'We got in under the wire': Litchfield snags federal funds for bridges before program ends
Sandra Diamond Fox LITCHFIELD — The Board of Selectmen have unanimously approved renovations of four bridges as part of a federally funded program.
The board awarded the renovation project to Black & Warner Construction Co. in Unionville for about $900,000 for all four bridges.
As part of the Preservation of Four Bridges program, the bridges’ life will be extended to up to 75 years instead of 30 to 40 years.
The bridges to be renovated will be on East Litchfield, Wheeler, Sawmill and Duck Pond roads. All are slightly greater than a 20-foot-span.
According to Public Works Director & Town Engineer Raz Alexe, the program involves an 80-20 split of funding: 80 percent is covered through federal funds and 20 percent is covered by the Town of Litchfield. Of the $2.5 million the project costs, Litchfield will be responsible for about $500,000. This includes design, construction and construction inspection services for all four bridges.
For a full replacement, each bridge would cost at least $600,000 to $800,000.
“This is not complete refurbishing,” Alexe said. “This is structural damages such as deck and guardrails, as well as the floor and the abutments.”
He said none of the bridges will be replaced.
“These are all cosmetic,” he said.
According to Alexe, those are the last four bridges that were eligible for the program, which has ended.
“So, we got in under the wire,” he said.
The project is the result of a three-year effort.
“We managed to gradually bond money. Forty percent of the last chunk will be bonded for capital 2022,” he said. “We’re in very good shape.”
Alexe praised Black & Warner, saying the company has previously completed successful projects in Litchfield.
The construction is expected to take about eight months, starting in April 2021 and finishing before next Thanksgiving.
Litchfield is the second town in Connecticut, behind Berlin, to benefit from the program.
Three of the four bridges in the program will have their roads completely shut down during the construction. According to Alexe, only Wheeler Road will remain open and be reduced to one lane to connect with Torrington.
Give Buttigieg the chance to fix transportation the right way
Noah Smith Former mayor and one-time presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has been tapped to be President-elect Joe Biden’s transportation secretary.
He’ll bring a much-needed dose of managerial competence to an oft-neglected area of government policymaking. By focusing on identifying and remedying sources of excess cost in our infrastructure system, and by helping speed the transition to electric vehicles, he can have a major impact even in an era of political deadlock.
The biggest transportation issue on everyone’s mind is infrastructure. Not only are U.S. roads and bridges perpetually falling apart, but big construction spending is needed as a stimulus to boost the country out of its post-pandemic doldrums. Buttigieg, during his primary presidential run, was one of a number of Democratic candidates to propose a construction spending bonanza.
Unfortunately, this is how the U.S. does infrastructure. We delay repairing it, arguing over how much to spend and who foots the bill, until there’s an economic crisis. Then, as in the 2009 stimulus bill, we splurge on road repair and patch things up for another decade. Depending on how much cooperation they get in Congress, Biden and Buttigieg might be able to pull off this trick again.
But a bigger issue looms behind the scenes: how much it all costs. The reason America spends only reluctantly and fitfully on infrastructure goes beyond mere partisan bickering. The U.S. is unusual among advanced nations in having ruinously high construction costs for both roads and public transit. By some measures, productivity in the industry is actually falling.
There are many different theories explaining why the price for construction has risen so dramatically, including land-use policies that allow landowners to block construction, and inefficiency and corruption in the contracting process. In actuality, it’s probably a combination of factors, encouraged by decades of complacency. Because no one can identify a specific cause, it’s not the kind of thing that the president can wave his hands and fix, even with the help of Congress.
That’s where Buttigieg comes in. He spent several years working as a McKinsey & Co. consultant. During that time, he consulted for various federal government agencies. Now, you may have a problem with McKinsey’s ethics, but you have to admit they know their stuff when it comes to cost-cutting. Buttigieg is therefore uniquely qualified to get to the bottom of U.S. infrastructure costs.
The key would be to assemble a panel of experts, tasked with identifying, quantifying and proposing solutions to the various cost problems in the U.S. system over the next four years. This is a long-term effort, and probably wouldn’t pay off during Biden’s first term in office. But if successful, a McKinsey-like cost-cutting push would make it easier for both states and the federal government to spend on fixing roads and building new trains in the future.
A second big thing Transportation Secretary Buttigieg can do, even without Congress, is to help speed the U.S. toward its zero-carbon future. One important piece of the energy transition lies firmly within the purview of the Department of Transportation: the shift to electric vehicles.
EVs are finally becoming competitive with internal combustion engines in terms of both cost and range. That alone will increase adoption, but things will go much faster if the government acts to boost the number of charging stations. Instead of waiting for the free market to build this network up slowly, the government needs to act to speed the process along. Biden understands this, and pledged to build 500,000 new public charging outlets by 2030.
So Buttigieg will have plenty of chances to leverage his consulting skills in the service of upgrading U.S. infrastructure. Beyond just lobbing a big pot of money at the problem, bringing down infrastructure costs and transitioning to electric vehicles will require smarts and a hard-headed, problem-solving approach.
