Inflation threatens to erode the value of billions of
dollars committed to build roads, bridges and other public works, forcing
Connecticut transportation officials to compress their time horizon when
calculating project costs.
Rising costs are particularly worrisome with the state set
to receive more than $5 billion over five years from Washington in the federal
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. President Joe Biden signed the
legislation in November, committing more than $1 trillion to the states and
other jurisdictions for roads, water projects, railways, airports, broadband
internet, electric grids and green-energy projects.
“The inability to get specific materials and the rising
costs of virtually everything are challenges we must face,” Josh D. Morgan,
spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Transportation, said in an emailed
statement.
Over the last three years, supply chain problems and inflation
have increased costs, he said, without citing specific projects. Items such as
electrical equipment, steel, concrete and asphalt can cost 10% to 20% more than
a few years ago, he said.
Bids are coming in higher than estimates due to increased
costs and lack of supply for particular materials.
To help plan for problems caused by inflation, the
Department of Transportation no longer uses a three-year price history when
figuring out a project estimate, Morgan said. Officials instead use a price
history extending back six to 12 months when calculating estimates to make sure
projects move forward as planned and on schedule, he said.
U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy announced in August 2021 that Connecticut would
receive about $5.4 billion over five years.
It includes $3.3 billion for major road projects, $1.3
billion for buses and railroads, $561 million to strengthen bridges and $100
million for extending computer broadband coverage around the state and to
low-income families.
Blumenthal acknowledged Wednesday “there is certainly a
concern about inflation and its impact and the adequacy of investment in
infrastructure.” But construction projects have multi-year timelines and may
not be threatened by inflation that he’s confident will soon be brought under
control by the Federal Reserve as it raises interest rates.
Inflation, which reached 8.6% in May, the highest in more
than 40 years, is sapping consumers’ purchasing power at the supermarket, gas
pump and at retailers online and at the mall. Rapidly rising prices and the
corrosive effect on Americans’ paychecks are putting Democrats on the defensive
just four months before elections that will decide whether they keep their slim
majorities in the House and Senate or Republicans take over.
The price hikes are driven by several factors, including
worldwide supply-chain backlogs, strong consumer and business spending in the
U.S. and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Critics say federal energy and fiscal
policies, particularly government spending, including the infrastructure
program, is contributing to inflation.
Ben Johnston, chief operating officer at Kapitus, a New York financing
company serving businesses, particularly small businesses in industries such as
construction, retail and health care, identified four forms of inflation.
Wages are rising in response to a “very hot labor market”
and worker shortages, he said. The cost of goods is rising, prompting
businesses and individuals to make bulk purchases and find other strategies,
rent and facilities costs are rising and capital costs are climbing as interest
rates rise, he said.
“Certainly it’s a very large and substantial amount of capital
going into infrastructure,” Johnston said.
“However, as costs rise across the board those dollars won’t
be able to go as far given the high and considerable increase in costs for many
of the raw materials that are going into construction broadly,” he said.
Construction projects now being identified and assigned in
the next few years will be affected “if inflation is not brought under control
in the next year or two,” he said.
Joe Toner, executive director of the Connecticut
State Building Trades council, said supply chain problems have shaped
up as equally important as inflation. But unions have benefited because they
can dispatch larger work crews more quickly than nonunion labor to developers
and builders shut by COVID-19 and supply shortages and looking to quickly
resume work, he said.
“We can double down, triple down and push the project out
for them,” Toner said.
Leaks, flaking gold leaf, hazardous stairs: Connecticut’s State Capitol is overdue for a face lift
HARTFORD — At 144 years old, the Connecticut State Capitol,
built as a memorial to the Civil War, is showing its age.
Winds, temperatures and time are causing the thin layer of
gold leaf on the iconic dome to slowly blow away. The exterior sidewalks and stairs
around the High Victorian Gothic architectural confection are deteriorating to
the point where they are hazardous for pedestrians.
And then there’s that persistent leak that’s coming off a
roof and dripping through fifth-floor ceiling tiles in a hallway outside the
Commerce Committee’s staff office.
