CT Construction Digest Friday April 28, 2023

CT’s highway system ranks 5th in national study, as per-mile spending rises

Andrew Larson

Connecticut's highway system was recently ranked fifth in the United States in terms of its cost-effectiveness and condition, rising 26 spots from last year's rankings, according to the 27th Annual Highway Report released by the Reason Foundation.

While Connecticut's improvement is due partly to a change in the methodology, it also rose in the rankings due to infrastructure upgrades, including smoother highway pavement, and lower fatality rates.

The report uses 2020 data; last year's report uses data from 2019.

State spending on highway construction projects also contributed to Connecticut’s upswing. The state ranked 12th in capital and bridge costs per mile, and 16th in maintenance spending per mile.

Connecticut’s best rankings were in urban interstate pavement condition (8th), and other disbursements per lane-mile (9th). Connecticut’s worst rankings were in urbanized area congestion (42nd) and urban arterial pavement condition (28th), according to the study.

Connecticut’s drivers waste 30.2 hours a year in traffic congestion, the study found, ranking it 42nd in the nation. 

Connecticut is one of nine states where automobile commuters spend more than 30 hours annually stuck in peak-hour traffic congestion, the report says. The others are New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Texas, Rhode Island, Illinois, California and Delaware.

While impaired and wrong-way crashes have been a focus of the state legislature this year,  Connecticut’s fatality rates were lower than in many states. According to the study, Connecticut ranked 25th in terms of its rural fatality rate, 11th in its urban fatality rate and 17th in the “other” fatality rate category.

According to last year’s report, using 2019 data, Connecticut had the ninth-highest fatality rate in the nation, and the third-highest rural fatality rate.  

In this year’s study, Connecticut’s overall highway performance ranked higher than nearby states New York (49th), Massachusetts (20th) and New Hampshire (14th). It also scored higher than New Jersey (44th) and Rhode Island (42nd).

The study’s methodology uses highway spending, conditions, fatality rates and urbanized congestion data submitted to the Federal Highway Administration.

17 major development projects set to transform Danbury's landscape for years to come

ROB RYSER

DANBURY — The city’s post-pandemic landscape is busy with development activity, from new car dealerships opening and proposals for hundreds of new apartments on the booming west side to commercial and residential projects slated for the downtown’s Main Street.

“The city is doing amazingly well — people are coming in from all over the planet it seems to do business in Danbury,” said Paul Rotello, the City Council’s minority leader and a member of a task force that recently completed work on a master plan for the next 10 years.

The city’s top planner agrees.

“The diversity of these projects and the variety of uses is an indication of Danbury’s attractiveness as a place to live and work and expand your business,” said Sharon Calitro, Danbury’s planning director. “It shows that our economy is diverse and robust; people want to be here."

The approved building projects and proposed developments — 17 of which are highlighted here, coincide with a growth spurt in Danbury that demographers project could put the city of 86,000 at 95,000 by 2040.

The surge of development activity is healthy for the city’s bottom line, leaders say, so long as commercial and residential development is “managed responsibly.”

“We have to do it in a focused way,” Rotello said. “The plan is working.”

Here is a snapshot of 17 high-profile construction projects and proposals that have been in the headlines over the past year.

1. Danbury Career Academy, 40 Apple Ridge Road (approved/not built)

 The city’s much-anticipated campus for 1,400 students will not only alleviate overcrowded classrooms when it opens for the 2025-2026 school year but will mark a new era in Danbury and the rest of the state. High school education will be reorganized into a freshman academy and six career academies, where every student is on an individualized track for college or a job after graduation. The $164 million project, which involves retrofitting the former Cartus Corp. building and 24-acre campus into a new west side high school and middle school, broke ground in February.

2. Hundreds of apartments at The Summit, 100 Reserve Road (approved/not built)

The short version of this project is when the sprawling 1.2-million-square-foot office park known as The Summit was negotiating with the city to locate its career academy in a section of the office park, The Summit wanted a contingency deal that if the career academy fell through The Summit would be able to retrofit the office space reserved for the school into 400 apartments. The city agreed. Shortly afterword, when negotiations about the career academy broke down, The Summit went back to its plan to build 400 apartments. As of late April, The Summit was yet to submit formal plans to the city for the apartments. Developers envision offering a "city within a city" and have already begun to fill commercial and retail space. 

3. WestConn Park commercial and residential development at 3 Mill Plain Road (proposed)

This large-scale 31-acre development near Western Connecticut State University’s west side campus on Mill Plain Road has been out of the headlines recently as the developer negotiates with the state transportation department to improve the sight lines for the proposed project. Plans call for an 11-building campus of apartments, offices, stores and an assisted-living facility. The project, which would include a bank, a restaurant, a coffee house and retail shops would attract 650 more vehicles during rush hour on the already congested stretch between the Stop & Shop and Amity Lane. The developer calls the project “a lifestyle center where people can live, work, shop and play in one area.”

4. Savings Bank of Danbury building at Main and White streets (proposed)

This $14 million office building project includes the demolition of the defunct night club Tuxedo Junction, which the city sold to the bank as part of the deal to provide better access for the new building. The proposed red brick building with white trim and an octangular tower shown on the plans would be used as the bank’s headquarters.  

5. Old Courthouse renovation and 100 units of workforce housing at 71 Main St. (proposed)

This complex, multi-party deal would transform a downtown corner with 100 apartments and restore the empty 1899 old state courthouse for new city uses. The plan, which has been approved by the City Council, authorizes Mayor Dean Esposito to apply with a nonprofit for a $9.9 million in state economic development money to buy the courthouse and four other properties on Main Street and Park Place. Blueprints call for a restored courthouse and a new parking lot for city use, such as the Danbury Museum. The nonprofit would seek the rest of the project’s $70 million cost to build the workforce apartments.

6. Conversion of office building into apartments and construction of apartment building at 30 Main St. (proposed) 

The project, known as The Legacy on Main has already been through the land use wringer once, gaining permission from the city’s wetlands commission. The city’s Planning Commission is reviewing blueprints for the 208-apartment project, which call for the conversion of the existing five-story office building into studio and one-bedroom units, and the construction of a 70-foot apartment building in the parking lot with more studios and one-bedroom apartments. A small percentage of two-bedroom apartments would be distributed between the two buildings.

7. Affordable housing project for seniors behind headquarters of Connecticut Institute for Communities at 70 Main St. (proposed)

A $2 million federal grant secured by U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, will help pay for a parking garage upon which a three-story apartment building would be built behind the headquarters of the nonprofit Connecticut Institute for Communities. The congresswoman’s grant brought the nonprofit’s fundraising to $4.7 million toward the $8 million cost of project. The apartment would have 79 units of affordable housing for seniors.

8. Apartment building at former headquarters of The News-Times, 333 Main St. (nearly complete)

 A second-story pool overlooking downtown Danbury and retail shops that open onto Main Street are among the finishing touches to be completed at the 149-apartment house known as Brookview Commons II, across the street from the Kennedy Flats apartment complex. Other features of the six-story apartment building include a car bridge over Padanaram Brook in the back of the property and a pedestrian bridge connecting the new complex to developer Dan Bertram’s existing apartment building on Crosby Street called Brookfield Commons.

9. Panera Café at 5 Sugar Hollow Road (approved/not built)

Panera Bread is moving from leased space on the city’s west side and will build a free-standing drive-thru café nearby. Plans call for Panera to move out of leased space at The Shops at Marcus Dairy and build a 5,000-square-foot single story drive-thru building in the parking lot.  

10. Chipotle restaurant and medical office at 1 Sugar Hollow Road (underway)

Demolition and ground clearing has begun at the former Pier 1 Imports store near the Danbury Fair mall to make way for a new drive-thru Chipotle restaurant and medical office space. The new Chipotle will be across Backus Avenue from the free-standing Shake Shack and Texas LongHorn Steakhouse restaurants on the Danbury Fair mall property.

11. Mercedes Benz dealership near Danbury Municipal Airport (under construction)

Work is underway to transform a vacant 2.5-acre storage lot into a $7 million Mercedes-Benz dealership at the gateway of an emerging high-end auto corridor. Plans for the property at Miry Brook and Sugar Hollow roads call for Curry Automotive to move its dealership from Federal Road on the city’s east end to the new gateway location. The stretch is already home to North American Motor Car, a custom garage and luxury vehicle storage facility that bills itself as the largest of its kind in Fairfield County, and a film director’s company that produces $450,000 sports cars.

12. Nissan-Infinity dealership at 13 Sugar Hollow Road (completed) 

The new dealership, which occupies a 78,000-square-foot building on 8 acres, was approved one year ago.