Noah Smith is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, and he blogs at Noahpinion.
$6.3 million for dam bypass that migrating fish aren’t using. Experts are trying to fix it.
Michal P. Mayko SEYMOUR — When state and federal officials unveiled the $6.3 million Tingue Dam fish bypass in 2014, they heralded it as the fish maker.
These days, Kevin Zak sees the Denil Fishway more like a “$6.3 million paperweight.”
The bypass was designed to enable migratory fish to climb the nearby Kinneytown Dam fish ladder built in 1998 and swim along the 32 miles of the Naugatuck River to spawn.
But Zak, who heads the Naugatuck River Revival Group, has seen nowhere near the predicted passage of the 20,000 shad or the 30,000 river herring during his years filming fish migration in the area.
In fact, the fish ladder is mostly ignored by the fish, who seem to bypass its entrance, apparently stymied by its tortuous, twisted length. Fish ladders are most effective when they are straight and short and do not include the twists and turns of the long Kinneytown ladder, according to experts.
But help may be on the way.
The Naugatuck River Restoration Coalition, which includes the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments, the Naugatuck River Revival Group and Save the Sound, has formed to fight for improvements to the dam and fish ladder and enlisted the help of an attorney to work with federal agents and the owners of the property to fix the problems.
Waterbury Mayor Neil O’Leary, who chairs the Naugatuck Valley of Governments, said during its Dec. 10 meeting that the Kinneytown Dam project will be “one of our highest priorities moving into the new year.”To that end, the council plans to have its staff meet with the state’s congressional delegation as well as representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to discuss the problems and possible actions.
The coalition, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have filed paperwork with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington, D.C., seeking action. FERC has opened a docket on the matter.
The hope is FERC will convince Enel Greenpower, a multi-national energy supplier based in Italy that owns the Kinneytown Dam and the two power plants it services, to comply with orders to ensure the ladder is operable, coalition members said.
“We’re all upset at how long this has been going on,” said Kat Fiedler, a staff attorney with Save the Sound. “At this point, the Fish and Wildlife Service has requested information to determine what needs to be done. Now we need to transition to taking overdue steps to fix these issues. It could become an enforcement action at a later stage, if those steps aren’t taken.”Experts are divided on why the initial project appears to have failed so spectacularly.
“It is the fish ladder that requires fish to make an arduous and often deadly climb that is the problem,” said Rick Dunne, executive director of the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments.
Another problem, critics said, are the two hydroelectric power plants supplied by the dam. The largest in Seymour is adjacent to the dam and produces about 1.8 megawatts of energy.
The second smaller one about a mile and a half away on Ansonia’s Fourth Street is designed to produce just under a megawatt of power but has been been inoperable since at least 2013 when it was damaged by fire.
In a letter to FERC, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claims the inoperable Ansonia power station causes the dam to spill frequently and as a result, attracts fish to the base of the dam, limiting the ladder’s effectiveness.
John Waldman, a SUNY biology professor, said deterioration of the dam — which he described as “a tired-looking cement monolith with giant horizontal cracks, numerous leaks and bent rebar sticking out of it” — also has contributed in big part to the problem.
His description, which appeared in a letter in Hearst Connecticut Media Group’s newspapers, led Aaron Budris, a senior regional planner with the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments, to advise its members that a dam breach could pose additional risks to life and property along the Naugatuck River Greenway Trail, which runs through Derby, Ansonia and Seymour as well as O’Sullivan Island in Derby.
“If anything, it is the flow of water over the top of the dam that is causing other problems that contribute to the deficiency of fish passing,” Dunne said. “But make no mistake, it is the utter failure of the design and maintenance of that fish ladder that is the problem with getting fish further upstream.”
“You see this down here?” Zak said, pointing to bottom of the Kinneytown Dam waterfall, some 1.8 miles upstream from the start of the fish ladder. “I call that the killing zone.”
Waldeman’s description was more stark.
“Look closely in springtime and you will see the force of life pressing against the dam, hundreds of individual fish — even trout and salmon — frustrated in their attempts to move upriver to spawn,” Waldman wrote. “Some perish, their bodies drying in the sun. This occurs right next to a lengthy, zig-zagging engineered fish ladder intended to allow passage over the dam. It has been a failure.”
In a Nov. 9, letter, Enel informed FERC they don’t intend to decommission the Ansonia powerhouse but were seeking funding through financial incentives like grants, tax credits or other revenue sources to repair it.
On Nov. 30, Save The Sound and the Naugatuck River Revival Group fired back with a letter of their own demanding FERC require performance-based standards for safe, timely and effective fish passage and effectiveness testing to make sure the standards are actually met.
“It is the clear record of failure to properly operate and maintain this facility by the Kinneytown Hydro Project owner, ENEL, that has exacerbated the poor design of the fish ladder and led directly to the reduction in fish passage to essentially zero today from the level it was at when constructed,” said Dunne.