The seat of state government, declared a national historic
landmark 50 years ago, which hasn’t seen major renovations in nearly 40 years,
is overdue for a face lift. And Facilities Administrator Eric Connery, who has
held his “dream job” running the Capitol complex and the Old State House a mile
away for the last 27 years, has just retired.
Connery’s confident that the two-year, $15-million cleaning
and renovation scheduled to start next year, including a million dollars to
brush new gold leaf 3/1000th of an inch thick around the massive 250-foot-tall
dome- designed by architect Richard Mitchell Upjohn - will be successful.
“The gold leaf is just a very, very, very thin layer of gold
that’s applied as little squares pushed on with a very gentle brush,” Connery
said during a final behind-the-scenes tour of the building with a reporter.
William Morgan, a former State Capitol Police chief who is a
member of the advisory Capitol
Preservation and Restoration Commission, said Thursday that he saw the
blotched gold leaf was in need of replacing when he was recently picking up his
daughter at the nearby Hartford train station.
“I noticed that the gilding wasn’t as brilliant as it
normally is, or as it should be,” Morgan said, adding that he drove around the
Capitol and noticed it further. “It wasn’t sparkling and the last time it was
gilded was probably the early 1980s,” Morgan said. “I don’t pretend to know how
long gilding lasts, but I’m a freak for that building.”
Morgan said that years of deferred maintenance, mostly from
state budgetary constraints, are likely coming home to roost. The exterior
work, scheduled to start after the General Assembly finishes in June, 2023
includes fixing leaks in non-original atrium glass on the east and west sides
of the Capitol, repointing the granite and marble blocks and cleaning the
entire outside the building. Antique stained glass that has been conserved in
recent years, will be replaced under each atrium.
Exterior steps that are splitting open on the north side
will be fixed and a new sidewalk and driveway is planned, including an
underground link to the downtown Hartford heating and cooling loop.
The pesky leak in the fifth floor hallway is just the latest
edition of roof leaks that have baffled maintenance crews in one location or
another, for Connery’s entire Capitol career.
“You see a historic building that has to meet modern office
standards,” said Connery on the tour, which included upper-floor crawl spaces
with heating and cooling machinery and the occasional antique desk from the
House chamber, kept in case there’s a need for spare parts. The sub-basement
gas-fired boilers are close to the end of their working lives.
“We have hidden in the walls data cabling, voice cabling and
all that was put in during the 1980s restoration so you can’t see it,” Connery
said. “Fortunately there are vertical shafts originally used for ventilation
originally that go from the attic down to fourth, third, second and first
floors.
Underneath the blue rug with the hundreds of state seals on
the floor of the House chamber, are entrances to crawl spaces with literally
miles of cable.
Morgan credited Connery with allowing a former Capitol tour
guide who has since died, Gerry
Caughman, to pursue her interest in researching and preserving the dozens
of Civil
War battle flags from the various Connecticut regiments, including
Black troops. “I think Eric’s support and recognition around making sure
the flag project was done with coordination is a very positive legacy,” Morgan
said. “Someone else might have said ‘no’ and nothing would have gotten done.”
The state’s annual budget for non-invasive flag preservation
is about $12,000 to $15,000. During the recent tour, Connery unlocked a hidden
fifth-floor work room full of shelves and long boxes containing 60 wooden poles
and various kinds of battle flags, which were used to lead troops on their
missions.
On a flat table was the flag of the 28th Regiment, which
fought in Louisiana. Surrounded by clear fabric, the goal is to keep the flag
together without affecting its current state. Part of the problem preserving
the flags is where to display them. There just isn’t enough space to show them
except in a few glass wall cases in the Capitol basement. Flags in the west
entrance of the Capitol, called the Hall of Flags, are furled on poles but are
slowly tearing because of gravity.