13. Renovation of former Meeker’s Hardware building 88-90 White St. (proposed)

An entrepreneur who wants to convert the distinctive red-brick Meeker’s Hardware building in the shadows of the Uncle Sam statue at the downtown train station into a dance hall will have to work around restraints on the building, because it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The entrepreneur, who owns the Billy Beans Café next door, wants to build a 92-seat dance hall and sit-down bar in the front half of the first floor of the Meeker’s building. If the entrepreneur has his way, the Meeker building will not only be the only former hardware store in the country listed on the national register, but it will be the only dance hall located in a former hardware store on the national register.

14. Renovation of a former rental shop into a retail cannabis store at 108 Federal Road (approved/not built)

Look for the city’s second retail cannabis location to open at the end of summer on the busy east end. Unlike the hybrid medicinal cannabis and retail location known as The Botanist on the west side that serves both medical patients and adults buying cannabis for recreation, the Federal Road shop known as BUD-R will sell recreational cannabis only. Danbury is the only location in the 10-town region where retail cannabis sales are allowed, under city regulations passed in August. State law provides the cannabis businesses will generate a special 3 percent tax for Danbury.  

15. Renovation of former Sears anchor store at Danbury Fair mall into a Target store (approved/not built)

Target is planning a new entrance plaza and a redesigned parking lot for its new two-level store at the Danbury Fair mall. Target’s new 126,000-square-foot store in the former Sears location  could open as soon as a year from June. 

16. Conversion of the former Crowne Plaza hotel into 'innovation studios’ at 18 Old Ridgebury Road (proposed)

Developer Dan Bertram wants to convert the 240 hotel rooms at the former west side hotel into 195 “innovation studios” with three floors of “maker space” for artists and entrepreneurs. What will that look like? The nonprofit Danbury Hackerspace will manage the three floors as creative workspace for entrepreneurs, inventors, artists and start-ups as part of a larger plan to convert upper-level hotel rooms into apartments and micro-studios. Plans for the new venture, called Bright Ravens Innovation Studios, include a machine shop, a wood shop, a computer lab, and fine art studios for photography, video and sound recording, for use by artists, do-it-yourselfers, and prototype builders.

17. Clancy warehouse, 100 Reserve Road (status unclear)

A New York moving company in late April withdrew its controversial plans to locate a 210,000-square-foot warehouse on part of the Summit’s 100-acre campus. This was the second time the company has pulled its proposal off the table in response to neighbors' objections to its size and potential for truck traffic to degrade the neighborhood. Clancy Moving System's future plans were unclear on Thursday, but a valid wetlands permit the company was awarded last year is still in effect. The company aimed to a build a warehouse, an office-maintenance building, and a 28-foot-wide road crossing a wetland. 

West Hartford's first transit-oriented housing development is coming. Here's what that means.

Michael Walsh

WEST HARTFORD — A five-story 150-unit mixed-use housing development could be coming to the former Puritan Furniture site on New Britain Avenue in Elmwood.

If approved, the project — which has been called Elmwood Lofts in filing documents — would be the first to make use of the town's new ordinance establishing a transit-oriented district in that part of town.

Todd Dumais, West Hartford's town planner, said the ordinance was designed using the four D's of "distance, density, diversity and design" to encourage housing developments that take advantage of non-vehicle modes of transportation, like the nearby Elmwood and Flatbush CTfastrak bus stations.

"As we’ve defined it locally, it revolves around distance," Dumais said. "We in West Hartford are focused on a five to 10 minute walk to a fixed transit station. We’re looking to support and encourage relatively high populations or employment densities. There’s also a diversity of mixes of land uses. We want to encourage live, work, play opportunities."

The district encompasses areas near those stations that have frontage or access to Darcy Street, Flatbush Avenue, Jefferson Avenue, New Britain Avenue, New Park Avenue, Prospect Avenue and South Street.

In exchange for building there, the town gives developers the opportunity for higher density occupancy, reduces the amount of required parking spaces and provides incentives for affordable housing. The project also doesn't need public hearings or Town Council approval, just the authorization of town administrators. 

Its a package of benefits that the developer of the Puritan site, Sami Abunasra, said was appealing to him.

"It helps tremendously," Abunasra said. "We don’t have to go through loops and hoops of meetings and special design district types of things. It gives you a higher density as of right. Once you rezone an entire section, it just helps property values and brings in more investors. Even you as a developer, you feel more confident about the area because there will be more interest in the long term. It’s an investable type of neighborhood."

Abunasra bought the property in 2020, and noticing the nearby CTfastrak station, realized the site could be prime for housing. An early meeting with the town gave validation to his vision and a nearly $1 million grant from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development’s Brownfield Remediation Program helped clean up the blighted site, which also operates an Ashley HomeStore Outlet.

"When I met the town officials, which I have to commend tremendously, it gave us a really good feeling about what the town wants and what their direction is," he said. "They're looking to revitalize the area. That’s what actually pushed us."

Initially pitched as a 131-unit housing development, the plan has grown to include 150 units of housing, with a spread of 15 studio apartments, 84 one-bedroom units, 47 two-bedroom units and four three-bedroom units. Abunasra said 20 percent of those units — 30 in total — would be marked as "affordable" at 80 percent of the area median income. The site plan also makes room for five ground-floor commercial spaces, which could be used by a mix of restaurants and other retail.

"Really, we are trying to make it as special as it can be but without going overboard with costs," Abunasra said. "We’re trying to design every dwelling with a working den to help with a work from home type of environment. We’ll have conference rooms in the lobby to work in. We’ll have a roof deck. We’ll have a community room, a fitness center. It was done to appeal to young professionals. That’s the theme. That’s the long term demographics we should be shooting for which will make the project more viable."

Restaurants and retail are already a major part of New Britain Avenue's character, with popular eateries like The Corner Pug across the street, and others like Frank Pepe's Pizza, Frida and Beachland Tavern just down the road. The GastroPark and other eateries are also a quick walk down New Park Avenue, which is slated to receive a roadway overhaul that could include some form of protected bike lanes. 

Abunasra said he hopes the small-city urban style the area carries appeals to prospective tenants.

"New Britain Avenue has a very high occupancy rate when it comes to commercial," Abunasra said. "If you look at our design, the endcap restaurants, one has a patio and one has a roof deck, so we’re cognizant of the outdoor part. That became a pillar of COVID and post-COVID and everybody likes it. It’s also good for the economy of the town. You keep these young people (in West Hartford) — and in the state overall — these college students want the urban lifestyle, but maybe not a big city."

Dumais said that part of the transit-oriented district's requirements include a building  being right up on the street, working to activate the streetscape. Restaurants and retail on the front floor, with parking either tucked away to the side, rear or underground, can make this happen.

"It did require that those buildings be placed up next to the street and activate street fronts," Dumais said. "If the building is not up on the street, and there aren’t windows or doors, then you don’t have an opportunity to engage. Traditionally, it’s been a parking lot, and the building behind the parking lot. If you walk in West Hartford Center or on Park Road you get that interaction and interplay."

Abunasra's plans currently call for 209 parking spaces to be included on site, with 69 of those as ground level spaces to be utilized by retail and restaurants. The other 140 spaces are for the residential units, meaning there's a fewer than one parking space per unit. Plans say that 128 of those spaces will be basement level parking, while the other 12 will be ground level.

Abunasra recently had plans reviewed by the town's Design Review Advisory Committee, which Dumais said responded favorably. Once the project meets the standards of the town's zoning ordinance, staff can give the project an automatic approval.

If approved, the housing development would bring West Hartford close to having 1,000 new units of housing become available across town at several sites across town, with some having opened recently, others currently being built and a few more approved but not yet under construction. About 25 percent of those units — some of which are set aside for adults with disabilities and senior citizens — will be "affordable" units for people at varying income levels.

"The Town Council is certainly excited and staff is excited that we have the first development looking to use this new ordinance," Dumais said. "It’s exciting for the community and Elmwood with this being the first of its kind to come through."

Chick-fil-A in, Trader Joe's & DQ out as Shelton development seeks fresh start

Brian Gioiele

SHELTON — Fountain Square will be complete and occupied by this time next year, the owner’s top representative said. 

The development, located at 801 Bridgeport Ave., has shored up its finances and is looking forward to moving forward, according to Dave Gunia, senior vice president of development with Highview Commercial.

“This is a fresh start for the project,” said Gunia. 

Gunia said John Abene, part of Highview's ownership group, is now sole owner and has paid all subcontractors and suppliers that were owed money as well as all the financial institutions with notes on the site, including Bob Scinto.

“We have committed significant resources to the project and will be seeing it through as quickly as possible,” said Gunia, adding that GreenLake Asset Management, the property's sole mortgage holder, “believes in Shelton, as do we. Overall, by this time next year, we expect that Fountain Square will be 100 percent built out and occupied.” 

