DOT assumes Cromwell PGA course repairs, hopes for FEMA reimbursement
Josh LaBella
CROMWELL — The state has assumed
remediation of the “slope
failure” caused by Ida’s heavy rains earlier this month near the TPC
River Highlands, which left a refined products pipeline exposed and dozens of
feet of train rails unsupported.
The
massive washout opened up near the golf course’s 13th hole Sept. 2,
where large amounts of earth washed down a steep incline toward the Connecticut
River. Left hanging were a railroad line owned by Providence and Worcester Railroad Co. and Buckeye Partners jet fuel line.
The landslide also displaced trees in the area, which
contributed to the washout. Part of a golf cart path also tumbled down the hill
as a result.
Connecticut Department of Transportation spokesman Kevin
Nursick said construction is now underway at the site, where neighbors at the
time joked a new river view had opened up.
“Work is currently taking place to relocate the pipeline
away from the slope failure,” he said in a statement. The anticipated
completion date is around Sept. 25.
At the same time, Nursick said, crews have “begun and are
performing design activities” to address the slope failure as well as some
drainage improvements. Construction will progress in stages and include tasks
such as clearing for an access road.
Neighbors said they had concerns about the spot after heavy
rains in June washed away some of the rocks and gravel used to support the
railroad, adding that one side of the tracks was left suspended. They said
railroad crews were dispatched at the time to fill the gaps.
Nursick said the state will work to stabilize the slope and
prevent future washouts by creating drainage and other preventive measures. A
project schedule, completion date, and cost analysis for the work is not yet
available, he said, but the intention is to keep things moving along as swiftly
as possible.
“We do not yet have cost estimates, but FEMA is involved and
there may be some federal relief associated with this,” he said.
Preston selectmen approve final Norwich Hospital cleanup plan
Preston — The Board of Selectmen on Thursday
approved the new agreement with state agencies that will allow the cleanup to
resume at the former Norwich Hospital property to prepare to turn the property
over to Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment for proposed major development.
The agreement among the town, Mohegan Tribe and state
Department of Economic and Community Development was approved
Tuesday by the Preston Redevelopment Agency and has been signed by
DECD Commissioner David Lehman.
The agreement resolves several issues that have delayed the
cleanup since the spring of 2019, when the town discovered extensive
previously undocumented coal ash contamination beneath parking lots,
roadways and sidewalks.
Last summer, the state provided a $7 million grant to be
added to a $2 million loan the town had secured previously to finish the
cleanup. The state legislature affirmed that the town could use the state
grant before tapping into the loan.
The new agreement allows the town to expand previously
designated consolidation areas to place the ash and allows the town
to use $5 million of the state grant to clean the property to the point where
it can be conveyed to the tribe. The remaining $4 million will be placed in
escrow to be used for further cleanup based on specific development
plans.
PRA Chairman Sean Nugent outlined the history of the
two-year impasse, along with the new agreement for selectmen Thursday. “I think
it’s important that all three parties have the same end in mind, that we convey
the property,” he said. Previously, he said, the three parties had different
end goals in mind.
Engineering firms hired to design access to proposed Norwich business park in Occum
Norwich — One week after the City Council approved
bonding $740,000 to fund engineering designs for access roads into a proposed
second business park, the Norwich Community Development Corp. on Tuesday
approved the hiring of three contractors to do the work and one to seek federal
funding for the project.
NCDC held a special board meeting Tuesday to approve
resolutions to start new contracts or continue contracts with firms that had
been lined up for the project, awaiting council approval of the funding and
NCDC approval of contracts. There was little discussion, and board Chairman
Robert Buckley said the group had discussed the contractors at past meetings,
and now the board wanted to get started quickly.
The City Council approved the $740,000 funding Sept. 7 to
design new access roads off Interstate 395 at Exit 18 that would serve
traffic into the proposed business park. The ramps would have dedicated lanes
for traffic into the business park and would be similar to ramps at Interstate
95 at Exit 74 in East Lyme for the Costco development.
NCDC has a purchase
agreement for a 284-acre tract of former farmland in Occum to create
what city officials are calling Business Park North. The purchase agreement
with current owners Byron Brook Country Club LLC and M&A Holdings LLC, for
$3.55 million for 17 parcels, runs through Dec. 15 with possible extensions
through 2022.