Connery envisioned giant glass drawers, but then visitors
could only see one side of a flag. He pulled out a step ladder and reached high
on a shelf for a box containing the pieces of a flag of the 15th Regiment,
which was organized in New Haven in 1862, and fought in Fredericksburg, Va. and
New Bern, N.C. It’s just a pile of mostly shredded red fabric that may never be
put back together. “The good news is that’s really the only one,” Connery said.
“The preservationists just couldn’t do anything with it.”
Up on the roof, Connery stood at an angle so the now-mottled
dome, which is actually 12-sided and accentuated by a dozen stained-glass
windows and pointed arches, was easier to see.
“Over 30-to-40 years that gold will wear off from wind erosion,
and that has become noticeable over the last year so we’ve added that to the
project to do the exterior,” said Connery, who had run school and bank building
before answering a newspaper ad in the summer of 1995 for the job running the
Capitol and adjacent Legislative Office Building, taking the job before asking
what he’d be paid.
“If there is anything that’s a symbol for Connecticut, it is
that building and that dome,” said Morgan, the member of the preservation
commission. “The fact that we have been sadly so inattentive and now the
gilding needs to be redone, reflects the state of the state. The physical
appearance of our state capitol underscores the importance of having good laws
and the importance of people passing those laws. It makes it harder to keep
traditions and respect and people excited about what goes on here.”
Downtown transit-oriented development gets review by officials in Wallingford
Jessica Simms
WALLINGFORD — A recent meeting on transit-oriented
development in downtown included a a deputy commissioner for the state
Department of Transportation.
Deputy Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto gave a
presentation during the June 30 event at HUBCAP Wallingford on
downtown Center Street. Town officials and leaders attended to learn more about
transit-oriented development. It was organized by State Rep. Mary Mushinksy,
D-Wallingford.
Eucalitto started his presentation by talking about the
General Assembly’s definition of transit-oriented development.
“It is the development of residential, commercial and
employment centers within a half a mile of walking distance of public
transportation facilities, including rail and bus rapid transit...”Eucalitto
said.
The town’s train station is within a half mile of
downtown.
With the state experiencing a migration of young working
professionals, one way to retain the population is increasing transit
oriented development, according to Eucalitto’s presentation.
“Housing and transportation are two of the largest
expenses in a household budget,” Eucalitto said. “If you can eliminate some of
that transportation budget, it would significantly benefit the household … The
average person who lives near transit is five times more likely to use transit.
If they work near transit, they are three and a half times more likely to use
transit, thereby reducing their expenses in their household.”
Sidewalks/pedestrian mobility
The state of the town’s sidewalks also became a topic
during the event. A 62-year-old man died last month after being
struck while riding in his motorized wheelchair on South Main Street.
Family and friends said he rode in the street because he felt the sidewalks
were too bumpy. The accident remains under
investigation.
“The current status of Wallingford sidewalks is pretty
dire,” said Riley O’Connell, 2021 mayoral candidate.
Tom Dacey, a Wallingford resident who uses a motorized
wheelchair, said he appeared in a video showing how cracks in the
sidewalks make it difficult to maneuver his wheelchair.
In order for transit oriented development to be successful,
Eucalitto said people need to be able to safely and easily get to
transportation
“If we build a train station and you can’t get to it, then
it is a failure,” Eucalitto said.
Eucalitto said the Community Connectivity Grant program,
which provides funding for smaller scale infrastructure, can help towns improve
safety for pedestrians and bicyclists. Over the past few years,
the program has awarded around $39 million in grants to municipalities,
including Wallingford.
Affordable housing
Wallingford has adopted a plan to increase affordable
housing. Jim Seichter, planning and zoning commission chairman, said the
plan includes incentives for developers, including allowing more units per
acre.
A developer can have 40 market rate units per acre, but
if affordable housing is added, the number increases to 50.
“So you’re increasing that incentive for someone to do the
affordable because they can have more units,” Seichter said.
Cathy Granucci, co–chair of the Linear Trail Committee, said
incentives for developers are important, but the architectural aspects of
downtown must also be maintained.
Buses
Seichter brought up the lack of shelter people receive while
waiting for buses in town.