Panera and Metro Mattress are already in place, and, according to Gunia, construction on Chick-fil-A, long a centerpiece of the development, began Monday.

The Fountain Square project was first presented to the Planning and Zoning Commission in 2017. The project was split into six phases, and final development plans for all phases were approved separately between 2018 and 2020.   

Overall, Gunia said the site has 85,000 square feet of retail space. In the larger buildings, he said there is 50,000 square feet, with only 6,000 square feet remaining. There are also two slab areas — one at 2,500 square feet with no drive thru, the other at 2,600 square feet with a drive thru. 

Gunia also confirmed that Trader Joe’s — long rumored to be eyeing space on the site — has chosen not to come to Shelton. Also out is DQ Grill & Chill — which was to sit on the slab area approved for a drive thru, he said. 

A planned hotel, which had been a significant piece of the original approval, is also being reevaluated.

"We no longer believe a hotel is the best fit," said Gunia, adding that the owner is “still exploring the highest and best uses for the undeveloped upper portion of the property" where the hotel was to stand. 

Tenants in the larger building include a Mercato restaurant, The Tech Team mobile and tech repair services, a national haircut chain, an upscale nail salon, Crumbl Cookies and Fountain Square Wine and Spirits. 

The smaller building will include Physician One Urgent Care, StretchLab, Pokemoto, Jersey Mike’s, MyEyeDr. and Consumer Cellular. 

Gunia also confirmed that the Goddard School will still be coming to the property, with construction expected to begin soon. 

“We are happy to say a number of subcontractors have remained,” said Gunia, adding that also staying on is Daniel Witkins, Sr., of DFW Building Co., the construction manager for the Fountain Square project since its inception. 

Also being completed now is the traffic signal at the corner of Bridgeport Avenue and Parrott Drive. Gunia said paving the remaining section of Bridgeport Avenue will also be completed within the next 30 days. 

“This was a key element for the whole center, so much so, the operation of the signal is tied into leases,” Gunia said. “It is so important to get that done.” 

Berlin’s Steele Center taking shape, with two more buildings under construction

Hanna Snyder Gambini

Developers are framing out the next phases of the Steele Center mixed-use project in Berlin, as another building’s anchor tenant Hop Haus is preparing for its grand opening.

Tony Valenti and Mark Lovely of Southington-based Lovely Development and Newport Realty are building The Steele Center, a $17-million, 75,000-square-foot commercial and residential development, that will bring 70 market-rate apartments and several commercial storefronts to the Kensington Village area.

Steele Boulevard is a new road that stretches from Farmington Avenue to the new Berlin train station on the Hartford line, featuring several residential and mixed-use buildings under construction.

The buildings at 10 and 29 Steele Boulevard are starting to take shape.

The 10 Steele project is a 1.5-story building with 7,900 square feet of commercial space on the first floor, and four apartments above – two, two-bedroom and two, one-bedroom units. 

Valenti said he expects the units will be ready for occupancy by year end, and his team has started marketing the retail space, with negotiations underway with a hair and nail salon, a financial planner and a medi-spa. 

Nearby, 29 Steele Boulevard is a free-standing building with 1,650-square-foot commercial spot with patio space, ideal for a small restaurant or coffee shop, but also suitable for an office, Valenti said.

The Lovely team has partnered with Century 21 All Points for the commercial and residential leasing.

The footing for both buildings has been poured, and steele framing is next.

“We expect to see both with vertical construction within a few weeks,” he said.

Remediation work on the planned 55 Steele Boulevard, a free-standing apartment building with 50 market-rate units, is set to begin in May or June. Once construction begins, it should take about 18 months to complete that building.

That building sits in the back of the complex, closest to the train station.

Right along Farmington Avenue is the mixed-use 9 Steele Boulevard, which is completely finished with 16 market-rate apartments that are fully leased.

The 7,500 square feet of commercial space on the main-floor is anchored by a 4,100-square-foot Hop Haus brewery and gastropub, with an outdoor patio along the main road, that is set to open in June, with some soft openings planned before then.

The remaining commercial space at 9 Steele will also be shared by a home care agency, attorneys office and cosmetic/fitness/life coaching center.

The Steele Center project is moving along, despite some delays with supply chain issues, and a pivot from planned two-bedroom units to smaller apartments to keep pace with the changing market, Valenti said.

“We can never move as fast as we want, but as soon as we got past all the supply issues, we are totally back on track and we want to finish off this development,” he said, expecting to be completely finished in a little more than two years’ time.

CT Construction Digest Thursday April 27, 2023

Officials say exit project will bring ‘transformational’ improvements to East Lyme traffic

Elizabeth Regan

East Lyme ―State Sen. Martha Marx, D-New London, welcomed Wednesday’s ceremonial groundbreaking for the Exit 74 reconstruction of Interstate 95 by recounting what she called her always-perilous journeys on the highway.

A group of local and state officials, from First Selectman Kevin Seery to Gov. Ned Lamont, stood in front of an excavator at the former site of the Starlight Inn Wednesday morning. Construction workers watched in their yellow vests and hard hats from the staging area that will become a northbound on-ramp and commuter parking lot by the end of the more than four-year, $148 million project.

“There’s not a person in southeastern Connecticut that doesn’t take a deep breath every time they’re driving onto the highway, scared to death that the first thing they’re going to see is an 18-wheeler,” Marx said. “Do we slow down? Do we go faster? How do I do this?”

She held up her hands like they were white-knuckled on a steering wheel.

“You say a Hail Mary and you get on the highway,” she said.

Behind the officials, cars crept along the northbound lane of the interstate due to an unrelated paint removal project affecting bridges along the span.

Officials have said the first year of the massive Exit 74 project will revolve around moving utility poles along with gas, water and sewer lines on Route 161 which began last month. The more significant traffic impacts are still to come.

State Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Gary Eucalitto said the project will realign on- and off-ramps to give drivers more time before merging or trying to get off the highway.

There were 200 crashes with 50 injuries in the project area – including the interstate and Route 161, the state road that passes underneath it – over the past three years, according to Eucalitto.

The goal of the project, which was referred to by multiple officials as “transformational,” is to reduce congestion and improve safety on the highway and Route 161. The state DOT is picking up 20% of the cost while the federal government, through President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure deal, is responsible for the rest.

Digital signs have been installed to warn drivers how backed up they can expect their commute to be. DOT spokesman Josh Morgan said the “Smart Work Zone” signs are part of a sensor system to make construction areas safer and reduce delays.

A guidebook from the DOT said the sensors can be used to transmit messages and gather real time data such as traffic volume, speed and how many people are in each vehicle.

The construction project was initially slated to begin in 2021, but the transportation department needed more time for preparations, including coordinating the utility work and acquiring property through eminent domain.

Gone is the Starlight Inn, the neighboring Mobil gas station and a golf range on the other side of the overpass that catered to a clientele from high school students to retirees. The demolitions make room for a whole new layout as crews widen the interstate and Route 161, replace the overpass, and raise the highway in some places while lowering it in others.

Lamont reiterated the safety benefits that will come from “levitating the highway 10 feet” in places, which he said will smooth out hills and cut down on crashes by increasing visibility. Then there are the wider lanes.

“The longer exit ramp and on ramp allows you to speed up and speed down so Martha Marx can relax a little bit as she gets on the highway,” Lamont said.

The officials touted the state’s progress in addressing transportation issues, which has been bolstered by the massive, bipartisan infrastructure law signed by President Joe Biden that promises to deliver $550 billion over four years for the nation’s roads, bridges, mass transit system, water infrastructure, resiliency efforts, and broadband capabilities.

Eucalitto pointed to a report released last week by the libertarian Reason Foundation, which ranked Connecticut’s highway system the fifth most high-performing in the United States in terms of cost-effectiveness and condition.

“That shows we’re moving in the right direction,” he said, citing a 26-spot jump from the previous years’ report.

The report also included Connecticut in a list of nine states – including New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island – where commuters spend more than 30 hours annually stuck in rush hour traffic.

Connecticut State Building Trades Council Vice President Nate Brown touted the federal infrastructure funding and a labor union agreement that promotes workforce training as part of the project.

He said the labor agreement ensures “apprentices, minorities, veterans and local residents are on the project.”

State Rep. Holly Cheeseman, R-East Lyme, invoked Rodney Dangerfield’s “I don’t get no respect” mantra to describe the feeling among people east of the Connecticut River who feel they don’t get enough attention from officials who assign priorities and dole out funding for the state.

“I sometimes feel we in Eastern Connecticut have a sort of chip on our shoulder,” she said. “Today, we not only feel respected and appreciated, we feel loved by the attention we’re getting.”

