Lamont’s priorities.
Though they also can be used for local conservation and quality-of-life projects, they generally are used for economic development initiatives.
“And most of those use local contractors,” Witkos added, “so it’s still creating jobs” in Connecticut.
Office of Policy and Management Secretary Melissa McCaw told Witkos at the bond commission meeting that “the governor and OPM certainly recognize the importance of the STEAP program.”
But McCaw also made it clear other matters must be settled first.
“As we continue to make progress with securing a bond package and plan broadly for the state for the coming fiscal year,  I’m sure we will give proper consideration to the STEAP program.”
Deputy House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, another advocate for STEAP, said “when the local communities have the ability to invest money in economic development, they generally have done a better job than the state. It’s a program we should be supporting.”

Betsy Gara, executive director of the Connecticut Council of Small Towns, said rural and suburban communities have been struggling for years with little to no growth in state aid for non-education programs.

This has forced many towns to sacrifice some investments in economic development, because it might first have required a property tax hike to raise the initial funds.
“Small towns are working very hard to minimize those property tax increases,” she said. “The failure to approve a [state] bond package is putting a lot of pressure on towns.”
Lamont told reporters this past week that he’s confident he and lawmakers will reach middle ground soon on state borrowing, even though the new fiscal year — which began July 1 — is nearly three months old.
“We’re going to get a deal,” he said. “I know how to work with people.”
But the governor also said he won’t lose sight of his priorities. That means Connecticut must get its borrowing under control, and it must settle on a long-term plan to rebuild its aging, overcrowded transportation infrastructure.
“How much of that [transportation cost] is going to be on the backs of taxpayers? How much of that is going to be on the company credit card, so to speak?” said Lamont, who often notes tolls would spread that cost among out-of-state motorists as well as Connecticut residents.
“And then, based on that, we’ll know what appetite we have for further bonding for these other priorities,” Lamont added.

CT Construction Digest Monday 23, 2019

I-84 Widening Project is Finalist for National Award
Twelve winning transportation projects from four U.S. regional competitions, including the I-84 widening project in Waterbury, will battle it out in this year’s America’s Transportation Awards competition, with two $10,000 cash awards for a charity or transportation-related scholarship of the winners' choosing at stake. The broad scope of the projects in the final round include one credited with using drone technology to get transportation systems back up and operating after a devastating hurricane as well as others that endeavor to incorporate citizen feedback and involvement in project design and development.
"This is a significant honor and an affirmation of the innovative approach we have been taking in recent years for major projects," said CTDOT Commissioner Joseph Giulietti. "I am proud of the work everyone did and congratulate the team on becoming a finalist in this prestigious competition. Many of you will recall that the Q Bridge project won the Grand Prize from AASHTO in 2016."
Sponsored by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, AAA, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the competition evaluates projects in three categories: Quality of Life/Community Development; Best Use of Technology & Innovation; and Operations Excellence. The projects are also divided into three sizes: small (less than $25 million); medium ($25 million to $200 million); and large (more than $200 million).
The 12^th America’s Transportation Awards competition attracted 81 project nominations from 39 state DOTs this year. The three highest scoring projects from each of four regional contests earned a place in the “Top 12” national finals, competing for the national Grand Prize and the People's Choice Award. Both prizes come with the aforementioned $10,000 cash awards.
“These final projects are just a small sampling of the many ways in which state DOTs are making communities safer and supporting economic development,” said Jim Tymon, AASHTO executive director. “Whether deploying innovations to save time and money or exploring strategies to move more people and goods, state DOTs are delivering projects and programs that create a more efficient transportation system for the movement of goods and services.”
An independent panel of transportation industry experts will select the Grand Prize winner, while the general public will decide the People's Choice Award winner through online voting. Online votes will be weighted to each state's population, allowing for greater competition between states with larger and smaller populations. The winners will be announced at the AASHTO Annual Meeting in St. Louis on October 8^th.
Online voting is under way and ends at 11:59 p.m. eastern time on Sunday, Oct. 6. Cast your vote at http://AmericasTransportationAwards.org. Individuals can cast no more than one vote per day.
The Top 12 projects in alphabetical order are:
California Department of Transportation – Highway 1/Mud Creek Emergency Restoration – Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Medium category.
Connecticut Department of Transportation – I-84 Waterbury Widening Project – Operations Excellence, Large category.
Florida Department of Transportation – SunRail Southern Expansion – Quality of Life/Community Development, Large category.
Georgia Department of Transportation – Northwest Corridor Express Lanes – Operations Excellence, Large category.
Maryland Department of Transportation – Dover Bridge Project – Quality of Life/Community Development, Medium category.
Missouri and Illinois Departments of Transportation – Improvements for Downtown City of St. Louis – Quality of Life/Community Development, Large category.
North Carolina Department of Transportation – UAS Hurricane Florence Response – Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Small category.
Ohio Department of Transportation – I-71 & Martin Luther King Jr. Interchange – Quality of Life/Community Development, Medium category.
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation – PennDOT Connects/Connecting Communities – Quality of Life/Community Development, Small category.
Texas Department of Transportation – US 290 Reconstruction from I-610 to Beltway 8 – Quality of Life/Community Development, Large category.
Washington State Department of Transportation – I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East Project, Phases 1 and 2A – Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Large category.
Wisconsin Department of Transportation – Zoo Interchange Core and Adjacent Arterials – Best Use of Technology & Innovation, Large category.
Learn more about the America's Transportation Awards and vote for your favorite Top 12 projects at www.AmericasTransportationAwards.org.

