Lamont: Multistate climate bill joins tolls in the dustbin for 2022
Between sky-high gasoline prices and the expected infusion
of federal funding for Connecticut’s long list of transportation infrastructure
projects, Gov. Ned Lamont says he will not resubmit his plan to join a regional
consortium aimed at combating climate change to the General Assembly next year
— and he confirmed that tolls are also out for 2022.
In June, Lamont said he would give up on tolls after
majority Democrats in the legislature were divided and the issue “was just too
traumatic for everyone involved.”
Now, rising gasoline prices, the flood of pandemic relief
and infrastructure money and the 2022 elections have made any thought of tolls
or thee climate measure politically impossible.
Both proposals have caused a drumbeat of opposition from
Republicans who haven’t held a majority in the legislature since 1986. Lamont’s
plans to back off from the proposals will defuse at least some criticism next
year when he seeks reelection and state House and Senate seats are up for
grabs, as well as the state’s five congressional seats.
Lamont in an interview late Monday night after returning
from President Joe Biden’s signing of the $1 trillion infrastructure bill
outside the White House, said that the Transportation Climate
Initiative - based on the model of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative cap-and-trade
system in which polluters pay for their emissions, will be left out of his
agenda for the 2022 legislative session.
Thus past spring the TCI plan was turned down by Democratic
majorities in the House and Senate, over the requests of Lamont and Katie
Dykes, commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental
Protection. Neither chamber brought the bill to a vote despite strong
Democratic majorities.
Lamont said the opportunity for the $5.4 to $6 billion in
new federal revenue solidifies his June declaration that truck tolls are dead.
“We’ve been there and done that and we’re not going to do it
again,” said Lamont, who campaigned for governor in 2018 on support for
trucks-only highway tolls, which was later rejected by the Democratic
majorities in the House and Senate. “We have a lot of new revenue coming in.”
Republican lawmakers have held rallies around the state in
opposition to both tolls and the TCI initiative, which they charged would
increase pump prices by a nickel a gallon or more. Over the last year prices
have hiked more than a dollar a gallon, most recently when the Oil Producing
Exporting Nations reduced production.
“We tried to do TCI when gas prices last year were at
historic lows, so it’s certainly not going to happen when they are at
seven-year highs,” Lamont said. Still, the state will have to make major
commitments to become eligible for the forthcoming federal support. “I thought
we had aging infrastructure, but so does New York, Illinois, Maine and other
states,” he said.
The governor pointed out that the state still has to pay 10
to 20 percent of projects. State priorities include the rebuilding of the
Interstate 84 intersections with Rte 8 and I-91, improving train travel to New
York City and even adding another travel lane along I-95 in Fairfield County.
House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, North Branford,
said Tuesday that the governor’s plan to drop the controversial proposals make
perfect sense in an election year. “It’s absolutely not a surprise,” Candelora
said. “This is about dropping unpalatable proposals in order to set yourself up
for reelection. The bigger issue is what are we going to do about the
transportation plan?”
In 2019, GOP lawmakers offered a transit wish list
that did
not rely on tolls, but counted on using part of the state’s emergency
reserves.
Candelora said that with higher gasoline prices on track to
give the state tens of millions of dollars in additional revenue, the state
should consider repealing last year’s law that would create a new road-usage
fee for the heaviest
interstate trucks that takes effect in January of 2023 and is projected
to generate $90 million in annual revenue based on the amounts trucks travel
state highways.
“Given the supply chain disruptions, repealing it would go a
long way toward offsetting the price increases,” Candelora said. “It is a very
difficult tax to collect. I think it is going to adversely impact our local
companies and it will only raise prices at a time when we don’t want to further
disrupt an already difficult supply chain system.”
Joe Scully, who as president of the Motor Transport
Association of Connecticut represents the state’s trucking companies, agreed
Tuesday that the upcoming heavy truck fees should be canceled.
“We have a lot of federal funding coming in and the elevated
gas taxes are helping bring in more petroleum gross receipts taxes,” Scully
said. “Are they going to do tolls in an election year where gas prices are high
and prices for everything else is rising?” He suggested that lawmakers consider
reducing the state
taxes on gasoline, diesel and gross sales of petroleum products,
including the current 35.75 cents per gallon of gas at the pump.
State Sen. Will Haskell, D-Westport, co-chairman of the
legislative Transportation Committee, a supporter of Lamont’s toll plans, said
Tuesday that it is still a good idea to have nonresident drivers contribute to
Connecticut’s transportation projects.