Lamont at the ceremony addressed Seery, the first selectman.

“Kevin, I got to tell you, East Lyme is happening,” the governor said. “Did you see the headline in the New York Times?”

The article had been posted the same day in the Real Estate section of the Times website with the headline: “East Lyme, Conn.: ‘Clean, Safe, Peaceful and Quiet.”

Lamont added the town also has great schools and is “a hell of a lot of fun.”

“And we’re making it easier and easier to get here,” he said.

Officials Kick Off 4-Year Construction at I-95 Exit 74, Lamont Talks High-Speed Rail

Cate Hewitt

EAST LYME — Infrastructure was the buzzword on Wednesday as officials pushed ceremonial shovels into the ground to kick off the I-95 Exit 74 reconstruction project that will realign interchanges, widen lanes and replace the bridge at Route 161. The $150 million project is expected to be completed in Spring 2027.

“It is just transformative for a state like Connecticut that has an awful lot of old infrastructure,” said Gov. Ned Lamont. “[The project] is going to be just the first step in a long march as we upgrade our transportation” that will make it easier to travel to destinations in the southeastern portion of the state due to 80 percent funding from the federal infrastructure bill, he said.

As he addressed the crowd of construction workers, press and state officials, Lamont pivoted to rail infrastructure, thanking the state’s federal delegation for supporting the expansion of rail lines to speed up train service between New York and Boston. 

“Senator Chris Murphy made specific emphasis on Amtrak and you’re gonna see an hour taken off that commute over the next five to 10 years between Boston and New York and just getting started,” he said. “Thanks to Joe Courtney and our other delegation, we’re going to be going to 40-40-40, 40 minutes down to New Haven, 40 minutes to Stamford and get that eventually down to 30-30-30.”

He said Connecticut’s greatest strategic advantage is its location, “but it only works if you can get there.”

Garrett Eucalitto, state commissioner of transportation, said the project will alleviate bottlenecks in an area with a high rate of crashes due to inadequate design, especially in the on- and off-ramps. 

“Over a three year period, we had nearly 200 crashes on I-95 and route 161, resulting in over 50 injuries,” Eucalitto said. 

He said the project will help improve safety for people traveling on I-95 as well as those walking or riding bikes on Route 161, where lanes will be widened, and sidewalks and shoulders will be added. 

The state has also attached a Project Labor Agreement, or PLA, to the project, Eucalitto said, “which means that workforce training will occur right here on this job site.”

“PLA’s help ensure the next generation of trades people get the hands-on training they need to help deliver the infrastructure of our future,” he said. 

After a number of short speeches, state and local officials grabbed their shovels and tossed ceremonial dirt into the air to officially mark the commencement of the project.

The project was presented in 2019 and slated to begin in 2021, but was delayed two years due to COVID. The project includes improving the vertical geometry of the highway, extending on- and off-ramps and adding auxiliary lanes between Exits 74 and 75. The bridge at Route 161 will be replaced and widened. Route 161 will be widened, with sidewalks, shoulders and travel and turning lanes added.

East Lyme Chief of Police Michael Finkelstein said that the state’s department of transportation and the its engineering consultant on the project, GM2 Inc., have worked to coordinate issues of handling traffic throughout the project, using lessons learned from the 2019 Costco construction project. 

“I think we’ve learned a lot from the Costco job on problems that happened here. This job has a tremendous amount of limitations in it where they can’t work certain times and in certain ways,” he said. “It just makes the project longer, but it actually makes it easier for us, because it limits the number of times we’re gonna have, or we anticipate having larger backups.”

He said there would be limited closures of Route 161 and no highway closures at all, barring an emergency or a very short term construction need. 

He said Route 161 will only be closed when the new bridges, which will be preconstructed, are put into place.

First Selectman Kevin Seery said most of the work on I-95 will be done at night, and construction hours on Route 161 will be limited from approximately 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

He said that his office and CTDOT have communicated with the neighborhoods in East Lyme that will feel the impact of drivers using side roads to bypass the construction. He said the project’s website and social media will have updates on traffic conditions. 

Bob Obey, resident engineer with GM2, told CT Examiner that throughout the project there will always be two lanes going north and south on  I-95. 

“There will be barriers and we’ll be widening behind the barriers, and then it’s just a matter of shifting those barriers perpetually over the next three, four years to move traffic so we can establish a new work area,” he said. 

He said the new bridge will be built in pieces alongside the old one and traffic will be shifted as each phase is completed. 

“We have probably seven or eight stages. It literally is a puzzle and these puzzle pieces go in, they come out and some stuff is temporary, some stuff is permanent. We’re constantly moving and adjusting to maintain all the traffic and really build the whole job underneath everybody. That’s not easy and that’s what takes so long,” Obey said. 

Farmington town budget, high school building project, road improvements up for vote today

Steven Goode

FARMINGTON — Town budgets don't often generate a lot of  interest among voters, especially when the town council has adopted a budget for the next fiscal year that calls for no increases in spending over the current year's $121.26 million, as is the case in Farmington.

Regardless of the zero percent increase in spending, homeowners will see an average increase of 9.75 percent in their property taxes due to state-required revaluation that happened to coincide with a meteoric rise in property values as commercial property values dropped slightly or remained flat. 

But there is another item  up for a vote on Thursday that might have more interest among residents. The town is asking residents to vote on spending $16 million to save the original 1928 Farmington High School building. The cost of that project would be offset by $7 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds from the federal government, making the total price tag for the town $9 million.

If approved, the town would convert the building into a new town hall, with offices for multiple municipal departments, meeting space and a 3,600 square-foot gym for community use. The town clerk, tax collector, tax assessor and registrars of voters would also move into the building.

Town officials have said the time to decide is now because doing the renovations at the same time the old high school is torn down would result in construction savings.

If voters don't approve the referendum. the 1928 building will be torn down along with the rest of the high school when the new high school opens next year.

A survey of about 1,000 residents last year found that 78 percent of those polled were in favor of retaining that section of the high school when the rest is demolished.

The third question on the referendum ballot is whether the town should spend $4 million to improve and reconstruct roads around town.

Voting will take place at all the towns polling places from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Orange-based Avangrid vows to restart hydro line construction after winning jury decision

Alexander Soule

Avangrid confirmed Wednesday it plans to restart construction of its planned New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line in Maine to tap hydropower in Canada after a jury verdict that the Orange-based company could proceed despite a 2021 voter referendum to block the project.

It is a major win for renewable energy advocates in New England, with the lines designed to carry half as much more power than Avangrid's Park City Wind farm that will be staged out of Bridgeport.

Avangrid attorneys argued successfully that it had already poured substantial funds into the project when the referendum was held, saddling Avangrid with an unfair financial burden. Speaking Wednesday morning on a conference call, Avangrid executives said the verdict could still be appealed but that they were communicating with contractors and dam operator Hydro-Quebec about a timeline to recommence construction.

Maine voters had been swayed by arguments that the project would cause environmental harm by clearing trees to erect towers for the transmission lines running 150 miles through Maine wilderness, including mountain terrain and a stretch of the Kennebec River valley.

Avangrid and its allies noted the company is using an existing line corridor for more than half of the route and maintained that the benefits to New England's emissions targets outweighed the downsides of removing additional trees to extend and widen the corridor and the impact of 95-foot-tall towers spoiling scenic vistas going forward.

"We think it's the best project to build for New England in order to help Massachusetts, Maine and all of New England meet its clean energy future," said Catherine Stempien, CEO of Avangrid Networks, speaking Wednesday morning on a conference call. "We're excited to restart construction."

A Canadian official told the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources last year that Quebec's electricity costs are 30 percent less than other G7 nations and that they have been immune to the price spikes New England has seen as natural gas markets have been disrupted during Russia's military campaign in Ukraine.

Through its Avangrid Renewables subsidiary based in Oregon, Avangrid is one of the nation's largest developers of renewable power generation spanning wind and solar. The company is readying to drive the first monopile foundation this spring for Vineyard Wind off the Massachusetts coast, which will be the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in the United States. Construction of Park City Wind will follow next year to supply renewable power for Connecticut.

In Connecticut, Avangrid subsidiaries include United Illuminating, Connecticut Natural Gas and Connecticut Southern Gas. The company is spearheading the New England Clean Energy Connect through its Central Maine Power transmission subsidiary.

While Massachusetts homeowners and businesses will purchase electricity from the Maine transmission lines — it will be sufficient for the energy needs of a million homes — the project will provide another major source of renewable power in the territory of ISO New England, the nonprofit that coordinates the supply of electricity in Connecticut.

Gov. Ned Lamont's administration is backing a separate project to build a hydropower transmission line between Quebec and Vermont to benefit the New England grid.