On transportation, a moment of bipartisanship
Mark Pazniokas
Newington — Democratic and Republican legislative leaders were upbeat Friday after a briefing by U.S. transportation officials about the potential of below-market federal financing for a significant portion of CT 2030, a 10-year transportation infrastructure plan being finalized by the administration of Gov. Ned Lamont.
The Build America Bureau is one-stop shopping at the U.S. Department of Transportation for financing, and a team led by its executive director, Morteza Farajian, briefed leaders on what they say is a flexible menu of low-cost credit — less than 2 percent for highway loans that come with a repayment period of 35 years.
Some of the programs allow the state to defer payments until five years after substantial completion without incurring interest costs during the deferral, a provision that could delay significant debt payments well into the next decade, when Connecticut’s crushing pension and debt liabilities are expected to abate.
Given that some projects can take a decade or more to design, bid and complete, House Majority Leader Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said the federal program essentially offers no-cost financing for 15 years.
“When you look at debt service it makes sense,” Ritter said.
The briefing at the state Department of Transportation was closed to reporters, but the remarks offered by lawmakers marked a rare bipartisan moment in a seven-month debate over how to maintain and modernize an aging transportation infrastructure that is one of the obstacles to sustained economic growth.
“I hope this is the critical first step toward a spirit of bipartisanship in addressing Connecticut’s transportation and infrastructure needs,” Lamont said in a statement. “Having Republicans, Democrats, and CTDOT leaders in the room is essential to ensuring everyone is at the table and prepared to transform our state’s roads, bridges, rails and airports in a way that will make Connecticut an even better place to work and live over the next decade and beyond.”Farajian, who declined through the governor’s office to be interviewed, conducted separate briefings for lawmakers, municipal officials and representatives of the construction trades. Municipalities are eligible to seek low-cost financing for infrastructure.
The federal programs provide cheap financing for up to one third of eligible project costs on highways and up to 100 percent on rail. Funding is in place for the programs and not contingent of the outcome of the negotiations between congressional Democrats and President Donald J.Trump over a potential $1.8 trillion in new infrastructure spending.
Legislators say they expect the CT 2030 plan to have some tolling, perhaps for select bridges, but far less than the comprehensive system Lamont proposed in February. The difficult question of how Connecticut would pay its share — whether it could do so within current resources or need tolling or other new revenue — was left for another day.
“We’ll have to have that conversation about how we pay for it. We’re going to have to pay for it,” said Rep. Roland J. Lemar, D-New Haven, the co-chair of the Transportation Committee.
 Senate Minority Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, and House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, and ranking Republicans on the legislature’s Transportation Committee all said the briefing by Farajian, a former state transportation official from Virginia, pointed lawmakers to potential areas of consensus, even if the GOP remains opposed to tolls.
 “I think it’s a big step,” Klarides said. “I mean, I think it’s a big step in regards to something we may be able to get consensus on. It’s something that is fiscally feasible for the state of Connecticut. It’s something that’s affordable and something that has been working in the past, based on the examples they’ve given us, and it is something we should seriously consider.
“So I think it is game changer in a lot of ways.”
A dissenting view came from Sen. Alex Bergstein, D-Greenwich, who faulted the administration and legislative leaders for not pushing through a tolling plan. She was less enthusiastic about the impact of cheap federal financing, saying Connecticut will need either tolls or higher taxes.
“The feds are not going to bail us out,” she said.
 Her tone surprised the other lawmakers.
“I don’t know what meeting she was just in, that’s for sure,” Fasano said.
The Lamont administration is trying to devise CT 2030, a mix of rail and highway programs aimed at cutting car and train commutes over the next decade, as a single, integrated project, an approach that the federal officials say is feasible.
Rep. Laura Devlin of Fairfield, the ranking House Republican on the Transportation Committee, said the GOP has been seeking an integrated, long-range plan allowing the state to accurately gauge its financial needs.
“That’s what Ryan is talking about, so that’s really encouraging,” she said, referring to the governor’s chief of staff, Ryan Drajewicz.
Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, called the approach “holistic.”
The Build America Bureau was established by Congress in July 2016 as a way to provide more flexible financing through some longstanding programs such as TIFIA, the Transportation Infrastructure and Innovation Act, and RRIF, Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing. Connecticut never has used them.