“Honestly where I am, I still think it’s crazy that
out-of-state drivers get a free pass,” Haskell said.
“But I don’t think tolls or TCI will take center stage
because we have so many priorities, so many problems in the transportation
sector that I don’t anticipate them to take up all of the energy of the
Transportation Committee,” Haskell said in a phone interview. In particular, Haskell
wants safer streets for bicycles and pedestrians. “We need to make sure
Connecticut gets its fair share of federal funding.”
State Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford, who
has led a series of public demonstrations against tolls and TCI, said Tuesday
he hopes that Lamont’s plan to his previous initiatives is “sincere” and beyond
campaign politics.
“Tolls and the TCI gas tax were never about transportation
or the environment,” Kelly said in a statement. “They were about money. There
are better ways to achieve cleaner air and make investments in transportation
without taking more from taxpayers' wallets. The public has done a phenomenal
job speaking out and rallying with us against these new taxes.”
Republicans last held majorities in both the House and
Senate in 1985 and 1986.
State starts long-awaited Route 202 project in Brookfield to alleviate 'horrendous' traffic
BROOKFIELD — A long-awaited road-improvement
project begins this week on Route 202.
Construction crews are starting to cut up the busy road
between BJ’s Wholesale Club and the intersection at Old New Milford Road to
move utility poles and an underground gas line ahead of road upgrades.
Construction was slated to begin this summer, but was pushed
back to November.
For the past six years, this
roughly $8.5 million state project has been in the planning and design phase,
according to Greg Dembowski, community development specialist. Approved
upgrades, paid for by state and federal funds, include sidewalks, bus shelters,
and left-turn lanes and traffic lights at several intersections. The town hopes
the project will prevent car accidents and alleviate traffic.
Traffic signals will be installed where Federal Road
intersects with Old New Milford Road, as well as at the intersection of Beverly
Drive and Hardscrabble Road.
“It’s horrendous, especially during weekends and holidays,”
Dembowski said of the traffic at the Chick-Fil-A and Shop Rite Plaza driveway
entrances off Federal Road.
First Selectman Steve Dunn estimated the Chick-Fil-A
intersection reports an accident once every six weeks.
“It’s a very dangerous situation, and luckily, I don’t think
anyone has been seriously hurt,” he said. “The traffic on [Route] 202 is
getting untenable.”
Another highly anticipated grocery store, rumored
to be one of the new-age Amazon Fresh stores, is expected to open off
Route 202 at the Candlewood Plaza Shopping Center by Kohl’s next month.
Officials have yet to confirm the store’s identity, but the store could
generate more traffic.
Construction likely will continue until November 2023, according
to Charles Murad, project engineer with the state Department of Transportation.
There are 481 calendar days in the construction plan. This does not count
“winter shutdown days” between Dec. 1 and March 31.
“We won’t be going in and disrupting everyone during the
holiday season,” Murad said.
The area likely will see heavier traffic while construction
is underway due to lane closures and construction vehicles.
“There will be some growing pains during construction,”
Murad said. “After we’re done, it’ll be a tremendous improvement.”
Residents have been waiting a long time for these road
improvements.
A 2015 Western Connecticut Council of Governments study
showed 442 crashes between 2010 and 2012 on the lower Federal Road corridor
from White Turkey Road to Route 133, with roughly 30,000 cars driving on parts
of lower Federal Road every day.
The following year, the state Department of
Transportation held
a public information session in town to discuss the scope of the
project.
Discussion of a left-turn signal for the Chick-Fil-A off
Federal Road made it
ionto the first selectman debate as candidates prepared for the
municipal election. While Dunn won’t be first selectman by the time the project
is finished, he said he is glad the state project is finally moving ahead.
“We started working on this almost exactly six years ago
with the state, and it’s finally nice to see it coming to fruition,” he said.
Torrington approves $1.86 million bid for Prospect Street rehabilitation project
TORRINGTON — By next spring, the rehabilitation of Prospect
Street should be under way, with new sidewalks, curbing, pavement and a new
bicycle lane, according to officials.
Yield Industries LLC, a Torrington-based construction
company, was awarded the $1.86 million contract for the project by the City Council.
The project is being paid for with a $1 million grant from
the state under the Department of Transportation’s Local Transportation Capital
Improvement Program, and about $1 million from the city. The accepted bid also
includes at 10 percent contingency fund and 10 percent for “incidentals”
including reports and surveys.