East Haven Mayor Carfora walks out as regional council backs Tweed expansion, environmental assessment

Mark Zaretsky

NORTH HAVEN — East Haven Mayor Joe Carfora walked out of a meeting of Greater New Haven's regional Council of Governments Wednesday before it unanimously approved, with two abstentions, a resolution supporting Tweed New Haven Regional Airport expansion and an associated draft Environmental Assessment.

Carfora and two staff members walked out after his motion to table the South Central Regional Council of Government resolution for a second straight month failed by a 5-4 vote. Bethany First Selectwoman Paula Cofrancesco, the council's secretary and acting chair, cast the deciding vote.

"It's a joke! It's a total joke," Carfora said after leaving the room. "How can you vote on something you didn't read?" 

He said he had hired experts who "totally annihilated" findings in the Environmental Assessment, which among other things found that extending Tweed's runway and building a new terminal on the East Haven side actually would improve the airport's impact on the environment. 

Carfora earlier had asked who in the room had read the EA. Just two people, both bystanders, raised their hands. One of them was Lorena Venegas, an East Haven resident and Tweed expansion opponent who is a member of the 10,000 Hawks community group. 

"I'm fighting for my town," Carfora told the council before walking out. He said it would be "a travesty" if the COG supported the resolution of support for expansion and the EA's findings.

"I was elected to fight for my town" and "I hope all of you vote again to table this," he said just before the COG voted against tabling it.

He called it "sickening" that the COG was considering going on record in favor of the EA's findings while the FAA review process was underway. and said, "it makes me want to vomit." 

At one point, New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, who attended the meeting remotely via Zoom and voted against tabling as well as casting the only vote against a proposed amendment told Carfora to watch his language.

On the vote to table, Carfora was joined by North Haven First Selectman Michael Freda, Wallingford Mayor Bill Dickinson and Branford First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove. Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett, Madison First Selectwoman Peggy Lyons, Guilford First Selectman Matthew Hoey and Elicker all voted not to table.

Woodbridge Deputy First Selectwoman Sheila McCreven, proxy for First Selectwoman Beth Heller, abstained.

Moments after Carfora left, the Council approved by a 6-1 margin, again with two abstentions, a motion to amend the resolution to state the COG would support a full-blown Environmental Impact Statement should the Federal Aviation Administration deem it appropriate. Elicker cast the one "no" vote.

Soon after, the COG unanimously approved the resolution supporting expansion and the findings of the EA, again with two abstentions.

In the second two votes, Freda and McCreven abstained.

Elicker, explaining his vote against the amendment, said later, "The amendment effectively says if the FAA makes a determination, we support it. That language seemed hollow and unnecessary to me. I don't see the need to make unnecessary statements.

"The bottom line is, the proposal for the airport changes is a good thing for the communities that are served," including both "New Haven and other communities," he said. "There's an interest by a small group of people to delay it in anyway possible."

Cofrancesco was acting as chair because Chairman Matthew Hoey, first selectman of Guilford, is on the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority and Vice Chairman James Zeoli, first selectman of Orange, was absent.

"This is very difficult," Cofrancesco said. But she said she agreed with an earlier statement by Madison First Selectwoman Peggy Lyons that "it's about the process" and decided "I'm going to let the process play out. I'm going to say, 'Yea.'" 

While Hoey did not sit as COG chairman for the meeting, he did vote on all three resolutions. Hoey was the one who proposed the amendment that said the COG would support an EIS if the FAA deemed it appropriate, which he said came after a number of discussions with Carfora.

The draft Environmental Assistant initially had a 45-day comment period that would have ended April 16. The FAA in March extended it for 15 additional days through May 1. The EA is posted at a link on Tweed's TweedMasterPlan.com and FlyTweed.com websites. 

CHFA poised to approve $36.5M in loans for housing developments in Newington, West Hartford and New Haven

Michael Puffer

The Connecticut Housing Finance Authority’s Mortgage Committee unanimously endorsed $36.5 million in loans to affordable housing projects in Newington, West Hartford and New Haven Tuesday. 

The full CHFA Board of Directors is scheduled to take up the requests Thursday.

The loan proposals include $3.17 million for the second phase of Massachusetts-based Dakota Partners’ “Cedar Pointe” development of a 7.7-acre former car dealership property at 550 Cedar St. in Newington.

The first phase consists of 72 apartments in three buildings and a one-story clubhouse. With an estimated cost of $14 million, this second phase will include a mix of 36 one- and two-bedrooms apartments, 28 of which will be offered at affordable rates. Construction is anticipated to launch this spring and conclude in summer 2024.

Dakota has applied for a loan of $2.39 million at no more than 7.25% interest yearly over 35 years and a $951,000 loan at no more than 1% interest over 25 years.

On Tuesday, the CHFA subcommittee also endorsed an $11.7 million construction loan and a $2.1 million permanent loan for the first phase of West Hartford Fellowship Housing’s plan to replace 23, 1970-vintage buildings containing 168 units with six buildings containing 300 apartments for the elderly and disabled.

The nonprofit housing provider got its start about 50 years ago, when area churches and synagogues came together around a mission to provide affordable housing. Today, the nonprofit is run by a volunteer board, operating the aging housing complex on a 2.9-acre town-owned site.

West Hartford’s Town Council approved a 99-year extension of the land-lease late last year.

The planned first phase of development, estimated to cost $25.6 million, will see three buildings containing 22 units replaced with two, three-story buildings with elevators serving 65 affordable units restricted to people ages 62 and up or disabled.

The $11.7 million construction loan is proposed at no more than 7.34% interest over 24 months, with the $2.1 million permanent loan at rates of not more than 6.53% over 35 years.

Haynes Construction has been named as the builder for this first phase of construction, which is expected to launch this summer and conclude in winter 2024.

The CHFA Mortgage Committee also endorsed $19.53 million in loans for rehabilitation of 66 apartments and construction of 26 more at the McConaughy Terrace complex in New Haven.

The development at the corner of Genesee St. and Harper Ave. is anticipated to launch this summer and wrap in fall 2024.

Under the subcommittee action Tuesday, a $5.23 million construction loan would be offered to the Glendower Group Inc. at no more than 5.88% interest annually over a two-year repayment term. A permanent loan of up to $14.3 million would come at no more than 6.68% interest over a term of 40 years.

McConaughy Terrace was built in the 1940s.

Glendower plans to convert the complex to a project-based voucher model, with construction over two phases. The anticipated second phase would rehab 130 existing units, 26 of which would be offered to tenants without income restrictions.

The 92 units involved in the first phase will all be offered as affordable housing. 

CT Construction Digest Wednesday April 26, 2023

Eversource Energy launches $12 million in Waterbury electric grid updates

Luther Turmelle

Eversource Energy has started work on a $12 million upgrade of its distribution network in northern Waterbury, company officials said this week.

The project, which will be rolled out in phases through 2025, got underway earlier this year, according to Mitch Gross, an Eversource spokesman. The first phase of the project will be completed by the end of August, with work being done Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. – weather permitting.

Work is currently being done in a section of Waterbury that includes Bishop, Bronson, Burton, Cooke, Pearl, Ridgewood, Waterville and Wyman streets.  Customers may experience short power interruptions at times during the course of the project so crews can safely perform the work. but will be notified in advance by Eversource officials.

The work being done this year includes installing nearly 150 stronger, thicker utility poles, stringing more than three miles of overhead electric lines,  that are designed to better withstand extreme weather, Gross said. Other improvements include adding seven high-voltage circuit breakers that detect and limit power interruptions.

"Our engineers are constantly looking at the system and one of the factors they look at is the history of outages in a given area," Gross said. The upgrades for the 2024 and 2025 construction season are still in the planning process, he said.

By doing the upgrades and a reconfiguration of electric circuits,  Eversource will be able to retire and eventually remove a 65-year-old substation that will no longer be needed.

Steve Sullivan, president of Eversource's Connecticut electric operations, said the project "will create several ‘automatic zones,'  which are areas with equipment that can quickly reroute power if there is a problem."

Eversource has 52,332 customers in Waterbury.

New service plaza with convenience store, fast food restaurant, ice cream shop and more proposed in East Hartford

Michael Puffer

Hartford-based Noble Energy has submitted land-use applications to build a gas station with a convenience store, fast food restaurant, ice cream shop and car wash at the corner of Governor and Prospect streets in East Hartford.

The proposal requires special permit approvals and a site plan from the town’s Planning and Zoning Commission, as well as approval from the Inland Wetlands and Environment Commission. The proposal is on the April 25 agenda for the wetlands commission.

