W.I. Clark's Team Blue Crushes Connecticut With Kleemann Line
In 2013, W.I. Clark acquired the Kleemann line of aggregate and recycling products when the Wirtgen Group brought the products to the United States. W.I. Clark had already been a Wirtgen Group dealer for milling machines, Vogele pavers and Hamm compactors. The dealer also represents John Deere (of which the Wirtgen Group is a subsidiary) construction and industrial equipment in the state of Connecticut
"W.I. Clark had sold aggregate equipment for many years, but having the Kleemann products allowed us to sell to all applications in that business," said Mark Brester. Brewster had been a main line salesman for W.I. Clark since 2002 and took on responsibility for aggregate and recycling equipment in 2017. "The Kleemann product line is in a league of its own and put us in a position to have the equipment the premier aggregate producers in the state of Connecticut need in their operations as well as the Connecticut's recyclers."
As W.I. Clark has always known those customers have a different set of demands and needs that need to be addressed.
Aggregate producers and recyclers not only have their own language, but they also had a very unique set of circumstances unlike a contractor with a fleet of equipment. A contractor who owns a fleet of 25 machines can certainly be hurt by one machine going down, but it is unlikely that it would stop the entire operation. However, an aggregate producer/recycler can have its entire business come to a screeching halt when its machine is not running.
According to Brester, "That puts the demands on the dealership to a whole new level. Our technicians need to be trained well. Our parts department has in stock the right parts and to source immediately those parts they need not in stock. When we sell a piece of equipment, it has to be the right piece of equipment for the application at hand.
"We needed everyone involved in the Kleemann product to be a product specialist, so we came up with the concept internally of ‘Team Blue," consisting of individuals within W.I. Clark who would receive specialized training and would be ready to react when the Kleemann customer needs us."
Team Blue at W.I. Clark
- Mark Brester, aggregate/production class equipment specialist
- Mike Greenwood Sr., assistant service manager/Kleemann tech advisor
- Geoff Bleiler, rental manager
- Russell Hansen, service administration
- Mike Greenwood Jr, field service technician
- Jeremy Kastelli, field service technician
- Kyle Levesque, shop service technician
- Mike Lallier, shop service technician/screeners
- Chuck Bakutis, Kleemann parts inventory management
JRD Properties is recycling 50,000 yds. of material just off I-84 in downtown Waterbury, Conn.
This giant pile consists of a mixture of rock, dirt, asphalt and concrete and other debris that is being recycled into a 1-1/2-in. minus product and then sold locally. The area is extremely tight on space and a traditional recycling spread made up of a jaw, cone and screener just would not fit.
To make it work, Mark Brester of W.I. Clark, and the rest of Team Blue at W.I. Clark installed a Kleemann MR110 track-mounted impact crusher. This single machine takes up far less real estate, yet does the job that required three machines in the past.
The Kleemann MR110 Impactor features include:
- an independent pre-screen that effectively removes fines to by-pass the rotor. This frees up the rotor to crush what's only needed. The pre-screened fines and crushed material can blend back together underneath the crusher box. This improves machine throughput, wear life and fuel efficiency.
- The diesel/electric power (versus diesel/hydraulic) operates at a consistent rpm and constantly adjusts the amount of material being fed to the impactor box to optimize productivity and keep operating costs as low as possible.
- The classifier sizes everything discharged from the Kleemann (here 1-1/2-in. minus) and recycles anything larger back to the impactor.
- The Kleemann impactors use a material flow design concept where each component gets wider as it moves through the machine. This reduces potential blockages and maximizes material flow for optimum performance in these types of applications.
- As much as all users are careful, every crushing operation will have uncrushables fed to the system. When the MR110 rotor is immediately stopped from spinning at 1,700 rpms, the energy is relieved by a "blowout" plate. This is easily and quickly replaced and the customer is back to work minimizing very costly repairs.
A Kleemann stacker was added to the spread to lower significantly the customer's overall operating costs
JRD Properties partnered with S & S Asphalt Paving in certain aspects of this project. Bill Kirhoffer was the key person who fed the impactor daily.
"The operator in this type of setup is a huge part of the operation," Brester said. "Bill has proven to be very skillful at mixing from the pile the right combination of materials; dirt versus asphalt versus concrete, which makes all the difference in the quality of the end product."