Prior to the council vote to fund the access road
engineering, Norwich Public Utilities had funded $500,000 to pay for purchase
options and early studies for the business park.
NCDC on Tuesday voted to extend its contract with real
estate consultant Henry Resnikoff’s firm, RFP LLC. Resnikoff has served as the
lead consultant on the project to date and has
led tours of the property for city and state officials.
NCDC President Kevin Brown said Wednesday that Resnikoff had
researched and recommended the technical firms for the project. NCDC voted to
enter into a contract with engineering firm LandTech of Westport and to extend
a contract with Bohler Engineering, which has offices throughout the Northeast.
The board also approved entering into a consulting agreement
with Washington, D.C., law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld “to seek
federal funding sources for Business Park North,” the resolution stated.
Brown said the firm’s task will be to comb through the
federal infrastructure bill under consideration in Congress for possible grants
NCDC would be eligible for to develop the new business park and to investigate
possible funding through the Economic Development Agency within the Commerce
Department or the Small Business Administration.
“They are already poring through the infrastructure bill and
EDA,” Brown said. “We’re hopeful they can spend the time studying those
important documents and hopefully we can find a source of funding for us.”
Avangrid, Copenhagen joint wind venture reaches financial close
Avangrid, the Orange-based parent of the United Illuminating
Co., has lined up full financing for its first planned offshore wind farm,
Vineyard Wind 1, the energy company announced Wednesday.
Avangrid officials said the project has closed on an
aggregate of approximately $2.3 billion of construction and term loan financing
with nine global lending banks.
“Today’s milestone demonstrates the financial community’s
confidence in Vineyard Wind 1 and Avangrid’s sustainability strategy, and more
broadly, the U.S. offshore wind industry,” said Avangrid CEO Dennis V. Arriola.
“We are proud to pioneer this new industry and demonstrate that offshore wind
can be a sound investment, while creating jobs, combating climate change and
powering the economies of our coastal communities.”
The company now expects to begin construction work on
Vineyard Wind 1 this fall.
Avangrid is joining forces with Copenhagen Infrastructure
Partners, a Danish fund management and investment company, to launch the wind
farm, which will consist of 62 wind turbines situated about 15 miles south of
Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The project is expected to generate 800
megawatts of electricity annually for Massachusetts, enough to power over
400,000 homes.
Avangrid is also a partner in Park City Wind, a planned
804MW wind power installation that will supply electricity to Connecticut.
State officials have touted that project as a major boon to the city of
Bridgeport, which will serve as a staging area for construction work and later
as an operations and maintenance hub.
Jim Farrell
Workers have begun pouring concrete for a three-room addition that will
overlook the fields behind Buckley Elementary as a renovation continues that
will end with it being the first net zero energy public school in the state.
After two months of mostly demolition and abatement (a general term that
includes asbestos removal), the pour signaled a shift toward a construction
phase that will last for months.
“All good so far,” said Tom Goizueta, who as project superintendent for
Torrington-based O&G Industries keeps track of everything from inside his
trailer-office stationed near what for years was the Buckley main entrance.
Goizueta uses sticky notes on six large draped panels to indicate which
subcontractor is doing what when where -- and to a visitor like me it’s
daunting to even glance at all the cryptic scribblings.
A few days after the concrete started flowing, drilling began for the first of
what will be 60 separate 500-foot deep geothermal wells that will be tied into
the building’s heating and cooling system. Workers will soon start “slingin’
steel” (Tom’s term) -- that is, raising girders for the addition. Meanwhile
there’s digging, grading, excavation … action of all sorts both inside and
outside the building.
It’s no wonder that the groundbreaking ceremony in early June was just that --
ceremonial -- because a building renovation like this one has no obvious
starting point and there are not even distinct milestones during the duration
of the project.
The same is true of events that led to this renovation. Sure, there was that
day that voters gave their approval, but like other such projects this one took
shape over years marked by conversations and speculation and studies and
committees and, yes, procrastination.
But while it’s hard to identify key dates in the Buckley renovation timeline
it’s easier to identify key players and one of them is Randall Luther.
Luther, an architect and partner at Hartford-based TSKP
Studio, is the person who designed the new Buckley and how that came to be
takes a little explaining.