Prospect Street, which begins on Litchfield Street/Route 202
and continues to North Elm Street, is home to the Northwest Connecticut YMCA,
Vogel-Wetmore School, several churches and St. John Paul the Great Academy,
formerly known as St. Peter St. Francis School. Metered parking is provided up
to the Pearl Street intersection.
“Upon review of all bid... documents, Yield Industries LLC
of Torrington was determined to be the lowest responsive and responsible bidder
with a base bid of $1,856,615.00,” according to a memo from Public Works
Director Raymond Drew.
“This award has been authorized by the Connecticut
Department of Transportation,” the memo said.
City Engineer Paul Kundzins said all sidewalks are being
replaced or removed, except for those at Vogel Wetmore School.
“Those have already been replaced and are in good shape,” he
said.
“I hate that the state requires us to go with the lowest
bid,” said City Council member Ann Ruwet. “But I’m happy to see we’re using a
company from Torrington.”
In November 2020, the
city held an online forum to discuss the street project with
residents. The discussion was led by City Engineer Paul Kundzins, City Planner
Martin Connor, Economic Development Director Rista Malanca and engineers from
Milhone and McBroom, who developed the design.
Prospect
Street’s upgrades already include new gas lines in 2016, drainage
upgrades in 2017 and the water mains upgraded in 2017. The road itself needs to
be repaired — those who drive on it can attest to areas that are too narrow if
cars are parked on either side; uneven pavement and the beginnings of potholes.
There is little access for cyclists, and the sidewalks and driveway entrances
also need repairs.
The city plans to remove all asphalt paving, curbing,
sidewalks and driveway aprons, replacing them with new asphalt and concrete
sidewalks, driveway areas and curbing. Dedicated bicycle lanes will begin from
the Pearl Street intersection, where there is a traffic light, and continue to
the end of Prospect Street at North Elm Street.
Past Pearl Street, no street parking is permitted. The road
is wider, allowing for dedicated bike lanes to be added that will continue to
North Elm Street, Kundzins said. The sidewalk is also being eliminated on one
side for the bike lane, while sidewalks will remain on the other side of the
street.
Danbury looks to hire director, purchase Summit space for career academy
DANBURY — The city and schools are developing the academic
and construction plans for the new
career academy as they await approval of a state grant for the $99
million project.
This includes seeking an academy director and purchasing the
space where the new school will be built inside the Summit,
a 1.2 million-square-foot development on the west side.
Mayor Joe Cavo said local officials likely will meet next
week to discuss next steps for the career academy, which is expected to serve
1,400 middle and high school students. The school is on track to open in the
fall of 2024.
“We’ll have a better handle on things at that point,” he
said Monday.
The architect, city, state and school officials haven’t
talked much since the beginning of the academic year, so Superintendent Kevin
Walston said he wants to bring the building committee back together.
“We just feel like it's time to get everyone back at the
table, making sure we’re still OK for 2024-25 because this building (Danbury
High School) is busting at the seams,” Walston said at last week’s school board
meeting.
Danbury hasn’t heard feedback from the state on the
application it submitted earlier this fall to earn an 80 percent reimbursement
for the project, Cavo said.
That may be in part because the official Danbury had been
working closely with no longer works for the state. Kosta Diamantis, who was in
charge of school construction projects like Danbury’s, quit last month after he
was placed on paid leave due to a personnel issue, the Connecticut
Mirror reported.
Cavo said he’s not too concerned for now.
“While we’re doing our work, there’s no need to pressure
them (the state) on this at the moment,” he said. “But at some point, we’re
going to have to have a conversation with them.
Noel Petra, Department of Administrative Services deputy
commissioner of real estate and construction services, is interim director of
the Office of School Construction while the agency recruits someone to fill the
position permanently, according to a spokesman with DAS.
“The Office of School Construction Grants is reviewing and
evaluating the Danbury Career Academy application and will continue to work
with all parties involved,” spokesman John McKay said in an email.
The city is working to secure preliminary construction estimates
based on a recently completed set of drawings, said Antonio Iadarola, director
of public works and city engineer.
Meanwhile, an appraiser is determining the value of the
“pods” at the Summit before the city purchases them for the classrooms, Cavo said.
He said he’s not sure when the city could close on the purchase. Appraisers are
backed up with work because of the hot real estate market.
“It’s hard to say,” he said. “It was a little complicated to
find the appraiser that had the experience needed to look at a building like
that with the complexity of it and the size of it.”