A proposed 8,437-square-foot building would host a convenience store, fast food restaurant, ice cream shop, storage, bathrooms and common space. The location would include eight pumping stations and a 3,506-square-foot car wash.

The application was submitted by Noble Energy Real Estate Holdings LLC, which shares a Hartford address with Noble Energy.

The property currently hosts a 14,155-square-foot cinder block and concrete manufacturing building completed in 1955, and a 5,000-square-foot cinder block and concrete storage building dating to 1963. It sits on one edge of a commercial and industrial area just off Interstate 84, on a corner that begins transitioning into a residential area.

The site is currently owned by JAKIRAM LLC, which shares a Plantsville address with storage systems and materials handling equipment vendor A&A Surplus.

New condos coming to edge of Batterson Park

DON STACOM 

A mix of two- and three-bedroom condominiums are about to be built in New Britain near the southwestern edge of Batterson Park.

The wooded field behind Frisbie’s Dairy Barn along Farmington Avenue will be cleared this summer, and new housing will be built starting later in the year and continuing through late 2024, according to property owner and developer Michael Frisbie.

The 22 new units will be the city’s first new large-scale or moderate-scale condominium project in years. New Britain is in the midst of an unprecedented wave of new apartment construction, but the condo market has been unchanged.

“This is adding to our housing stock, providing a little more of a variety beyond just the (new) apartments being built,” Jack Benjamin, the city’s director of planning and development, said Tuesday at a groundbreaking for the project. “There will be condominiums, town home style, here.”

Called Alexander Place at Batterson Park, the new development should be completed in a year to a year and a half, Frisbie said Tuesday.

Based on the economy this month, the two-bedroom condos will be priced from the mid-$200,000 range to the low $300,000s, while the three-bedroom units will range from the mid-$300,000s to the high $300,000s, Frisbie said.

But as with most developers in this time of construction inflation, economic uncertainty and supply chain disruptions, he acknowledged that could change in the next year. The company will build each unit at 2,300 square feet, he said, and will determine from market reaction how many will be configured with two bedrooms and how many with three.

Nine years ago, Frisbie built the Frisbie Dairy Barn and Noble gas station on the corner of Farmington Avenue and Alexander Road. He and his business partner, Abdul Tammo, have since built nine other Noble service stations around the state, and envision seven more this year.

As part of that small commercial complex, Frisbie is clearing a small parcel between the ice cream shop and gas station; it will become a car wash, he said.

The condo complex will be directly behind the gas station. Noble plans a new road with both ends on Alexander that will curve through the property and serve the driveway of each condo.

The undeveloped condo land is part of the corner parcel that Noble bought at Farmington and Alexander for $1.6 million in 2014.

“We’ve been talking a lot lately about the transformation our city is undergoing and the way we’re purposefully creating opportunities for growth in every single neighborhood,” Mayor Erin Stewart said at the ceremony. “I keep saying we’re rebuilding our city block by block.

“Alexander Place at Batterson Park will give those looking to live here in New Britain a unique opportunity to purchase their own beautiful home in a beautiful area of our city,” she said.

Stewart said she thinks the units will appeal to single, young people as well as young families who want to own but don’t want the maintenance demands of a single-family house. Older residents who want to downsize and get away from yard maintenance could also be buyers, she said.

“With the apartments that we’re adding to our downtown, we need somewhere for people to graduate to, have homeownership. It’s a very common theme I hear, ‘Do you have any more condos?’ There’s going to be more options than Brittany Farms,” Stewart said, referring to the large condo complex about 2 miles to the northeast.

CT Construction Digest Monday April 24, 2023

Audit of CT’s hazmat program shows missing documentation

Andrew Brown and Dave Altimari

An audit of Connecticut’s hazardous materials cleanup program disclosed that more than a year’s worth of documentation was unavailable to auditors.

But the audit did not seek to explain why the documentation was missing — or to delve into why the abatement work was largely performed by a select group of state contractors.

The Department of Administrative Services hired Marcum LLP, an independent auditing firm, to sample more than five years of state hazmat projects in March 2022 after federal criminal investigators subpoenaed records related to several contractors that performed cleanup work for the state.

The audit was part of Gov. Ned Lamont’s response to news that a federal grand jury was probing the state’s hazmat contracts, Connecticut’s school construction program and several other state projects that were overseen by Konstantinos Diamantis, a deputy secretary at the state Office of Policy and Management.

The audit, which was commissioned by the state last year at a cost of over $100,000, suggested the months-long gap in oversight coincided with the Lamont administration’s transfer of hazmat program oversight from the Department of Administrative Services to the Office of Policy and Management.

The CT Mirror published a story in February 2022 that highlighted how two of the state’s hazmat contractors — AAIS Corp. and Bestech Inc. — netted nearly all of the $29.2 million that was spent from the state hazmat fund between 2017 and 2022.

DAS officials responded to that story by immediately canceling the state contract through which the companies were paid, and the state agency sought to expand the list of contractors who were eligible to perform hazmat cleanup work on state-owned buildings.

AAIS was removed as a state hazmat contractor earlier this year.

Despite those actions, officials at DAS did not ask Marcum to review why nearly all of the hazmat funding over the past five years went to those two companies, and the agency did not ask the auditors to review or confirm the work those companies performed.

Instead, Marcum was directed to look at only two things: whether there were “processes and procedures” in place for the hazmat program and whether past projects were exclusively performed on state-owned buildings.

“The scope of the audit was to review DAS’ process to administer the program to ensure that the funds were being used by state agencies,” DAS spokesman John McKay said. “It was more about the process of how we administer our side.”

Municipal hazmat projects, such as school renovations, were excluded from the scope of the audit.

McKay said projects such as the MLK Middle School in Hartford and the New London High School project, both done by AAIS, were not included because they were not state buildings. McKay said they don’t know how many municipal projects may have been done through the hazmat program.

DAS Commissioner Michelle Gilman, who declined through her staff to be interviewed for this story, announced in a press release this week that Marcum’s audit “validates the robust processes” that DAS now has in place to control the cleanup work at state-owned buildings and to manage the millions of dollars in funds that are paid out through the hazmat program every year.

“At DAS, we are committed to transparency and ensuring modernized procedures are in place and followed, to provide the best services to our partner state agencies and Connecticut residents,” said Gilman.

According to the auditors, state employees historically used a spreadsheet to record each hazmat project that was paid for by the state. And they recorded key information about each project, such as which state agency asked for the work, what contractor was hired, when the companies billed the state and how much each company was paid.

Marcum’s auditors said those spreadsheets were available for most of the projects undertaken between September 2017 and July 2019 and between January 2021 and May 2022.

But between August 2019 and December 2020, DAS could not locate any similar records tracking the hazmat projects and the approval process for those funds.

The only thing DAS could provide to auditors were records detailing how much money was paid from the hazmat fund during that time.

“DAS is not aware that such a spreadsheet exists for the period August 2019 to December 2020,” the auditors wrote in the report. “In lieu of a tracking spreadsheet, DAS provided a cash disbursement ledger to Marcum in order to facilitate assessment of transactions that occurred during this time period.”

To try to fill in the gaps, DAS also provided the auditors with records maintained by the state comptroller, which describe what projects and services were paid for, with only modest detail.

McKay said he was unsure what other types of documentation were collected for the various HazMat projects during that time frame because the program transferred from DAS to OPM.

Chris Collibee, a spokesman for OPM, told the CT Mirror that all of the relevant records from that time frame were returned to DAS in late 2021.

The auditors laid the blame for the lack of oversight between 2019 and 2020 at the feet of two former state employees: Diamantis, who resigned his government posts in October 2021, and Michael Sanders, who died in December 2021 of a reported drug overdose.

“In August 2019, the HazMat Program moved to the Office of Policy and Management under the direction of Michael Sanders, who reported to Kosta Diamantis,” the auditors wrote.

“The HazMat Program subsequently returned to DAS following Kosta Diamantis’s resignation from state service in October 2021, and continued to be managed by Michael Sanders until his untimely death in December 2021, when the Program was returned to the DAS Construction Services unit,” the auditors added.

Documentation included with the audit shows that Sanders verbally approved nearly 300 projects from 2017 through early 2022. That same documentation suggested he approved some projects even after his death.

“During the period that Mike Sanders was reporting to Kosta, it’s our understanding that projects were often authorized verbally,” McKay said. “So when the program did return to DAS, we verified in writing with each state agency that work had in fact been authorized.”

Dimantis, who has not been charged with any crime, said DAS was attempting to blame him for the gaps in oversight when he had no control over hazmat funds or the cleanup work at state properties.

Sanders did move offices with Diamantis when the state’s school construction program was officially transferred to OPM in late 2019. But he said Sanders continued to report to Noel Petra, a deputy commissioner at DAS, on the hazmat projects at state buildings.