"What's great about this setup is that we are using one machine to make one product," added Kirhoffer. "In the past we would have needed a jaw, an impactor and a screener. This has everything we need in one compact unit. I really appreciate the diesel electric power system; if something gets stuck in a belt, it just trips off a breaker where normally the belt would be ripped to shreds."
"We really appreciate working with W.I. Clark. They are truly professionals. They have been great at selecting the right machine for this job and training us on its proper operation. S & S Asphalt has been doing business with W.I. Clark for more than 30 years, however, this was our first experience using them for aggregate equipment. Mark Brester with W.I. Clark checks in with us on a very regular basis to see what our needs are. He knows the machine inside and out and has been a tremendous help to us."
O&G Industries, Southbury Plant
The O&G Quarry Southbury, Conn., plant recently purchased a Kleemann Mobiscreen MS 953I EVO.
According to Tom Alexon, quarry superintendent, "The plant was purchased primarily for the production of a 3/8-inch minus product for the use in NovaChip paving, which is in high demand. In addition, we have also used the Kleemann for some asphalt plant cleanup rescreening and classifying, but it is primarily being used for the 3/8-inch minus product production. Material that is processed through this plant has ¼-inch stone removed and the 3/8-inch minus product separated."
"The NovaChip paving process is where you pave over an existing surface using Vogele 1800 spray jet pavers and eliminate milling, but the spec for the aggregate is very tight," Alexon added. "With the increased popularity of this paving process, the demand for this stone has increased dramatically, which is what drove O&G to be looking for the new screening plant."
"One of the things that attracted us to this particular screening plant is that it is a dry screening process — thus, there are no environmental issues with water contamination."
With O&G's setup, because they are screening a 3/8-in. minus, the top decks are removed so that the screens are not worn out. Thus, material is dropped directly to the middle deck; 1/2-in. and larger materials are separated as one product; 5/16-in. material also is separated out, as well as a true 3/8-in. material.
"All of the products that are being produced, we currently have a market for," Alexon said. "Thus far, the screening plant has met all of our expectations and it has been making spec with a single pass through the screening plant, which is where O&G has really seen the benefits of this purchase. In the past, it had taken two trips through the screening plants to make spec."
Another significant benefit with the Kleemann versus O&G's previous screening plant is fuel consumption, Alexon said. "The Kleemann is easily consuming half the fuel versus its predecessor. The difference being the Kleemann operates at a much lower rpm. The screening plant itself is significantly larger and operates at a lower rpm — the combined effect is larger production numbers with lower fuel consumption."
The plant's mobility also gives O&G some flexibility in how it is used.
"The screener, with its mobility, can be used all over the O&G plant. Wherever screening or recycling needs to take place and with its mobility, it is much more efficient to haul the Kleemann around the O&G plant than it is to haul material by the bucket load to the screening plant."
Rockhead Quarry
Rockhead Quarry is producing four products: 1-1/4-in. stone, 3/4-in. clean stone, 3/8-in. clean stone and stone dust. To produce these products, its crushing spread consists of a
- Kleemann MC110ZI EVO with a 44 by 28-in. jaw
- Kleemann MCO9SI cone with classifier
- Kleemann MS703I. screen
Nick Ferraina, plant manager, commented on several features of the Kleemann plant and the services provided by W.I. Clark.
"I have really been impressed with the continuous feeding system featured in the Kleemann crushing spreads," he said. "The crusher maintains a continuous, consistent flow of material through the jaw that gives you rock on rock crushing in the cone, providing improved fragmentation. The end result is a better product."
"The new configuration that W.I. Clark and Kleemann gave us eliminated a massive spread that ate up a lot of real estate, took up twice the manpower, consumed twice the fuel and had twice the wear parts. The noise level while crushing is excellent and really helps keeping neighbor complaints to a minimum.
"This new spread is compact and portable. We could easily move the entire setup in half a day. When we made this purchase, we shopped the Kleemann and W.I. Clark and compared feature-to-feature and the economics of operation, it just made sense to go with Kleemann and the W.I. Clark Blue Team.
"W.I. Clark has given us tremendous support. They have a regular schedule of visits to check on our operations and how we are getting along with our new setup. Their training is excellent and ongoing. It certainly helps that the Kleemann equipment is interface user-friendly and has good accessibility to the areas that need maintenance. As an example, we are able to change the screen mesh in less than a half hour." CEG
CT DOT outlines plans for nearly $4 billion in capital projects
Paul Schott
Connecticut's roads and railroad lines are used every year by its approximately
3.6 million residents and millions more out-of-state workers and travelers.