A spokesman for Enel’s North American subsidiary did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On Dec. 12, Zak led a group of officials — Ansonia Mayor David Cassetti, Seymour First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis, Seymour Selectman Chris Bowen and Greg Martin, Cassetti’s director of constituent services — on a tour of the area surrounding the dam and its power plants.
“This was an eye-opener,” said Drugonis, an environmental engineer who recently became Seymour’s First Selectwoman.
“I am concerned about the debris in the water and the fact that the dam and its power stations have been neglected,” she said. “It annoys me. There are responsibilities that go along with running a business.”
She urged her fellow selectmen to take a view of the dam, which is in a wooded area across from the Valley Burger Shack on South Main Street and alongside a Metro-North Railroad track.
During the tour, Zak pointed out the deteriorating areas of the dam cited by Waldman.
Martin said he fears a breach of the dam could spell catastrophe for some sections of Ansonia.
“Could you imagine the force of the flow of this water?” Martin said. “There are five flood gates we would have to close within minutes.”
Cassetti, who has a background in construction, said it would be worthwhile to dispatch a scuba diver to inspect the dam’s bulkhead. The mayor also wants the Ansonia power station repaired and put back on line.
“That could generate enough power for our entire North End,” the Ansonia mayor said.
Zak said he sees a bigger picture than just cleaning up the immediate problems of the dam and the fish ladder.
“Can you imagine if this was all working properly?” he said. “I know you’d have fisherman from New York to Massachusetts down here fishing, eating at the local restaurants and visiting local businesses.
‘It just looks beautiful’: A first look a the Bethel elementary school projects
Julia Perkins BETHEL — In the newly renovated first-grade classrooms at Rockwell Elementary School, desks can be easily moved for students to collaborate.
Teachers may use interactive whiteboard space to assist with lessons.
“The walls talk,” Principal Trisha Soucy said in a recent virtual tour of the space.
The $65.8 million renovations to Rockwell and Johnson elementary schools are mostly complete and about $878,000 under budget.
“It just looks beautiful,” Superintendent Christine Carver said last week.
With natural light, more office and collaboration space, and other features, the buildings are major step up from before the renovations began last year, she said. Rockwell was built in 1971, while Johnson was built in 1980.
“Our teachers are really thrilled with their new spaces, with the technology,” Carver said. “It’s just stuff they’ve never had before, and the students just love their new learning environment. It’s so cheerful and sunny.”
The gyms at both schools are the biggest items to be completed, with some minor items and outside work also on the to-do list.
Carver hopes crews will be finished by end of January or early February, with the possible exception of the soccer fields at Johnson to be wrapped up in the spring.
Students and teachers have been in the buildings since September, but the community got their first look recently when Carver shared video tours of the spaces.
She described the “state of the art” chorus room at Johnson and nearby ensemble and sound-proof practice spaces. An amphitheater at Johnson will allow for indoor and outdoor performances.
The schools allow for more natural light and feature wooden ceilings.
“It really does make it aesthetically look inviting and pleasing to the students,” Caver said in the video.
Many areas, such as the makerspace in the media center, are unable to be used due to the coronavirus pandemic, she said. But that makerspace is meant to be where students may create an invention.
“It’s really meant to be an area to direct the creativity in our students,” Carver said.
At Rockwell, all the kindergarten classrooms have bathrooms and cubbies, with the other students having lockers in the hallways. This keeps clutter out of the classroom and gives students a “moving break,” Soucy said.
“The kids love them,” she said.
At Rockwell, English learners have their own space, rather than the corner of the math instructional suite. The school also has a “literacy suite,” instead of storing books in the custodial closet.
The coronavirus pandemic slowed delivery of some materials, such as steel, and affected staffing due to exposures at other sites, Carver said.
But it also helped workers to catch up on the schedule because they could access more parts of the buildings when students were at home, she said.“They are still a little bit off schedule, but it was a little bit more substantial going into the spring,” Carver said.
By the time students returned in the fall, all the occupied spaces, such as classrooms were completed. Places like the gym and cafeteria were unfinished but unable to be used due to the pandemic.
“We were able to really create a barrier between the construction and the students as they finished up those final spaces,” Carver said.
A state grant covers 45 percent of eligible costs of the renovations.
The project is overall under budget, but Rockwell is over estimated costs due to hazardous materials in the building being worse and more costly to remediate than expected, Carver said. These environmental issues were one of the biggest challenges from the project, she said.
But Johnson is far under budget because environmental issues were much less than anticipated, she said. Technology, furniture, fixtures and equipment were also under budget.
Johnson still has almost $1.8 million in contingency, but Rockwell is over by $313,000, according to the Public Site and Building Commission’s meeting minutes.
Since there was money in the Johnson budget, the commission approved converting the soccer fields to regulation size.
“It’s a great asset for the town,” Carver said.