So let’s start by going back to how building renovations evolve.
Typically, after public officials agree on a possible project they spend modest
amounts of money on feasibility studies. If they decide to move forward, more
work is done to determine how much it all might cost so a decision can be made
about whether to even have a referendum. If a referendum is set, even more
planning and renderings are done so that voters will have adequate information with
which to vote, although they sometimes vote ‘no’ making it all for naught.
That’s what happened in 1999, when Manchester voters rejected a $110 million
plan that would have renovated Buckley and nine other elementary schools to
‘like new’ status.
Now skip ahead more than a decade, to 2012.
The current Buckley renovation is part of another multi-school campaign known
as the ‘School Modernization and Reinvestment Team Revisited.’ SMARTR was
formed to figure out what to do with what were now nine elementary schools (the
10th, Nathan Hale, had closed two years earlier.)
I could write at great length on the SMARTR work but here’s what happened, all
boiled down:
First, two main factors were identified to drive the planning: Make sure
renovated schools would be racially balanced. And keep local costs in check by
maxing out state reimbursements.
The SMARTR way to achieve both goals? Have fewer but bigger elementary schools.
The town first decided to move fifth-graders out of the elementary schools and
into a renovated Cheney Building (empty since 2007), which would be connected
by bridges to the sixth-grade Bennet Academy.
That meant only six elementary schools would be needed to house all the K-4
kids. Highland had just been renovated so that left Waddell and Verplanck to be
renovated next followed by Buckley, Bowers and Keeney.
(For those keeping track: Of the other original 10 schools, Martin is slated to
become a preschool center and the fate of Nathan Hale, Washington and Robertson
is being studied by a Repurposing Schools committee.)
So where does Randall Luther come in?
Almost 10 years ago, TSKP Studio was selected through a request for proposal
process to report on the feasibility of renovating the Cheney Building. A
larger national firm was doing similar feasibility studies of other town
schools but Luther and TSKP wowed SMRTR committee members with the quality of
their work and presentation.
After that strong first impression on Cheney and the Town pivoting away from
renovating Robertson and Washington, Town Facilities Manager Chris Till asked
Luther to provide feasibility insights for Waddell and Verplanck. This is one
example where the initial plan took a turn, but kept moving toward the final
goal to renovate the elementary schools. The process advanced and after voters
in 2014 approved spending $84 million to renovate Cheney, Verplanck and
Waddell, TSKP was awarded contracts to design all three. And each project came
in on time and under budget with the only real drama connected to the indoor
slide at Waddell.
So by 2019, when voters approved the second phase of school renovations, TSKP
was known and trusted in town, and although more than a dozen other firms
responded to an RFP for the Buckley-Bowers-Keeney work, TSKP was chosen to
design the first two projects (with Keeney not yet determined).
Luther, a Syracuse grad, has handled too many projects to count since joining
what was then called Tai Soo Kim Partners more than 25 years ago but had never
done a net zero energy building, so early on he reached out to CMTA, a
multi-services corporation with expertise in energy efficient engineering.
“It was a pretty steep learning curve,” Luther said, adding that it was quickly
apparent that Buckley’s large site (35 acres) was a boon because there would be
plenty of options for drilling geothermal wells.
Still, getting to net zero meant seeking every opportunity for efficiency and
that process included holding a series of ‘design charrettes’ --
intensive workshops bringing together people from different disciplines to
problem-solve and brainstorm options. One such charrette focused on food
service and systems.
“Commercial kitchens are huge energy users,” said Luther,
who along with consultants including one from CMTA met with Nick Aldi, the district’s
food services manager to review needs and options.
To eliminate the use of fossil fuels, Buckley will not have natural gas and all
the new kitchen equipment will be electric and highly efficient.
They also came up with a plan that will eliminate the need for electricity to
power the small coolers where milk and other items are temporarily stored so
kids can grab them as they go through the line. Reusable freezer packs will
instead keep items cool and then be returned to the larger electric-powered
freezer.
Aldi said people will be excited by all the new equipment when Buckley reopens
but added, “I don't think they’ll even notice some of the other things that
will be going on behind the scenes.”
Discussions of this sort took place regularly after TSKP was officially awarded
the Buckley job in March of 2020.