To keep up with the wear
and tear, the state Department of Transportation is constantly working on
maintenance and improvement projects.
The most important of
those initiatives are outlined every four years in the Statewide Transportation
Improvement Program. The DOT is receiving public comments on the draft version
of the latest STIP, to cover the years 2021-2024.
The 223 projects listed
in the new STIP would cumulatively be funded with approximately $3.9 billion,
roughly $3.2 billion in federal money, about $684 million from the state and
some $17 million from municipalities.
About 60 percent of the
funds would be used for highway and bridge projects, while the other 40 percent
would go toward rail, bus and ride-share programs.
Connecticut's eight
Metropolitan Planning Organizations and two Rural Councils of Governments
contribute to the STIP's development.
"The list of
projects is wide and encompassing," said state Sen. Carlo Leone,
D-Stamford, co-chairman of the state Legislature's Transportation Committee.
Some the marquee
initiatives planned across the state in the next four years, with DOT
construction cost estimates, include the following:
Interstate 95
About $345 million for renovations of the Gold Star Memorial
Bridge, which carries the highway over the Thames River, between New London and
Groton. Work would involve structural steel repairs and upgrades, as well as
replacement of the deck for the older, northbound structure. Work has already
been completed on the southbound structure.
$180 million for work in Greenwich and Stamford that would include
pavement improvements and bridge renovations. On the southbound side of Exit 3
in Greenwich, there would be a minor widening of the roadway to increase the
length of the existing deceleration lane to improve safety and alleviate
congestion.
$142 million for improvements at exit 74 in East Lyme. The project
would include replacing the highway’s bridge over Route 161, to address its
poor condition and accommodate a widening on Route 161.
$70 million for upgrades in Norwalk and Westport. About two miles
of the highway in those towns would be rebuilt between the Norwalk River and
Saugatuck River.
The existing bridge over Route 33 at exit 17 would be replaced
using “accelerated construction” and minor work would be carried out on the
Westport bridges over Franklin Street and over the Saugatuck River to maintain
a “state of good repair” for those structures.
Merritt Parkway
Upgrades on Route 15 in Norwalk and New
Canaan would total about $53 million and include bridge improvements and
resurfacing.
Metro-North Railroad
Replacement of the four-track Walk
Bridge in Norwalk arguably represents the most ambitious rail project supported
by the STIP.
Scheduled to start in mid-2021 and take
about four to five years to complete, the undertaking has an estimated total
cost of $511 million.
Built in 1896, the 564-foot-long swing
bridge is one of the oldest movable bridges in the region.
“The Walk Bridge has outlived its
intended lifespan and experienced repeated operational failures in recent
years,” reads an excerpt on the DOT website. “It is vulnerable to damage from
storm surges and high winds and requires replacement.”
The STIP also makes eight-figure
allocations for improvements to several other rail bridges in Norwalk, including
$60 million for the East Avenue bridge, $50 million for the Fort Point Street
bridge and $15 million for the Osborne Avenue bridge.
Other projects include New Haven line
signal-system replacements, whose allotments would total more than $140 million.
In addition, there is an annual program
to renovate stations on the New Haven line.
Stonington approves $30 million apartment building for downtown Pawcatuck
Joe Wojtas Stonington — The Planning and Zoning Commission has approved a special permit for a Boston developer to construct an 82-unit apartment building on the former Campbell Grain building site in downtown Pawcatuck.
The commission voted unanimously to approve the permit for the project after a virtual public hearing last week.
Plans call for a five-story, 116,000-square-foot building with parking under the building and on site and a riverfront walkway with public access. The almost two-acre site is at the end of Coggswell Street, is bordered by the Amtrak line and has 240 feet of frontage along the Pawcatuck River.
A total of 70% of the units would be considered affordable housing under state law. This means Winn Development Co. LP of Boston did not have to comply with all zoning requirements in place for the neighborhood. It also meant it would have been difficult to reject the application because the commission would have had to prove that health and safety concerns outweigh the need for affordable housing.
The project does not comply with various requirement of the zoning regulations, among these being maximum density and maximum height as well as setback requirements and maximum floor area ratio.The Economic Development Commission, which has supported the $30 million project, has said affordable housing is needed here to meet a growing demand in the region.
The EDC has also said the project will generate $500,000 in tax revenue for the town and will help revitalize downtown Pawcatuck as a walkable neighborhood with proximity to shops, restaurants, parks, the library, transportation, and other amenities.