Construction won’t be too complicated because the school
will go into an existing building, Cavo said.
“We just have to make the insides accommodate for our needs
and classrooms and educational space,” he said. “As far as I know, everything
is on track, except for this little issue with the state.”
Academy director
The schools aim to hire a director who will better connect
businesses with the high school and career academy.
“This position would be kind of a new idea for our school
district,” Walston said the board meeting. “This position specifically would be
charged with developing partnerships in our Danbury and greater Danbury
community to make sure our kids have relevant experiences outside of Danbury
High School.”
With its new high school, Danbury plans to develop
six “academies” for students in the existing high school and new
building to study career fields. There will be 24 “pathways” for students to
choose from.
Danbury’s career academy is modeled after a similar school
in Nashville, which has a position like this.
This director would support the internships, job shadow,
early college and other similar experiences that high school students are
expected to pursue. He or she would coordinate scholarships, donations and even
an academy foundation, as well as develop partnerships with universities.
“It can’t wait until the academy opens in 2024,” said Kara
Casimiro, chief officer for academic affairs, who has been leading this work
already.
Mayor-elect Dean Esposito said he plans to coordinate with
school leaders to ensure the district has the funding needed to operate the
academy
“This conversation will continue throughout the entire year,
and we will work as partners to ensure the continuation of our legacy of
success here in Danbury,” he said in a statement.
Students in the Academy of Scientific Innovation &
Medicine and the Academy of Global Enterprise & Economics will attend the
new school. Students at Danbury High School would study the other academies,
which center on information technology and cybersecurity; professional and
public service; art, engineering and design; and communications and design.
Students are expected to connect with the businesses in the
Summit. These businesses include Nuvance Health, which signed a
lease last year to rent 220,000- square-feet of office space.
“Our plans for the Summit are moving forward to relocate
select administrative and support departments to that site,” spokeswoman Andrea
Rynn said in an email. “Some departments are already operational at that
location with the remainder to make the move in the coming months.”
Next door to Danbury's sprawling Summit complex, plans for a warehouse headquarters in the wetlands
DANBURY — As the city works with the owner of the sprawling
Summit office complex to
build a school for 1,400 upper grade students, a New York-based moving
and storage company has plans to build a warehouse headquarters just to the
west.
The plans by Clancy
Moving Systems to build a 190,000-square-foot warehouse and associated
buildings on 29 acres next door to the Summit is the latest example of
Danbury’s booming west side.
It is also an example of the complexities of building on
environmentally sensitive land. The mostly-wooded terrain where Clancy wants to
build, just west of the 1.2 million-square-foot Summit complex, contains
6.7-acres of wetlands.
Wetlands, which are ecologically important for wildlife,
also provide natural flood protection by slowing storm water runoff and
draining it.
That means Clancy must get permission from the city’s
Environmental Impact Commission before the company can seek a zoning permit and
site plan approval from the Planning Commission.
Consultants have already submitted a 290-page stormwater
management report in preparation for a Dec. 8 appearance before the EIC.
“Our only discreet disturbance to the wetlands resource on
the subject property is the wetland crossing to access the northern portion of
the property,” said engineering consultant Paul Szymanski, in a letter to the
EIC.
Szymanski was referring to a proposal to build a
190,000-square foot warehouse and office building, a 4,000-square-foot fleet
dispatch center and maintenance building, and parking areas for tractor trailer
storage among “other various associated site amenities.”
“(The) applicant will hire an engineer to be in charge of
erosion controls and will inspect the site once a week and after heavy storms,”
the consultant wrote. “[I]f a problem on the site occurs it shall be brought to
the attention of the Zoning Enforcement officer within 48 hours in writing
along with a statement of how the problem was remedied.”
The project, which would be built in phases over two years
to minimize the effect on the sensitive land, calls for the “disturbance” of
4,700-square-feet of wetlands, or about one-tenth of an acre.
Immediate neighbors include Abbey Woods, a 470-unit
development, to the south.
The warehouse project is just north of an approved power
plant and high-technology campus at 100 Saw Mill Road that was granted permission
to hook into the city’s water and sewer system after a
partisan battle on Danbury’s Republican-controlled City Council.
Democrats wanted the power plant proposal scrutinized because of its proximity
to the $99 million career academy at the Summit. Republicans argued that the
proposal had been property vetted and used their majority to outvote Democrats.
Clancy, a Patterson, N.Y.-based company, which has locations
in Danbury, Newtown, New Milford and Stamford, did not return a request for
comment Tuesday afternoon.