A memorandum of understanding that was signed by Josh Geballe, the former DAS commissioner, and Melissa McCaw, the former OPM secretary, specifically says that “Mr. Sanders services and the hazardous material abatement funds shall remain readily available to DAS.”

Diamantis said that memo clearly shows that he played no role in the oversight of Sanders’ work related to state hazmat projects.

“They can jump up and down and stand on their heads,” Diamantis said. “I had no authority over Mike Sanders on state buildings. All of that came through DAS.”

“That’s as factual, black and white as it can be,” he added. “So they need to take ownership of whatever it is they are looking to throw at the wall.”

NL harbor shakes the rust off

Lisa McGinley

Opinion Writer

For a stipend of $600 a year from a grateful state, New London Harbormaster Dave Crocker has more to watch over than ever before.

Crocker bounces his pickup over rough roadways that are dead ends for a truck but open out on the shores where the tides lap the Thames riverfront. On an hourlong tour he has a plethora of state, city and private commercial development to show, from the foot of Riverside Park to Fort Trumbull.

Whatever the river’s name may be when the current legislative session ends, it will still be undergoing its most transformative period since at least World War II. That’s in addition to the immense upswing in submarine design and construction on both riversides and the enhancement of shorefront facilities at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

The highest profile belongs to State Pier as it is remade into an assembly and shipping platform for the new wind power industry. Upriver is the $18.5 million Mohawk Northeast marine terminal and metal fabrication facility. Sited along the railbeds north of the Gold Star Memorial Bridge, it has access for ships that fit under the Amtrak bridge.

Kiewit Infrastructure Co., the construction manager for State Pier, is leasing the 15-acre former Thames River Apartments parcel from the city as a storage site for building materials. Deliveries of wind turbine components are due to start this month.

Waste management removal improvements, tug repair, refurbishment of the public boat launch under the Gold Star and work on the bridge itself are all underway with federal, state and/or private funding. Compared to larger ports such as Providence and Bridgeport, the footprint may be compact but the industrial infrastructure is designed for interconnected commerce and intermodal freight up to 21st-century standards.

Marine and rail operations in the vicinity are about to become hugely more visible from either shore as barges begin bringing in deliveries from a German offshore vessel that the harbormaster says is twice as high as the top of the Amtrak bridge. Once launched, the 472-foot Charybdis, constructed by Dominion Energy for wind power components delivery, will be in and out from the pier. Twelve wind turbines are due to be assembled by September.

All of that is besides the submarine design and construction going on at Electric Boat from both sides of the river; U.S. Navy and Coast Guard operations; interstate ferries; and the commercial tugs that move everything along. The Navy ceased operating its own tugboats in the river some years ago, relying instead on the locally-based professional operators.

The cumulative effect is an industrial harbor that has shaken the rust off. It is poised to revive its place among Northeastern ports.

The harbormaster’s job is to keep abreast of anything waterfront, which includes the National Coast Guard Museum going up between Cross Sound Ferry and City Pier; the mayor’s wish for yacht moorings at Waterfront Park; shorefront construction at Fort Trumbull; and the Thames Yacht Club mooring field. At the Fort Trumbull peninsula the city is planning a $40 million community center with help from state funds and has given a developer the go-ahead to plan more than 600 apartments.

Crocker, who was appointed harbormaster by former Gov. John Rowland, has been reappointed by every governor since. His family is the longtime operator of Crocker’s Boatyard in Shaw’s Cove. His knowledge of the Thames waterfront goes deep. He is also the harbormaster for the Niantic River, which is more typical of most Connecticut harbors -- heavily used by recreational boaters and commercial fishing boats, and periodically in need of dredging to keep the channels open.

My tour of the gritty side of the waterfront, with thanks to Dave Crocker, gave me a theory to explain a puzzle I have long wondered about: for a place where residents helped build submarines or went to sea on them, and submariners and Coast Guard officers learned their jobs, there were a lot of other residents whose lives could have been lived no differently in Meriden or Manchester. Other than identifying as the legacy Whaling City, much of the populace seemed to feel little connection to the river and the Sound bordering the city on two fronts. They had Ocean Beach, but some native New Londoners had never learned to swim, never been on a boat, never gone crabbing.

Now I think maybe they were missing something more recent than 19th-century whaling to connect them to their city’s maritime DNA. Maybe the new visibility of maritime-based economic investment will get people excited about jobs and opportunities they can’t get inland.

You just have to see it to believe it.

150-unit multifamily, mixed-use plan submitted under West Hartford’s new transit district

Michael Puffer

New Jersey-based businessman Sami Abunasra has applied to develop a five-story building mixing 150 apartments with 17,241 square feet of restaurant and retail space along New Britain Avenue in West Hartford, in the town’s Elmwood section.

Located just a couple hundred yards from the Elmwood Station of the CTfastrak rapid busway, the proposal for a 205,262-square foot building is the first to take advantage of a new transit-oriented development district adopted by the Town Council last June.

The district allows developers to build higher multifamily residential densities in a district near mass transit, with preference granted to applications that incorporate affordable housing, clean energy and underground parking in designs. So far, the application Abunasra submitted for 1051 and 1061 New Britain Ave., appears to meet these criteria, Town Planner Todd Dumais said.

“It’s an extremely exciting application,” Dumais said Friday. “It appears on the surface to meet all the goals set when the council adopted the transit-oriented district.”

Another benefit of the transit-oriented district is the application will be weighed by administrative staff, rather than appointed boards, offering a swifter approval process designed to close in 65 days. With such a large and potentially complex project, however, staff may request additional time for review from the applicant, Dumais said.

Abunasra paid $1.1 million for the 2.97-acre property in 2020, initially converting it into an Ashley HomeStore location.  After talking with town officials about their aims for the district and reflecting, he pivoted to an ambitious plan for a mixed-use development.

Plans submitted to the town show 128 underground parking spaces and 12 at ground level for residents. An additional 69 ground-level spaces would serve patrons at two restaurants and three retail spaces.

Plans call for 84 one-bedroom apartments, 47 two-bedrooms, 15 studios and four three-bedroom units.

In January 2022, Gov. Ned Lamont announced a $953,646 brownfield grant for the redevelopment, which was then expected to include 131 units and cost $34 million. 

THS project architects lead tour of construction site

Emily M. Olson

TORRINGTON — A few months ago, the middle-high school project on Besse Drive was filled with piles of steel beams, trucks and ditches. However, the $179 million building project, which will have a new high school, middle school and central offices for the Torrington School District, is now taking shape.

A recent tour with members of the SLAM Collaborative, the architectural firm chosen to design the new Torrington middle-high school, also included members of the American Institute of Architects' Connecticut chapter and Louis Grasso from Urban Mining, a Beacon Falls-based company.

AIA members were there to hear about Urban Mining's process of using ground glass in making concrete, an innovative advancement in a sustainable building materials effort. Using ground glass emits fewer carbons than traditional concrete; it's also a way to reuse glass, said Domenic Di Cenzo, executive director of the Connecticut Concrete Promotion Council, another tour guest. 

"Urban Mining is in a joint venture with O&G Industries (the construction manager for the Torrington building project)," Di Cenzo said. 

"It's been a great experience (with Urban Mining) and a good way for us to accomplish our goals as we do our projects," Morhart said. 

For many of the guests, seeing such a large project developing from the ground up was also exciting.

O&G Industries' Brian Pracuta, the project supervisor, joined SLAM architect Kemp Morhart in leading the group around the grounds. They first stood in the center of the lot, where the foundation for the new, three-story middle school had recently been poured, and workers were smoothing the surface.

"We've done 4,000 cubic feet of concrete already, and we've got about 3,500 more to go," Pracuta said. 

Pracuta, a resident of Harwinton, said the project was moving along and that he was glad to be part of it. "I was honored to have been picked," he said. "For O&G to have entrusted me to do this is so exciting."

Facing the middle school site is the five-story high school building — now a steel beam structure with a completed concrete foundation. The group walked in on what will be the ground floor. 

"The central offices will be on the fourth floor of the high school building," Morhart said, adding that the building will also have a "common" first floor for middle and high school students, with shared outdoor spaces between the two school buildings. 

Visitors were seeing the bones of what is becoming a multi-faceted campus, with spaces for students preparing for careers and trades, including a culinary lab, construction, technology and robotics labs, automotive shop, ROTC classrooms to introduce students to military training and its history, and child development education classrooms, for students to learn about and become certified to work with young children, according to SLAM. 

A nearly 4,000-square-foot band room is the largest SLAM has ever designed. The project's 475-seat auditorium is designed to have professional rigging and a catwalk for the school district's theater program, according to the firm. 