Eucalitto said the Department of Transportation has money
set aside to for a statewide bus shelter improvement program. New
shelters will include seats, a solar powered light and new technology to
help riders know when the next bus is arriving.
“In the next year or so we hope to roll that out,” Eucalitto
said.
Norwich City Council praises proposed $381 million school construction project
Norwich — City Council members on Tuesday found a
lot to like in the proposed $381 million school construction plan that would
give the city four new elementary schools, a renovated middle school and new
central offices for about $75 million less than chasing maintenance and repairs
on the current aging and undersized schools.
Following a detailed presentation on the plan by
representatives from the architectural firm Drummey Rosane Anderson, Inc., or
DRA, aldermen stressed the real and projected savings the massive project would
yield and praised the architects and School Building Committee for their
efforts.
After an estimated 67% state reimbursement, city taxpayers’
share of the $381 million project would be $149 million, substantially less
than an alternative “do nothing” option to keep the existing seven elementary
schools, an unrenovated Teachers’ Memorial Global Studies Middle School and
central office building.
Maintenance and repairs alone to the existing buildings are
projected to cost $165 million over the next 20 years at today’s dollars,
and $275.8 million with inflation. Very little of the work would qualify
for state reimbursement, the architects said.
The proposal calls for new elementary schools, each housing
about 525 students, on the grounds of the Moriarty Environmental Sciences
Magnet School, the John B. Stanton School, the Uncas School and property
where the Greeneville School once stood. Teachers’ Memorial would undergo a
complete renovation to put it on par with the recently renovated Kelly STEAM
Magnet Middle School.
DRA Project Manager Greg Smolley said the locations are central
to projected future city population growth saving on transportation costs
and and have adequate property for new playgrounds and sports fields at
each location.
School central offices and adult education would move
to the Samuel Huntington School. Wequonnoc School in Taftville would
become a virtual learning center. The Thomas Mahan, Veterans’ Memorial, Bishop
Early Learning Center and central offices in the former John Mason School all
would be discontinued.
Alderman Derell Wilson said savings with the new project go
beyond the energy efficient new buildings and lower maintenance costs. With
more space and better facilities, Norwich could bring home special education
students now transported to specialty schools outside the city.
Wilson said he also liked the prospect of having new
playgrounds and sports fields at each school.
“The quick sound bite is, we would have four new elementary
schools and a completely renovated and larger second middle school for $75
million less than if we pour money into the school system that we already
have,” Council President Pro Tempore Joseph DeLucia said.
He added that the city would have three or four surplus
buildings that could be sold or repurposed, one perhaps for a community center
that residents have requested repeatedly.
Mayor Peter Nystrom requested the architects and School
Building Committee include local school readiness program leaders in the
discussions about including full preschools in each building. Norwich school
readiness program, headed by the LEARN regional education agency, receives
federal grants for more than 300 preschool slots in the city.
The City Council will hold a similar presentation for the
public at 6 p.m. next Monday, July 11, in Council Chambers, with time for
questions and comments.
The City Council will introduce an ordinance for bonding for
the proposed school project at its July 18 meeting, with a public hearing on
the ordinance planned for Aug. 1. The city must submit referendum ballot
question wording to the Secretary of the State’s office by Sept. 1 to get the
item on the Nov. 8 election ballot.
The School Building Committee endorsed
the master plan for the project last week. The presentation will be
posted on the city’s website, www.norwichct.org.
Consultant on New London pier project fined $10,000 by state ethics office
Mark Pazniokas
The Office of State Ethics fined a New York-based consulting
firm $10,000 Tuesday for providing more than $3,000 in food and gifts —
including hockey tickets and an overnight stay at a Greenwich club — to
Connecticut Port Authority officials in 2017 and 2019.
Seabury Maritime, a subsidiary of Seabury Capital Group,
provided some of those gifts while pursuing a business relationship with the
authority, and others after securing a contract to help find an operator for
state pier in New London, according to the consent order signed by Seabury and
the state ethics office.