Killingly voters green-light $28M community center bond
Killingly voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a
nearly $28 million bond question that will allow for the town’s community
center to re-locate to a soon-to-be refurbished former school building.
The $27.8 million bond, which passed 323-179, will cover
the cost of shifting recreational programming from the dilapidated Broad Street community center to 79
Westfield Ave., a facility that houses school district administration offices
and classrooms for EASTCONN students.
The bonding will pay for nearly $15 million worth of
roof and brick work at Westfield Avenue and pay for $13 million in other
upgrades that would allow the recreation department shift.
The project calls for major heating, cooling, electrical and
handicap-accessible upgrades to cafeteria and theater areas at Westfield while
moving the food and community store to other parts of the building.
Additional security doors, restrooms and parking areas would also be added,
along with a new roof and exterior bricks.
The project, which has been in the discussion phase in one
form or another for more than a decade, is expected to take up to two years to
complete, though no date has been set for work to start.
Mary E. O’Leary
NEW HAVEN — The future of New Haven will include a developed
shoreline that can safely support residences and capitalize on its waterfront
as a major asset.
In part that will be possible with a planned project at
501-585 Long Wharf Drive that will include up to 500 apartments on the site in
two towers, as well as a market and other amenities, according to officials.
The Board of Alders has approved a zoning text amendment to
a Planned Development District at 501-585 Long Wharf Drive that paves the way
for the proposed apartments on the site.
Multiple alders have expressed confidence in the vision of
city staff and the developer, the Fusco Corp., that growth in the harbor
district was intrinsic to the future of the city.
And after multiple previous hearings and hours of testimony,
the board believed that Fusco’s two proposed apartment towers, one 13 stories,
the other 15 floors, a public market, food hall and landscaped park will safely
open up development at Long Wharf.
They vote was unanimous despite the recommendation of Brian
Thompson, director of the land and water resources division of the state Department of Energy and Environmental
Protection, that the alders turn down the proposal over potential
flooding concerns.
“Since Long Wharf Drive leading to the subject parcel will
itself be partially flooded, there appears to be no way to provide dry access
to 500 residential units on the property during such flooding and storm
events,” Thompson wrote.
Fusco representatives argued previously that their plan with
its Type 1 construction using steel, concrete, masonry and glass; its 15-foot
first floor elevation, two more feet than required; the 26 foot elevation to
its first residential floor will protect the residents.
Alder Adam Marchand, D-25, said the Fusco proposal will
greatly improve access to the shoreline “and make it much more inviting and
open,” with amenities for the public.
Addressing the recommendations of DEEP, Marchand asked
should New Haven “retreat from the shoreline or should we embrace the
shoreline?”
He said he takes the concerns of DEEP seriously, but is
satisfied with the response of city staff, particularly City Engineer Giovanni
Zinn, that “we are not abandoning our shoreline, we are developing our
shoreline.”
Fusco and the city both put
implementing the Long Wharf Responsible Growth Plan, with its emphasis on
natural methods of stormwater drainage and protection for important
infrastructure, such as the rail yards and highway, as central to success.
Both Alders Abby Roth, D-7, and Steve Winters, D-21, said
figuring out how to pay for raising roads to prevent flooding — such as on Long
Wharf Drive — was crucial and should be done sooner rather than later.
Marchand said New Haven often uses public funds, whether
local, state and federal, to invest
in reclamation that results in private investment, such as the Downtown
Crossing Project.
He feels the potential public investment needed to elevate
Long Wharf Drive compared to what the residential development will bring to the
area “is a really good ratio.”
Fusco’s Maritime Center headquarters is adjacent to the
proposed site for housing, something that was approved three decades ago. The
PDD amendment was necessary to allow for residential uses.
Alder Anna Fusco, D-10, said the Fusco proposal “was a great
start to the revitalization” of that area. She thanked them for being prepared
in all aspects of their planning and was confident that they would build a safe
project.
This is an important step but just the beginning for the
development, as it must go to the City Plan Commission for detailed site plan
review when the developer decides to move ahead.
Contacted after the meeting, Zinn said New Haven has to
grow.
“Only by growing are we able to deal with the challenges
that climate change brings to us. Growth is important to allow us to protect
ourselves,” he said.
The city engineer said the city takes the arc of looking at
the whole harbor district from Water Street, the highway and the Canal Dock
Boathouse, not just the 4.3 acre Fusco parcel.
