Greg Smith
New London — The Connecticut Port Authority on Monday authorized its chairman to secure an agreement with a company that will oversee the estimated $157 million redevelopment of State Pier.
The unanimous vote by the authority’s board of directors to hire a construction administrator demonstrates continued momentum for the project in the face of worldwide disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, said Port Authority Chairman David Kooris.
The project to create an offshore wind hub is expected to start early next year and finish in 2022. Activity could start before year’s end with demolition and remediation of existing structures and stockpiling of construction materials.
The state of Connecticut is redeveloping State Pier into an offshore wind staging area as part of a public-private partnership with Denmark-based Ørsted North America and Eversource.
The COVID-19 pandemic’s toll on the federal permitting process, however, has so far led to a delay in one East Coast offshore wind project. Shutdowns at wind turbine manufacturing facilities and delays in the transport of parts are reportedly creating obstacles for offshore wind projects worldwide.
Ørsted, with multiple offshore U.S. wind projects in the planning stages, announced recently that its Skipjack Wind Farm project off the coast of Delaware and Maryland would be delayed by a year.
"As the federal permitting timeline evolves, Ørsted is now receiving its federal Notice of Intent for the Skipjack Wind Farm later than originally anticipated. As a result, Ørsted has determined that moving Skipjack Wind Farm's anticipated completion date from late 2022 to the new target of the end of 2023 puts us in the strongest position possible to deliver a successful project,” Ørsted said in a statement posted on its website.
“Ørsted remains firmly committed to working with our federal partners to complete Skipjack and provide clean, reliable offshore wind energy to 35,000 homes in the Delmarva region,” the statement reads.
Ørsted is involved in other projects in New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Virginia.
Kooris said he can’t speak to the Skipjack project but said port infrastructure work, like the project planned in New London, is proceeding independently of wind farms and “remains on track.” He doesn’t expect delays in permitting at the state or federal level.
A representative from Ørsted, which is scheduled to present its quarterly financial report to investors on Wednesday, was not immediately available to comment.
The construction administrator, or owner’s representative, for the New London project is a key element in the upcoming work and will oversee all aspects of the project, a tight timeline being one of the top priorities, said Joe Salvatore, a program manager for the Connecticut Port Authority.
Twelve firms responded to a request for proposals issued in March.
A panel that included Salvatore and representatives from the Department of Administrative Services, Office of Policy and Management and Northeast Offshore whittled the field to four firms and ranked them.
The authority on Monday authorized Kooris to negotiate and enter into a consulting services agreement with the one of the following companies: AECOM Technical Services Inc., AI Engineers, Downes Construction Co. or WSP USA Inc. Negotiations are proceeding with the top-ranked firm, Kooris said. The port authority’s board will eventually vote on the contract. Money for the harbor development project was already approved by the state legislature.
The state’s bond commission earlier this month approved disbursement of $30 million of previously approved funding toward the project. Kooris said there is an additional $35 million authorized by the legislature in the bond bill earlier this year that hasn't yet been bonded and won't go to the commission until the cost of the project is better known.
While the Port Authority approved the pier redevelopment plan in February, the City of New London has yet to finalize a host community agreement with Ørsted-Eversource. New London Mayor Michael Passero has said he has sought to recoup an amount equal to taxes and state payments in lieu of taxes on the tax-exempt former state property that is now owned by the port authority. Negotiations, he said, have stalled since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bristol greenlights $5M downtown apartment complex
Joe Cooper
A Southington development firm says it will break ground in the coming months on a $5-million apartment complex in downtown Bristol after receiving a tax abatement and other development approvals from the city.
The city council recently approved a multi-year tax abatement for Carrier Construction Inc. to push forward its plan to erect 32 market-rate apartment units in two, three-story buildings on a long-vacant property on Main and Summer streets. Carrier previously received a special permit and site plan approval from the city.
Under the 50% abatement, Carrier will owe annual property tax bills of $63,924, which equates to $656,668 over the 10-year agreement based on the current mill rate of 38.05, city records show. The city would otherwise be slated to recoup just $8,714 annually in taxes, or $87,140 over a decade, from the undeveloped land.
Ryan Carrier, a construction manager for Carrier, said the development company will begin demolishing a blighted multi-family home at the six parcel property sometime in May, and will start construction shortly after. He estimates the apartment community will be finished and open for prospective residents in the next 18 months.
Most units will be equipped with keyless entry systems, private balconies, a master bedroom, walk-in closet, dining room and an assigned storage space in the basement. The site will feature amenities such as park furniture, vehicle charging stations, bike racks and on-site parking for residents.
Renderings of what the development might look like were not immediately available.
Carrier says the underutilized property emerged with redevelopment potential when the city in 2013 amended its zoning regulations to allow for more medium-density modern housing in the downtown corridor. That change was meant to build off Bristol’s 2015 plan of conservation and development, in addition to an anti-blight initiative it launched more than two decades ago, city officials say.
“It’s sort of a high-profile location that really needed the right project and developer,” he said. “And we have it with Carrier.”
Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu in an interview said the property for many residents represented what was part of downtown’s decline in recent decades.
A large stone apartment building on the property had become an eyesore some 20 years ago, and eventually became the first structure the city razed as part of its anti-blight enforcement.
Today, Zoppo-Sassu said the city is aggressively marketing and investing in its downtown core to woo new retail businesses, apartments or restaurants.