Luther and his team spent the next two-three months coming up with a schematic
design, which included figuring out things like where the entrance and parking
lots would be, what mechanical systems would be needed and so on. Some of the
commitments made during this phase had been floated earlier, the main one being
moving the main entrance (and an expanded visitor parking lot) to the south
side of the building. That will solve a problem that has long haunted Buckley
-- an entrance that was a floor below the main office.
While the capacity of the school will not change (it will still be designed to
accommodate 380 students), the square footage will increase from 56,400 to
65,500. The old Buckley had a single combined music/art room while the new
building will have separate art, STEM and project rooms and two music rooms.
That's all in addition to two more classrooms and many smaller support
spaces “At the end of this phase you know where everything is going to
go,” Luther says. “But you don't necessarily know what it will all be made of.”
That happened during a phase called Design Development, which took another
three or four months. During DD, the TSKP team finalized the design, making
much more detailed decisions (for example, window and door locations) and
deciding what materials would be used. The rough drawings that had been
produced in the schematic design phase were refined to produce a more detailed
set of site plans and floor plans with elevations and section drawings with
full dimensions.
“This is all about degrees of specificity,” Luther said.
And things get even more specific during the third pre-construction phase,
which is called construction documents. Drawings that include specifications
for construction details and materials were done and then shared with O&G
to be further shared with contractors for pricing and bidding and for use in
the pursuit of required permits and so forth.
So those are the stages but what about the work itself? How do conversations
and ideas become drawings and documents?
In days gone by, architects worked with a mechanical pencil, a scale ruler, a
T-square and tracing paper and so on but now almost everybody works exclusively
with powerful, versatile 3D rendering software.
Almost everybody.
“Of about 30 people in the office I’m one of two who still has a drawing
table,” Luther said. (Tai Soo Kim himself is the other.)
Luther says he does much of his preliminary work by hand but then moves
everything into a state-of-the-art program (examples are Lumion, Rhino, Sketchup
and Revit) to modify and tweak and alter and refine the project endlessly and
instantly.
Automated rendering software means architects can develop ideas more
accurately, identify problems earlier, easily communicate design ideas with
clients and partners, etc. It also means their work is just a click away no
matter where they are.
Luther has a TV in the basement of his Durham home and
sometimes goes downstairs and syncs up the design app on his phone so he can
virtually walk through a project and make notes.
He recalled going to work one Monday and getting a quizzical look when he
started talking about observations he’d made while walking through Buckley over
the weekend.
Because state-of-the-art software makes work so much more efficient, architects
can handle more projects at the same time.
Right now, Luther is following closely as work wraps up on a
new middle school in Middletown that he designed. He’s also doing feasibility
studies on a possible elementary school renovation and shepherding a few
“accelerated repair” projects in Massachusetts.
And then there’s Bowers, which has moved through Design Development.
And what major changes are in store there?
“In some ways Bowers is like Buckley because of the entrance woes,” Luther said
-- referencing the lack of visitor parking on the main entrance side of Bowers.
The plan for Bowers includes adding a visitor lot on the Princeton Street side
of the building and putting an addition on the north side where the parking lot
is now and relocating the staff parking area and … well, that’s a story for
another time.
Back to Buckley.
As is the case with other projects, Luther doesn’t visit as much when work is
actually being done on a building he designed, although staff from TSKP keep
track and make visits about once a week. As for Luther, he came to the
ribbon-cutting in early June, returned when Gov. Lamont used Buckley as a
backdrop for a press conference highlighting the state’s investment in and
commitment to school infrastructure projects, and will continue to visit the
site from time to time to monitor the progress and quality of the project.
“To casual observers, school renovations appear to be a seamless process,” said
Till. “But there are literally thousands of small details that Randall’s team pulls
together throughout the design and construction process.”
About this series: Buckley Elementary School in Manchester is being
renovated to ‘net zero energy’, a project that is expected to take about 14
months (from ground-breaking to ribbon cutting) and during that time there are
a series of other ambitious sustainability projects underway in public
buildings throughout town. Jim Farrell, who is the school district’s
communications director and a former career journalist with The Hartford
Courant, is writing about the work in monthly (or maybe more) installments. We
hope you follow along.