Anna Reynolds School renovation on the ballot for Newington voters
Steven Goode NEWINGTON — A $33.5 million renovation project for Anna Reynolds School will be decided by Newington voters when they go to the polls or send in their absentee ballots this election season. The referendum question asks whether to approve $33.5 million in bonding for a renovate-to-new building project at the elementary school.
Local taxpayers would be responsible for up to $17.5 million of the cost of the project. School building grants from the state would cover the remaining cost. The town council voted unanimously to have the question added to the ballot.
If approved by voters, construction would begin in the summer of 2021 and be completed by December 2022. Students would attend the school during construction.
District officials and parents have been seeking upgrades to the school for several years as its condition has continued to deteriorate.
Built in 1954 and originally known as Northwest Elementary School, the 65,000-square-foot building suffers from a chronically leaking roof that has led some students to joke about the school’s “waterfall feature.”
Before the roof was recently repaired again, Principal Jason Smith said that 11 of the school’s 20 classrooms were experiencing leaks, which are expected to return without a new roof.
Teachers and parents have also complained about a foul odor that is emitted in the building during times of dampness and humidity and the harm it could do to those with allergies or breathing issues.
The building is also not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act requirement, has outdated plumbing, electrical and heating ventilation and air conditioning, officials say. The only air-conditioning the school has is window units around the building and open windows. Temperature control also fluctuates greatly from classroom to classroom.
Other issues include a main entrance that does not align with modern security precautions for people coming into the building, gaps in exterior doors that allow for insects and worms to enter the building and a lack of storage areas.
Carol Duggan counts herself as a supporter of the project for several reasons. She attended the school, sent two children through it and taught kindergarten and first grade at Anna Reynolds for 27 years.
“The kids deserve to have a school with a safe environment,” said Duggan, who is a member of the school’s PTO. “Now it’s time for the town to step up.”
Mayor Beth Delbuono said a fact sheet is being prepared to be sent out with absentee ballot applications. Delbuono said she wasn’t sure if they would be sent to every household.
Waterbury downtown road reconstruction project hampered by century-old pipe system
Michael Puffer WATERBURY – Many of the gas, water and sewer pipes below the city’s center date to the late 1800s. And the city maps showing where these run aren’t entirely accurate.
This has caused a delay of several months to the ongoing reconstruction a quarter-mile stretch of East Main Street downtown, as well as an estimated $1.1 million jump in costs.
The city is pursuing a project to give a facelift to East Main Street, sidewalks and lighting between the downtown Green and police headquarters. This section runs past the downtown branch campus of the University of Connecticut, the Palace Theater, the Waterbury Arts Magnet School and an assortment of businesses.
It began this spring with an effort to fix and upgrade underground utilities. City officials don’t want to fix the street only to have to dig it up again to fix broken water pipes or other utilities.
But Dayton Construction, which has the $2.7 million contract to fix underground infrastructure, found those utilities often were not where city maps said they should be, Waterbury Development Corp. interim CEO Dan Pesce explained. So they’ve had to gingerly dig with shovels instead of heavy equipment to avoid damage and service interrupts.That means delays and extra costs.
There is one cast-iron gas main dating to 1870, Pesce said. Water and sewer lines appear to date to about 1880.
“You are looking at Civil War infrastructure that we have underground,” Pesce said. “It’s really a restoration of infrastructure dating back to 1870.”
The below ground work was originally supposed to be completed July 16. Now, Pesce said, it’s expected to wrap-up Nov. 30. Aboveground work will go forward in spring.
Mayor Neil M. O’Leary’s administration is also planning similar street upgrades on stretches of Bank Street, North Main Street and South Main Street branching off East Main. The city has secured $8 million in state transportation grant dollars for the “above-ground” work on these streets and East Main. It hasn’t yet secured funding for underground work on the branch streets.
Pesce said there’s no telling when branch streets might be upgraded until funding is secured.
Mackenzie Demac, O’Leary’s chief of staff, would only say the city is “evaluating its options” for costs of underground work on the branch streets.
State presses ahead with plans for $20 million pedestrian bridge in New London
Greg Smith New London — The National Coast Guard Museum Association has submitted an application to the city for construction of a 400-foot glass-walled pedestrian bridge to span Water Street and connect the downtown with the waterfront and future Coast Guard museum.