He said elevating roads is one aspect of the proposed five
neighborhoods suggested along the water in the Long Wharf Responsible Growth
Plan.
Zinn said they’re looking at building a road network from a
walk-ability point of view, as well as one that protects vulnerable users.
“Those are the kind of discussions we are having internally
and with our partners,” Zinn said.
CT airport authority may take over running Bridgeport's Sikorsky
BRIDGEPORT — When Mayor Joe Ganim took office six years ago
his administration initially
wanted to get out of the business of running a municipal airport that was
continually operating in the red.
And that option, which was abandoned, now appears back on
the table for the city-owned, Stratford-based Sikorsky Memorial. On Tuesday
Gov. Ned Lamont and the Connecticut Airport Authority revealed the latter is
exploring playing a big role at the facility in order to return commercial
passenger service there and ensure the airport has a viable future.
“This is an exciting moment for the City of Bridgeport and
the Connecticut Airport Authority,” Lamont said in a statement. “The easier it
is for travelers to reach our state, the stronger it makes our state’s economy
and contributes to tourism. These steps are necessary to ensure the growth at
Sikorsky is sustainable and that we are maximizing this transportation asset to
the fullest extent possible.”
The term “takeover” was not used. But, according to the news
release, Bridgeport City Hall and the CAA are “discussing the possibility of
the CAA providing advisory services or even entering into a lease agreement and
directly investing into the facility to ensure ... the resources necessary to
capitalize on available state and federal funds.”
The authority was created a decade ago to manage Bradley
International in Windsor Locks and five other state-owned airports — Danielson,
Groton/New London, Hartford/Brainard, Waterbury/Oxford and Windham — and get
them off the Department of Transportation’s books.
Sikorsky, which typically runs at a half-million-dollar
deficit that impacts Bridgeport’s annual budget, is not currently part of the
CAA’s portfolio, though the organization has in the past provided some
assistance there.
Ganim aide Dan Roach, who for the past several years has
been focused on improving Sikorsky, in a brief interview Tuesday said, “We’re
interested in working with the CAA to either assist in operation of the airport
or become the operators themselves.”
Under such circumstances, Roach explained, the property
would remain Bridgeport’s but the authority would assume the financial
responsibility. Roach added that another benefit of such an arrangement is that
the CAA is in a position to move faster on completing the upgrades necessary to
revive the long-defunct regular passenger flights.
Tuesday’s announcement comes as Bridgeport has fallen behind
in the airport expansion contest with New Haven’s Tweed, whose
new commercial passenger carrier, Avelo, just this month launched flights to
Florida.
The Ganim administration, meanwhile, has
spent the last few years planning upgrades and crafting development strategies
to revive Sikorsky’s commercial passenger operation — the complex
currently caters to business, charter and private flights — and unsuccessfully
trying to land a carrier.
It was Lamont who had in his proposed 2019 transportation
plan at
first pit the two entities against each other for state support. Since
then, though, the Lamont administration has argued both facilities have
important economic roles to play.
And Kevin Dillon, the CAA’s executive director, in a quote
included in Tuesday’s announcement insisted “commercial service is within reach
at Sikorsky Airport.”
This past summer Lamont’s administration agreed
to allow the city to begin to use $7 million previously set aside in 2018 by
then-Gov. Dannel Malloy to overhaul one of Sikorsky’s two runways. The
decision was significant because Malloy’s administration had initially required
the $7 million be matched by an unnamed private carrier and not spent until
“all necessary financial commitments and assurances” from that airline were in
place — terms that Bridgeport was unable to meet.
The Ganim administration had instead found itself in a
situation where a new carrier — Breeze, established by by Jet Blue founder and
former New Canaan resident David Neeleman — had wanted to fly out of Sikorsky,
but a final deal was
never reached because the Federal Aviation Administration first wanted the
required infrastructure improvements in place.
Breeze has since been flying out of Bradley, but as of last
May had
indicated the aviation company continued to evaluate the Bridgeport market and
Sikorsky.
Tuesday’s announcement by the state about the CAA’s
potential involvement in Sikorsky referred to the $7 million, stating
“construction will soon begin to undertake necessary capital projects that
allow for the development of commercial flights at Sikorsky Airport.”
Last spring, before Avelo announced its use of Tweed,
Bridgeport and some
of Sikorsky’s tenants agreed to share the $47,000 cost of hiring the
Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis at the University of Connecticut to
study the airport’s potential.