CT’s small solutions to climate change: Making Bridgeport more resilient
Jan Ellen Spiegel
Bridgeport has seen the face of climate change and it is wet.The city’s south end had a gulp of that when it was swamped by Tropical Storm Irene 2011, followed by Sandy a year later – both likely intensified by climate change. Among the hardest hit – low income and public housing neighborhoods.
In the aftermath of those two storms, Bridgeport took the lead in Connecticut’s attempts to participate in two federal recovery programs, competing for funds in Rebuild by Design (RBD) and the National Disaster Resilience Competition (NDRC).
The big bucks went elsewhere, but Bridgeport did come up with some money: $10 million through RBD and $54.3 million through NDRC. Seven years later, the city is coming closer to getting shovels in the ground on projects that will better enable it to withstand the effects of sea level rise caused by climate change.
Earlier this month the final environmental impact statement for the projects – now jointly known as Resilient Bridgeport – was released by the state’s Department of Housing. After 30 days for public comment, a final agreement will be in place in late October. Work should begin by next spring, said Rebecca French, director of resilience for DOH.
“The final EIS is a big milestone. Completing the environmental review process unlocks funding for final design and construction,” she said, noting that, under program guidelines approved by Congress, all funding must be spent by Sept. 30, 2022. This is admittedly a tight deadline, but French said the construction plan meets it, and given the high level of community involvement in the plans, there are likely to be few objections.

“Community participation has been significant. I don’t think there’s ever been a project in the state of Connecticut that has been this heavily vetted by the community,” French said.While Resilient Bridgeport is vastly scaled back from early proposals that would have redesigned huge portions of the city to cope with climate change, it addresses some of the most pressing concerns through three components.

One is the RBD portion at Marina Village, the public housing area that flooded dreadfully in the storms, but also has chronic flooding because it is low-lying and near the coast. The plan elevates roads, creates a stormwater park to gather and drain water, and provides dry access routes for emergencies. Marina Village will also be rebuilt, but that is being handled by the city with separate funding.
Another component is a resilience center that will act as the informational access point during emergency events like Superstorm Sandy. Those details are still being worked out.
The most ambitious and far-reaching component is a massive flood risk reduction project on the east side of the South End. The final EIS chose what French called the preferred alternative for what is essentially a flood wall that wraps around the neighborhood – in some places a visible wall, in other places cleverly hidden.
French considers it the most unique part of the project – combining protection and esthetics.
“It’s going to take the largest area out of the floodplain,” she said. “It’s about reducing flood risk and maintaining the health and safety of the community, but doing it in way to blend into community using urban design concepts,” she said.
In the University of Bridgeport area, for example, it will look like a landscaped berm that will be easy for people to walk across where the road enters Seaside Park.

The project also includes a pump station to eliminate water that might collect behind the berm from storm surges or heavy rains. And the combined sewer overflow that for generations has spilled sewage into Long Island Sound at times, would at long last be separated. Green infrastructure would also be used to supplement new drainage systems.

The protective wall is designed to accommodate 2.5 feet of sea level, which may not ultimately be enough, but the features are designed for adaptation beyond that, French said.What worries her is time.
“What keeps me up at night is that it’s hurricane season,” French said. “That neighborhood got hit in Irene. It got hit in Sandy. It could get hit again. We don’t frequently get hurricanes, but it’s not if, it’s when.”