Despite COVID-19, Construction Continues on Milford Bridge
The construction of a replacement bridge that carries Wheelers Farms Road over State Road 796, a short highway that connects the Merritt Parkway and Wilbur Cross Parkway to I-95 and the Boston Post Road in Milford, Conn., resumed in early April with completion projected for the fall of 2021.
The job has continued during the COVID-19 pandemic with construction jobs not stopped in Connecticut. Though Gov. Ned Lamont has established business restrictions during the pandemic, he has spared the construction industry, with limitations only placed on indoor construction jobs.
"We're keeping our big, outdoor, public construction projects going, roads, bridges, schools — where it's easier to keep social distancing," Lamont said.
The new structure will be a two-span continuous multi-girder bridge resting on concrete abutments and a center pier. The profile of Wheeler's Farm Road will be raised to increase the minimum vertical clearance over SR 796 to the required 15 ft. The new spans will be lengthened to allow a 6.5-ft. inside shoulder, three 12-ft. travel lanes and a 10 ft. outside shoulder in each direction on SR 796.
New England Road of Clinton, Conn., is the general contractor and won the job with a low bid of $6,848,318, according to Alan Neri, an owner of the company.
The existing bridge was built in 1941 and is being replaced because it is structurally deficient and functionally obsolete, according to Kevin Nursick, a CTDOT spokesperson. "The structural deficiency is due to the deteriorated condition of the deck, superstructure and substructure. All three are rated poor. The deck has hollow area with spalling and the steel girder webs and bearings exhibit section loss and rust. The abutments exhibit numerous spalls and cracking and the steel pier girder has large areas of rust and section loss. It is functionally obsolete due to a substandard roadway width and minimum vertical clearance of 13.8 feet."
The job began a year ago but was held up by utility issues.
"The utility coordination shouldn't have taken as long as it did, but we're at the mercy of the utility companies to get coordinated," Neri said. "Gas, telephone and electric, there were a lot of facilities to relocate. Overhead electric, telephone and cable lines were relocated to clear the area for Stage One construction. In addition, an underground gas main was modified and underground communication lines were exposed and are to be protected and supported in place while the substructure and bridge are constructed around them. All this has delayed the project approximately one construction season."
With the utility issues out of the way, the company began construction of the bridge, which will be completed in three stages: demolition and construction of the East and West sections of the bridge and the addition of acceleration and deceleration lanes.
"We started the job this winter with the demolition of the Stage One section of the bridge," Neri said. "We removed the concrete deck over the connector using shielding to keep at least one lane of traffic open in each direction. Once the deck was removed, we removed the structural steel girders, cutting them at the center and picking them off with a crane. The existing steel pier was cut and removed in sections. The earth support around the excavation for the Stage One section of the pier has been installed and the pier footing section has been poured. Soon, we will pour the concrete for the pier and start reconstruction of the Stage One new abutment sections."
The existing bridge is a 100-ft. span and the new bridge will be a 150-ft. span, with lane widening occurring at the end of the job. "The last stage is to widen the connector," Remi said.
When asked why the bridge had to be expanded, Neri said, "The road is getting wider down below so the abutments needed to be built further from the edge of the road."
The company is using a Grove rough-terrain crane on the job, along with a Caterpillar wheeled excavator and Genie and JLG lifts.
New England Road will work with subcontractors on the job, including Kelly Steel of Hartford, Conn., that will do the steel erection; National Shoring of Waterford, Conn.; and Advance Resources, also of Waterford, that will do the paving and Total Fence of New Haven, Conn., that will construct the guardrails.
The 2019 ADT for Wheeler's Farm Road is 8064 vehicles per day, while the ADT for SR 796 is approximately 60,000 vehicles per day, according to CTDOT figures. CEG
CT DOL is processing $600 stimulus checks for unemployed
Mark Pazniokas
The state Department of Labor has completed computer programming changes that allow the state to make the $600 weekly stimulus payments authorized by Congress for people receiving unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic, state officials announced Tuesday.
With the first payments processed over the weekend, $89 million in stimulus benefits were being paid.
Applications are expected to open Thursday for a separate benefit, “pandemic unemployment assistance,” authorized by Congress for self-employed and gig workers who cannot work due to the COVID-19 restrictions. Officials said work is nearly complete on a system to process and pay those claims. Benefits will be retroactive.
“There are hundreds of thousands in our state relying on our Department of Labor to help get them through this crisis, and the state’s loyal and hard-working team never lost sight of that. This is a difficult time for so many, and I appreciate that these new benefits are being distributed,” Gov. Ned Lamont said.
The department was deluged with a wave of 402,000 jobless claims in six weeks as the pandemic forced the shutdown of schools, restaurants and many retailers and other businesses.
“The task was complicated, due to a 40-year-old mainframe using a COBOL operating system. Despite these challenges, we have now processed over 340,000 of the 402,000 claim applications filed since March 13,” said Kurt Westby, the labor commissioner.
The additional $600 weekly payment, known as federal pandemic unemployment compensation, is retroactive to March 29 and will be provided through July 20. Claimants can check their online accounts on the CTDOL website at www.filectui.com for payments processed over the weekend. Retroactive payments will come as a lump sum by the end of this week.
A third new unemployment benefit also is coming: The “pandemic emergency unemployment compensation” benefit is a 13-week extension that allows eligible claimants to collect the additional weeks after exhausting the 26 weeks of state benefits. That will be available in mid-May and also is retroactive.