The state has authorized and approved up to $20 million for design and construction of the bridge, which is considered to be a companion project to the $100 million National Coast Guard Museum. The city’s Planning and Zoning Commission is scheduled to consider the site development plan at its Nov. 5 meeting.
The idea of a pedestrian bridge over Water Street has been talked about for decades as a safe way to connect visitors in the downtown area and those parked at the city-owned parking garage on Water Street with the waterfront, train station, bus terminal and Cross Sound Ferry terminals.
Cross Sound Ferry partnered with the city to develop plans for a bridge back in 2001. Those plans never came to fruition, but a 2013 announcement that the National Coast Guard Museum would be built behind Union Station led to a state pledge of up to $20 million for the project.
Plans submitted to the city’s planning office show the bridge connecting the Water Street parking garage with the north- and southbound train platforms and waterfront area east of the railroad tracks.
Once completed, the National Coast Guard Museum intends to transfer ownership of the bridge to the city, which will maintain and operate it.
“The curved form of the bridge reaches north as it spans Water Street, preserving the space immediately around Union Station. The bridge’s form and orientation on the site will enhance the urban fabric of Parade Plaza by giving definition to the north edge of the open public space, while at the same time safely linking the public spaces across the greater site,” the description of the bridge in the application reads.
The bridge’s glass facade “ensures sweeping views of downtown New London,” and the glass includes a “frit pattern” designed to mitigate bird collisions. Louvers and passive fans will help provide natural ventilation in warmer months.
At the urging of Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Barry Levine and with the commission facing statutory deadlines for review of the project, the commission on Sept. 17 unanimously voted to require a public hearing on the proposal. Levine said site plan reviews don’t always require public hearings but it's been the practice of the commission to require them on big projects.
“What I shared with this applicant during a couple of workshops was putting a bridge over Water Street is a big deal and I think the public should be informed about it and have an opportunity to weigh in,” Levine said at the Sept. 17 meeting.
The commission also granted itself a 90-day extension for review of the project since the 65-day statutory timeline for action on the application would have ended on Oct. 24. He said the commission would have been forced to deny the project or face a default approval without the extension.
The commission additionally has required that the planning department refer the application to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection for a 35-day window to provide comment.
New London Zoning Official Michelle Johnson Scovish said the referral to DEEP had been a subject of debate between her department and an attorney representing the National Coast Guard Museum Association, part of the reason for the delay in bringing the project to the commission.
Robert Ross, executive director of the Connecticut Office of Veterans Affairs, said he expects the project to clear all land-use approvals by the end of the year, though a timeline for the start of construction is not yet clear.
“Our view from the beginning is that the pedestrian bridge supports the National Coast Guard Museum. These two projects have to advance together,” Ross said.Work associated with the Coast Guard museum on bulkheads at the city’s waterfront is expected to start sometime next year.
Ross, designated by former Gov. Dannel Malloy as the liaison between the museum effort and various state agencies, said it has been a collaborative effort to get to this point. Agencies involved have included the Coast Guard, Coast Guard Museum Association, state Department of Transportation, state Department of Economic and Community Development and state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
“All of these big state agencies have really come together to figure out how to make this happen,” Ross said.
The bridge plans, Ross said, have evolved through the years to accommodate recommendations, some surrounding its proximity to Union Station.
Mayor Michael Passero said he knows of no other transportation hub with street-level crossings like New London’s.
“We arguably have (one of) the biggest intermodal transportation hubs all here in one place. And yet the pedestrians are on their own,” he said.
Passero said he views the bridge construction as an economic recovery project for the region, an asset to the downtown “and I think it’s going to be a bit of an architectural landmark in its own right.”
“I think this is a great first step to build confidence for the people out there that still doubt the museum is coming,” he said.
In a special session, the real debate is the agenda
Mark Pazniokas Gov. Ned Lamont issued a call Friday for the General Assembly to return next week for a limited special session, primarily to set new performance-based standards for calculating electric rates and to approve about $500 million of dollars in borrowing for school construction.
The special session is expected to take only two days, but negotiations over the agenda consumed far more time as rank-and-file lawmakers pressed leaders to include favored bills that died without a vote in a regular session curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s been quite complicated,” said House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin. “It feels like Groundhog Day at times, going over the same list of bills.”
The school construction package was reduced after it grew to a level the Lamont administration saw as too generous, given the fiscal uncertainties facing the state as it tries to rebound from the pandemic-induced recession.