Lamont scales back transportation funding idea for a new pitch
PAUL HUGHES
HARTFORD — Gov. Ned Lamont is preparing to release a retooled transportation funding plan that he says will include a scaled back highway tolling proposal.
The first-term Democratic governor is trying to reboot after getting shut down in his initial attempt to get a reluctant legislature to vote to bring back tolls to state roadways.
The Lamont administration will propose to leverage federal grants and loans to a greater degree to augment state borrowing, existing taxes and fees supporting the Special Transportation Fund, and new revenue from a more narrow and targeted tolling plan.
Yet, any funding initiative that relies on highway tolls remains a tough sell for the legislature and the general public, may be too hard for the former businessman to close a sale in the end.
“The question is not about tolls,” Lamont said. “The question is about fixing our transportation system in the most thoughtful way.
“Let’s not wait until its broken. Let’s act on it now. Never an easy thing for the legislature, but we are working very closely with the legislative leadership trying to craft a package that has a reliable revenue stream, allows us to take advantage a lot of infrastructure money that we seeing coming out of Washington, D.C., so we can fix our roads and bridges, and start speeding up the gridlock,” he continued.
A now battle-tested Lamont is contemplating a more limited approach to toll bridge projects and projects that target highway bottlenecks, a tolling plan that the governor’s office hopes is more palatable, and, more importantly, passable.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ALLOWS states to put up tolls to pay for new highways or new lanes on existing highways.
The Lamont administration is looking into the possibility of adding toll lanes to stretches of highways or reconfiguring highway interchanges to ease traffic congestion.
Former Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed expanding I-95 to three lanes from the New York border to the Rhode Island border. Instead of widening all of I-95, Lamont has pitched adding lanes at certain choke points, such as west of New Haven.
The governor has also argued tolls could help finance an overhaul of the heavily congested interchange of I-91, the Wilbur Cross Parkway and I-691 in Meriden.
“I’m trying to show people comprehensively we can speed up a few of these bottlenecks over the next 10 years, dramatically make a difference,” Lamont said.
STATES ARE ALSO PERMITTED to impose tolls to pay for the reconstruction or replacement of bridges.
There are a number of possibilities in that category. The Federal Highway Administration has rated 332 of 4,238 Connecticut bridges as structurally deficient, and 279 have been rated in poor condition.
There is an ongoing $153 million project to rehabilitate the Mixmaster in Waterbury, the elevated, double-decked interchange that carries I-84 and Route 8 over city streets and the Naugatuck River.
Built in the 1960s, the network of bridges and ramps has outlived its life expectancy, and the needed repairs are meant to extend its life another 25 years, or until the state can afford to replace it. Old estimates have put the replacement cost at $7 billion to $8 billion.
Sen. Henri Martin, R-Bristol, the ranking Senate Republican on the Transportation Committee, remains unconvinced Lamont can get tolls passed, even a scaled back plan.
“Right now, I think the public is pretty clear that they don’t want any type of tolling in the state of Connecticut,” he said.
Martin said many people are still questioning why the state government is unable to maintain roads and bridges with all taxes, fees and state bonding that has been dedicated to support the transportation system.
Lamont is not giving up. He feels a pressing urgency – toll opponents say he is just desperate.I’m here to make a difference, and I’ve got four years to do it, and I’m not waiting,” the governor said.