Fred Carstensen, the center’s director, in an interview at
the time said scrutinizing whether Sikorsky or Tweed was better situated for
increased air travel was “not officially part of our remit” but “inherently in
the background.”
Reached Tuesday, Carstensen said the center is finalizing
the Sikorsky study. He said he believes that a revitalized airport will make
the region “more competitive and attractive as a place to locate” for
businesses, adding that eliminating commercial passenger service there,
including tearing down the former terminal, “really minimized its capacity to
be an economic driver.”
Asked about the possibility of the CAA running Sikorsky,
Carstensen said the authority has done a good job with Bradley International.
“Bringing Sikorsky under the umbrella of the authority seems
on first look to make very good sense,” he said. “We should have unified
management” of Connecticut’s airports.
As for Michelle Muoio, Sikorsky’s
current manager hired by Bridgeport in 2017, she sent her own email to tenants
Tuesday afternoon welcoming the news of the authority’s potential involvement.
She wrote “no specifics are available at this point in time and more
discussions will occur.”
“I will keep you posted with any relevant details as soon as
they can be shared. You should expect no change to provided services or
operation of the airport at this time,” Muoio wrote. “In recent years, many
improvement projects, plans and studies have been completed. We are on a great
trajectory, but there is obviously still more work to do here. A potential CAA
collaboration is a great opportunity to continue modernizing the airport and
complete improvements that will benefit every user. Stay tuned.”
AECOM CEO: 'We are positioned to benefit from nearly every line item' in infrastructure bill
Dallas-based contractor AECOM reported revenue of $3.4
billion on its fourth quarter 2021 earnings call, a 6% decrease from fourth
quarter 2020. However, fourth quarter 2020 included an extra week, so adjusting
for that anomaly, the firm's revenue increased by 1%.
Revenue also increased 1% to $13.3 billion from fiscal year
2020 to fiscal year 2021 but rose 3% when accounting for the additional week in
2020.
Driven by an 18% growth in contracted backlog, AECOM posted
a total backlog of $38.6 billion, down 6.3% from the $41.2 posted in the fourth
quarter of 2020. Construction management contracted backlog increased by
21%.
Dive Insight:
AECOM's results came on the heels of the passage of the
$1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which was signed into law by President Joe
Biden on Monday. CEO Troy Rudd said the legislation will provide
much-needed, long-term funding certainty across the company's strongest
markets, such as transit modernization, electrification, environmental
remediation and climate resilience.
"Importantly, we are positioned to benefit from nearly
every line item in this bill," Rudd said. "We anticipate this
funding will increase our addressable market and our most profitable business
by double digits over the coming years, and we expect the most meaningful
benefits in fiscal 2023 and beyond."
However, even before the bill, Rudd saw strength in the
company’s government work.
"In addition to the strengthened federal funding
environment, all of our state and local clients are on equally strong
footing," Rudd said on the earnings call. "Today, state DOT
budgets are significantly above prior projections and the fiscal outlooks are
stronger."
Financial outlook
Coming into AECOM’s earnings, Krzysztof Smalec, an equity
analyst on the industrials team for Morningstar, told Construction Dive that
one possible way to drive growth is to continue margin expansion, particularly
in the international market. In the fourth quarter, the company said it posted
its strongest margin in its history with an adjusted operating margin on a net
service revenue basis of 19.8%, which was a 290 basis point increase over the
prior year.
"We continue to make progress on our margin improvement
initiative and remain confident in our goal of achieving double-digit
international margins," said AECOM CFO Gaurav Kapoor on the earnings
call.
A key focus for AECOM has been growing its program
management business. The company showed progress in that space by winning
projects in Saudi Arabia, including a social,
economic and sustainability project in Al-'Ula City.
AECOM also tightened its focus on environmental,
social and corporate governance objectives by investing at the natural capital
laboratory in the U.K.
"We established this project in 2019 to study the
environmental change and biodiversity impact with precision by leveraging
drones, artificial intelligence, GIS [geographic information system] data and
thermal imaging," Rudd said.
With its earnings report, the company also rolled
out Digital AECOM, which includes its global digital-focused consulting
services, hosted services products and digital tools to enhance its delivery of
core engineering and design services.
Biden touts infrastructure bill at snowy, rusty bridge in NH
COLLEEN LONG, HOLLY RAMER and ALEXANDRA JAFFE, Associated
Press
WOODSTOCK, N.H. (AP) — Fighting sagging poll ratings,
President Joe Biden set out Tuesday on a national tour to persuade everyday
Americans of the benefits of his big, just-signed infrastructure plan. First
stop: a snowy, rusty bridge in New Hampshire, a state that gave him no love in
last year’s presidential primaries.