“There were some hiccups along the way,” said Paul Mounds, the governor’s chief of staff. “But working in close consultation with legislative leaders we’ve been able to deal with many of the concerns that were raised by our administration on various issues, particularly on the fiscal side.”
Other than school construction, Lamont said he asked that any proposal with a significant budget impact wait to be considered by the next General Assembly, which takes office and convenes on Jan. 6.
“What we wanted to do was really focus on those bills that were timely, we had to do now, couldn’t wait until January,” Lamont said.
Lawmakers would be hard-pressed, however, to argue that all 10 items in the governor’s call require immediate attention, probably including the marquee topic: energy.
Prompted by the widespread outages caused by a tropical storm last month, the energy legislation would freeze electric rates while directing the state’s Public Utility Regulatory Authority to craft new “performance-based regulations” and rates by September 2022.
PURA already had suspended an Eversource rate increase, and it does not need legislative authorization to explore performance-based rate approval.
With widespread anger at Eversource, the bill has a political appeal for lawmakers seeking reelection. They have tabbed the measure “The Take Back Our Grid Act.”
“The Take Back Our Grid Act promises to begin the overhaul Connecticut utilities and ensure the people of our state receive the services they pay for, ensuring that corporations focus on the people they serve instead of the profits they earn,” the Senate Democratic leadership said in a statement.
Lamont said the bill also would address excessive executive compensation.
Other topics included in the call are measures intended to ease the counting of absentee ballots, codify in state law how the prevailing wage is calculated in public works projects, redefine the extent liability for pollution stays with property when it is sold and clarify that condominiums are eligible for coverage under a program to aid homeowners with crumbling foundations.
The elections bill would allow local officials to begin processing absentee ballots before Election Day, but not open or count them. The local officials must check the signature on an outer envelope before an inner envelope is eventually opened and the ballot is fed into an optical scanner to be counted.
For the first time in a general election, any voter can use an absentee ballot — a temporary measure during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There’s going to be 10, 20 times more absentee ballots than we’ve ever had before, and we want to put everybody’s mind at ease and give the registrars all the flexibility they need and make sure we can count these votes on a timely and accurate basis,” Lamont said.
Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, the co-chair of the Appropriations Committee, said none of the school projects in the bill requires immediate funding, but Lamont said in a hastily called news conference Friday afternoon that it was important to lock in the size of the school bonding now.
Osten has an item on the list: A measure to codify state rules for hemp agriculture. Temporary regulations are expiring, and businesses must shut down without state or federal legislation by Oct. 31, she said. A farm in Ledyard, part of her district in eastern Connecticut, was the first permitted to grow hemp. About 50 others have followed suit, she said.
“It’s not a booming business yet, but it’s not going to be booming at all if we shut it down in its infancy,” Osten said.
Under a separate call, lawmakers also are expected to confirm the judicial nominations of a Supreme Court justice and three Appellate Court judges. All four are serving on an interim basis after being appointed in July, when the legislature was not in session. A vote before the regular session was not necessary.
The legislature’s Judiciary Committee is expected to meet Wednesday on the four judicial nominations: Christine E. Keller to the Supreme Court and Joan K. Alexander, José A. Suarez and Melanie L. Cradle to the Appellate Court.
The House is expected to come in on Wednesday and the Senate on Friday.
The prevailing-wage measure is a new version of a bill that died from inaction when the General Assembly suspended its regular session in March and never resumed before its constitutional adjournment deadline in May.
It would codify in state law how the prevailing wage is calculated in Connecticut, essentially by giving the state some distance from federal control.
The state Department of Labor updates the prevailing wage rates every July 1st, but they must be finalized by the U.S. Department of Labor. Trade unions and contractors both supported the measure, saying federal inaction has led to administrative delays and confusion.
“It’s not meant to arbitrarily raise wages. It’s meant to simply protect the law as it is in practice today as a preventive measure,” the Berlin Steel Construction Company told lawmakers in written testimony in March.
But the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and the Council of Small Towns, who complain that the prevailing wage drives up the costs of construction in public works, viewed the measure less benignly.
CCM asked the legislature to complete a detailed fiscal analysis of how the bill would affect cities and towns, and COST declared itself in opposition.
“Under this proposal, prevailing wage rates must be in lockstep with wage rates dictated by union contracts, which will significantly increase costs for state and municipal projects,” said Betsy Gara, executive director of COST.