Revival of Waterford solar plan reason for concern
Deborah Moshier-Dunn and John P. Jasper
Save the River-Save the Hills would like to inform the public about an ongoing threat to the water quality of the Niantic River and two of its major tributaries (Oil Mill Brook and Stony Brook) in Waterford. The developer of a proposed solar array installation, which was "denied without prejudice" by the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) last December largely because of the negative effects it would have on the two native trout streams on each side of it, has indicated they will be moving forward with the installation.
A “denial without prejudice” allows the developer to return with another plan under the same request for proposal. We feel it is important the public know, because if this project is allowed to move forward, prospective adverse impacts will detrimentally affect not only the water quality of the adjacent brooks, but the Niantic River and ultimately the Long Island Sound.
The current proposal is to install 55,000 solar panels on approximately 90 acres of hilly terrain off Oil Mill Road in Waterford. Installing a solar array of this size on the hilly terrain between two streams that currently support native brown and brook trout is irresponsible development. The developer already has a record of destroying a tributary to the Niantic River in East Lyme (see photo of East Lyme watershed above) resulting in a lawsuit against the developer by downstream landowners. Looking at the devastation after sequential two-inch rain events on the Walnut Hill Road solar installation gives a daunting forecast for the proposed Waterford site which is three times the size.
The CSC wisely denied the developer's petition to develop the Waterford site because it felt the project would adversely affect the environment, causing huge amounts of runoff on both sides of the property. These are not "solar fields,” they are industrial structures made of glass, metal and concrete which are installed on soil that has been physically compacted during the installation process. As seen at the East Lyme site, these ground-mounted solar arrays have a record of destroying water quality around them. The stormwater systems in the solar installations in East Lyme were inadequate to handle the actual volume of runoff generated.
The proposed site in Waterford uses the same faulty engineering and will likely cause similar issues – on a scale three times larger than the one in East Lyme, adversely affecting two different native-trout-stream tributaries to the Niantic River. The Waterford site is a mere 4,000 feet from the Niantic River. The river will suffer if this project goes forward.
In 2014, the design of the solar array installation in East Lyme involved marked earth disturbance over an approximately 30-acre area. Topsoil was stripped and removed from the site and does not appear to have been replaced after mass grading was performed. Site disturbance compacted the native soils to such a degree that rainfall even from the grassed areas runs off and does not infiltrate into the soil.
The engineering design incorrectly considered the solar panels in the array to be “pervious” and thus grossly underestimated the volume of runoff. Even after completion, increased runoff volumes continue to cause adverse impacts to the unnamed brook that runs into Cranberry Meadow Brook and ultimately the Niantic River.
These issues existed in a ground-mounted solar installation in Pomfret, resulting in the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection fining the developer $575,000 for non-compliance with its permit and for the resulting destruction to wetlands by “sediments from the Site going off-site and blanketing thousands of square feet of adjoining wetlands…”
A much smaller proposed solar installation in Killingworth was denied approval in May with the CSC citing water quality issues as the main reason for denial. Current engineering standards used for ground-mounted solar are inadequate because they are based on the incorrect assumption that the solar arrays are on liquid pervious sites. In most cases, however, they are not. The construction of ground-mounted solar arrays creates an impervious site and should be required to have the Low Impact Development engineering required of buildings. It should not be allowed at all in a core forest surrounded by trout streams.
Also, cutting 90 acres of core forest to install 55,000 solar panels — replacing nature's free carbon recycling and storage with hardscape, metal and glass — does not result in a net decrease in carbon emissions in New England. The conversion of active cropland, farm meadow, and forests to a solar array is environmentally irresponsible as these green areas are effective carbon sinks. The vegetations take in carbon dioxide to grow and release oxygen to the air. Carbon is sequestered in the woody material and in the soil in these areas and remain there, unless disturbed, for decades to millennia.
In 2017, the Connecticut state legislature passed a law that effectively bans cutting core forest to put in solar arrays. It states: “The act requires the DEEP commissioner, when considering proposals received after July 1, 2017 in response to certain energy-related solicitations, to consider (1) their environmental impact, including the impact on prime farmland and core forests, and (2) the reuse of sites with limited development opportunities, such as brownfields and landfills.”
Unfortunately for the Waterford forest, the developer petitioned the siting council on a request for proposal that was applied for prior to the new law. That is the only reason this proposal to cut down a core forest has been allowed to continue. It should be stopped.
While the installation of solar arrays has a seemingly appealing environmental and certainly federal-tax abatement appeal, each solar panel only converts about 26% of the sun’s energy into power every year, with this efficiency decreasing by roughly 0.5% per year. Additionally, when the lack of sunny days in Connecticut is accounted for on a yearly basis, the power generated by one of these large arrays is only 22% of the stated power output. Finally, there is currently no present method for the recycling of solar panels.
Brook and brown trout populations are on the decline in Connecticut because of habitat destruction such as siltation caused by solar field installation. Let's protect those we have left and not turn them into drainage ditches. Let's be smart about solar and put solar panels where they belong — on already developed property like a large warehouse rooftop or even a landfill that's been properly capped. Let's keep the forests surrounding our rivers thriving and our rivers clean.