Biden left the state in February of 2020 before polls had
even closed on his fifth-place primary finish. But he returned as president,
eager to talk up the billions in investments in upgrading America’s roads,
bridges and transit systems that he signed into law Monday.
Walking across the rural New Hampshire bridge that’s been
tagged a priority for repairs since 2014, Biden framed the infrastructure law
in direct and human terms. He said it would have a meaningful impact here, from
efficient everyday transportation to keeping emergency routes open.
“This isn’t esoteric, this isn’t some gigantic bill — it is,
but it’s about what happens to ordinary people," he said. “Conversations
around those kitchen tables that are both profound as they are ordinary: How do
I cross the bridge in a snowstorm?”
Biden is down in the polls but hopes to use the successful
new law to shift the political winds in his direction and provide fresh
momentum for his broader $1.85 trillion social spending package now before
Congress.
The president held a splashy bipartisan bill-signing
ceremony Monday for hundreds on the White House South Lawn, where lawmakers and
union workers cheered and clapped.
“America is moving again, and your life is going to change
for the better,” Biden promised Americans.
The president and members of his Cabinet are moving, too —
spreading out around the country to showcase the package. Biden himself has
stops Tuesday in Woodstock, New Hampshire, and Wednesday in Detroit to promote
the new law as a source of jobs and repairs for aging roads, bridges, pipes and
ports while also helping to ease inflation and supply chain woes.
“As he goes around the country, he’s really going to dig
into how these issues will impact people’s everyday lives, what they talk about
at their kitchen tables,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
Also this week, Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Michael Regan will take a tour through the South, hitting Louisiana
and Texas, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will visit Massachusetts, California
and the state she represented in Congress, New Mexico, and Vice President
Kamala Harris will visit Ohio, among top administration officials on the road.
The president, whose poll numbers have continued to drop
even after passage of the bill, is pleading for patience from Americans
exhausted by the pandemic and concerned about rising inflation. The White House
says the infrastructure funding could begin going out within months, and they
say it will have a measurable impact on Americans’ lives by helping create new,
good-paying jobs.
During his new Hampshire stop Tuesday, Biden said there were
215 bridges deemed “structurally unsafe" and 700 miles of highway in the
state listed in poor condition, which he said costs residents heavily each year
in gas and repairs.
In addition to speeding repairs to roads and bridges, Biden
touted the law's investments in upgrading public transit and trains, replacing
lead pipes and expanding access to broadband internet. The law, he said, is
estimated to create an extra 2 million jobs a year, and he insisted it also
would improve supply chain bottlenecks that have contributed to rising prices
for consumers by providing funding for America's ports, airports and freight
rail.
Biden defeated Donald Trump by 7 percentage points in New
Hampshire in the 2020 election, but his popularity has sagged in the state. In
a University of New Hampshire Survey Center Granite State Poll last month, his
overall favorable rating was 34%, with 53% having an unfavorable view.
On Tuesday, the president visited a bridge that carries
state Route 175 over the Pemigewasset River. Built in 1939, the bridge has been
on the state's “red list” since 2014 because of its poor condition. Another
bridge over the river was added in 2018.
“This may not seem like a big bridge, but it saves lives and
solves problems,” Biden said.
New Hampshire’s Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who planned to
greet Biden at the airport, sent a letter to the president Tuesday asking him
to work with Congress to earmark even more infrastructure funding for the
state. He also urged Biden to address supply chain issues, workforce shortages
and the rising cost of construction materials.
“Ensuring that roads get built, bridges get repaired, and
drinking water gets improved will be even more challenging given the economic
challenges Washington seems oblivious to," Sununu said.
Under the funding formula in the bill, New Hampshire will
receive $1.1 billion for federal-aid highways and $225 million for bridges, the
White House said.
The infrastructure bill overall contains $110 billion to
repair aging highways, bridges and roads. According to the White House, 173,000
total miles or nearly 280,000 kilometers of U.S. highways and major roads and
45,000 bridges are in poor condition. The law has almost $40 billion for
bridges, the single largest dedicated bridge investment since the construction
of the national highway system, according to the Biden administration.
Many of the particulars of how the money is spent will be up
to state governments. Biden has named former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu
as the liaison between the White House and the states to help ensure things run
smoothly and to prevent waste and fraud.