Seabury also has come under fire this year from another
state agency. The State Contracting Standards Board concluded in February that
a $523,000 “success” fee the port authority paid to Seabury in May 2018 is
eerily similar to the “finder’s fees” scandal that sent a former state
treasurer to prison in 2001.
“Private companies that seek to engage state and
quasi-public agencies for contracts must understand that fostering good will
with state officials and employees cannot involve provision of impermissible
gifts,” said Peter Lewandowski, executive director of the ethics office.
“Violation of the Code’s gift laws will be forcefully prosecuted by the Office
of State Ethics.”
Between May and August 2017, Seabury provided gifts totaling
around $800, the ethics office wrote in a statement. This included “food, drinks
and a leather personal accessory to a CPA employee and the employee’s spouse at
a charity event” in May of that year, and more food and drinks and an overnight
stay at a Greenwich club to the same couple in August. Food and drinks also
went to a member of the authority’s governing board in August, according to the
state ethics office.
The Office of State Ethics does not identify people
mentioned in a consent order who are not the focus of that order. The office
also does not comment on whether other mentioned people are themselves the
focus of another investigation.
In 2019, after securing a contract to advise the authority,
Seabury Capitol provided another $2,300 in gifts, according to the report.
These included food, drinks and a leather handbag to an authority employee and
that employee’s spouse in April, and food, drinks and National Hockey League
tickets to two authority employees in May, 2019.
The ethics office added that “prior to the initiation of
this ethics matter, Seabury received reimbursement from the recipients for the
cost of the hockey tickets and the May 9, 2019 food and drinks.”
But because these items weren’t reimbursed within 30 days of receipt, as
required by state law, the gifts still were a violation. The other gifts from
Seabury in 2017 and 2019 were not reimbursed by the recipients.
State law “prohibits any person from knowingly giving,
directly or indirectly, gifts to a public official or state employee when that
person is doing business or seeking to do business with that public official or
state employee’s agency or department.”
The authority hired Seabury in May 2018 to help with the
search for an operator of the state pier in New London. The new operator would
help transform the pier into the staging area for a major, offshore wind-to-energy
project.
The authority issued a $700,000 payment to Seabury that
included a $523,000 “success” or reward fee — and that happened three months
after Henry Juan III of Greenwich, who was a managing director with Seabury,
had resigned from the authority board.
The state’s contracting board adopted a report in February
that compared this success fee with the “finder’s fees” the General Assembly
banned more than two decades ago. That ban followed a scandal in the late 1990s
that sent then-state Treasurer Paul Silvester to prison.
Silvester, a West Hartford Republican, was sentenced to 21
months in prison after admitting he had accepted kickbacks, often referred to
as “finder’s fees,” in exchange for steering investment of state-controlled
pension funds.
Jeffrey Erickson, who signed Tuesday’s ethics consent order as acting chief
financial officer for Seabury, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Scott Bates of Stonington, who chaired the port authority’s
Board of Directors from 2017 through May 2019, also could not be reached.
Lamont appointed one of his chief economic development
officials, David Kooris, in July 2019 to chair the authority board and to
overhaul operations.
“This is an unfortunate reminder of issues that occurred
under prior leadership,” Kooris wrote in a statement. “ … Under new leadership,
beginning in late 2019, the authority performed a complete overhaul of its
policies and procedures. With the assistance of the Office of Policy and
Management and outside auditors, the authority updated its ethics policies and
all employees and board members now receive annual ethics training and
certifications. Contractors are similarly made aware of the proper protocols.”
Kooris added that “authority stakeholders should be
reassured that matters from the past will be thoroughly and transparently
investigated.”
Besides the state, other major “stakeholders” in this matter
include Gateway Terminal — the firm hired to develop state pier — and
Eversource and Ørsted North America, which will develop the wind farm.
The pier project, priced three years ago at $93 million,
also has been criticized for several cost hikes which now place the price tag
at more than $255 million. Connecticut’s share now stands at $178 million, with
$77.5 million coming from private partners.