The school project originally was approved by voters in November 2020 for $159 million. In January 2022, voters approved adding $20 million to the project. School building committee Co-Chairmen Mario Longobucco and Ed Arum came to the City Council in December 2021 asking for approval to add the $20 million, citing increased enrollment and rising costs for construction and materials. 

The 310,000-square-foot combined middle-high school building is being built on the existing campus on the 31-acre Besse Drive property. The old building will stay open during construction and eventually will be razed. To keep the existing high school up and running during construction, project managers reconfigured the driveways and building entrances; students and staff now access the building from the back.  Once the old school is taken down, athletic fields will be created on that portion of the property; the football stadium and athletic field will remain in place. 

$115M upgrades to Danbury drinking water quality are up for a public vote. Here’s why

Rob Ryser

DANBURY —  No one wants a crisis like in Flint, Mich. a decade ago, when the city looking to save money drew from a river without treating it properly, causing toxic lead in the pipes to leach into families’ drinking water for a year and a half before federal regulators intervened.

While there is no water quality crisis in Danbury, and federal regulators are not breathing down the city’s neck about widespread health concerns, the plants and pipes that bring clean drinking water to the city’s homes have not been upgraded in decades.

That’s where city voters come in.

Danbury needs to borrow $115 million to pay for upgrades to its drinking water treatment plants and its distribution system, and to comply with current clean water standards — including one new rule passed by the government in 2021 because of the health emergency in Flint.

“Overall this administration is working with (the) water department to stay ahead of these things,” Danbury Mayor Dean Esposito said. “The priority for us is some of the equipment out there has gone 40 years without an upgrade.”

To authorize the borrowing, the city needs voters’ permission. An April 25 referendum is planned that will ask a majority of voters to approve $115 million for “the planning, study, design, engineering and construction of improvements, upgrades, and rehabilitation of existing water system assets, facilities and infrastructure.”

If it seems as though Danbury voters not long ago authorized the city to borrow $100 million for an upgrade to its water treatment plant, it’s because voters did — in 2018.

“That was for wastewater,” said Daniel Day, superintendent of the Danbury’s public works department, referring to the city’s regional sewage treatment plant. “This is for drinking water.”

Another difference between the two referendums is the state covered some 20 percent of Danbury’s cost to upgrade its sewage treatment plant, and four towns served by the plant contributed another 20 percent.

Day said grants and other government funding were available to offset the city’s plans to revamp its drinking water system, but he was not prepared on Wednesday to say how much the city could count on.

In addition to modernizing the drinking water supply facilities at Lake Kenosia well field, and the West Lake and Margerie water treatment plants, the $115 million in borrowing covers the cost of complying with a new federal rule passed as a result of the lead contamination disaster in Flint.

“First they want a lead service line inventory,” Day said of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. “They want to know many lead service lines we have. Then they want us to submit a lead line replacement program.”

The improvement work, should voters approve the $115 million bond, will not cause undue disruption of street life or water quality, Day said.

“This is going be planned work unlike an emergency,” Day said. “The hope is not to impact water quality.”

Esposito agreed.

“The citizens understand that this is what we have to do,” he said.

Voting is from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on April 25 at regular municipal and state voting locations.

“I’m encouraging all voters in Danbury to participate in the upcoming Danbury water system upgrades and improvements bond referendum on Tuesday, April 25,” Esposito said in a prepared statement. “This bond referendum will allow for the upgrade of existing water system assets, facilities, and infrastructure to continue complying with established regulatory drinking water standards, as well as new drinking water standards.”

Canal Construction Finish Pushed To The Fall

THOMAS BREEN

Concrete has been poured and hard-hatted construction workers are busy on site, but the final downtown stretch of New Haven’s Farmington Canal Heritage Trail won’t be done until the fall — thanks to a mandatory break to accommodate summer camps in an adjacent park. 

That’s the latest with the ongoing construction of Phase IV of the canal trail, which will see the below-grade section of the rail trail paved, landscaped, and opened to the public from its current terminus on Temple Street down to Grove Street. 

The trail will then rise up to at-street level beyond the Grove Street garage, and snake its way at street level down to an already-built protected bike lane on Water Street, Brewery Street, and Long Wharf Drive.

City officials and trail boosters broke ground on Phase IV’s construction in September 2021 after roughly a decade’s worth of planning and easement negotiations. At the time, the construction completion goal for Phase IV was December 2022.

At Tuesday’s latest monthly online meeting of the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team, attendee and neighbor Charles Musser asked the city officials present about the latest with this long-in-the-works project.

“The canal trail that they’ve been working on at Grove and Orange has been going on forever,” he said. ​“It’s actually somewhat dangerous” at that intersection, where a northside stretch of sidewalk on Grove is still partially closed to pedestrians.

“It has been a long time,” city Economic Development Officer Kathleen Krolak said. ​“I don’t think that it’s supposed to be complete until the fall.” She and City Engineer Giovanni Zinn promised to check in with the City Plan Department, which is overseeing the project, to get an update.

Farmington Canal advocate Aaron Goode then wrote in via the Zoom chat with a more detailed update about the latest with Phase IV from his understanding. He wrote that Phase IV construction is now scheduled to be complete in the fall. 

“They have to stop work for several months during the summer to accommodate the summer camps that use the Park of the Arts behind Audubon Street — it’s a condition of the construction easement agreements,” Goode wrote. ​“However they might be able to continue work on the ramp at the southern end (where the sidewalk is closed on Grove) and could possibly finish that sooner, I’m not sure.”

In response to a request for comment for this article, City Plan Director Laura Brown confirmed the expected fall finish date — and laid out more details on the work that has already taken place, and what’s still to come.

“Phase IV of the Farmington Canal from Temple Street to the terminus at Canal Dock continues this spring with an anticipated completion date early fall,” Brown wrote. ​“Concrete has been poured in the tunnel and the Canal bed, ramps are in construction within Park of the Arts, and interpretive elements within the tunnel are in fabrication. Work within the Park of the Arts will pause this summer due to commitments to summer programming within the Park. During this time construction will concentrate at The Foundry entrance off Whitney, on finish work within the tunnel and at the gateway entry between the Grove Street Garage and Sitar restaurant. 

“Unfortunately the new section cannot be opened in phases due to construction and liability issues related to active construction zones. We eagerly anticipate our opening ceremony in the Fall; the City will send announcements once an opening date has been set.”

30 years vacant: Stamford developer looks to replace Dress Barn site with 198 apartments, retail

Jared Weber

STAMFORD — Some still remember the grassy parcel as the site of the original Dress Barn. Decades before then, preservationists say, it was home to a Victorian-era shoe factory.

For the past nearly 30 years, however, the 128 Broad St. plot has been empty. The vacant property fronting the Bedford Street parking garage has become a rare pocket of inactivity in Downtown Stamford as developers fill in the remaining gaps like puzzle pieces.

But now, the company that helmed downtown's urban renewal era has come forward with a plan.

Stamford-based F.D. Rich Company is seeking Zoning Board approval to build a 198-unit luxury apartment complex on the parcel, which includes an adjacent lot across Gay Street. The proposed 13-story building would include 22 studios, 100 one-bedroom units, 67 two-bedroom units and nine three-bedroom units. In accordance with the city's Below Market Rate program requirement, the developer plans to build 18 affordable apartments on site.

The plans also feature ground-floor retail space and amenities including a fourth-floor deck with an outdoor pool, workout facilities, a play area for dogs and more.

The properties are centrally located — in front of Bedford Street parking, across the road from the Landmark Square tower and next door to a 228-unit apartment complex under construction between Broad Street and Greyrock Place, approved in July 2021.

But though some developers inquired about the space, proposals have been few and far between, Land Use Bureau Chief Ralph Blessing said.

It is a "challenging site," attorney Michael Cacace told the Zoning Board at its April 3 meeting. In total, the property is just 0.82 acres — including Gay Street, which bisects the two lots to provide entry to the Bedford parking area. The side street is owned by F.D. Rich, but the city has an easement that ensures vehicle and pedestrian access.

The developer's pitch: building over top of Gay Street, while carving out a path for cars and people through the middle of the ground floor. The covered road would also provide access to the apartment building's loading dock and 17 parking spaces, though the vast majority of parking would be on the second and third floors. It would also maintain access to the rear of existing businesses.

The plan would alleviate the loss in first-floor space, in part, by building upward. The building would be 147.2 feet tall. The fourth floor, though it would have some apartments, would mostly house tenant amenities including the pool. But most of the units would be on the fifth through 13th floors.

If approved, the developer plans to start construction in September 2023 and complete it by spring 2025, Cacace said. The city's tax revenue from the site would increase from $40,000 annually to $1.3 million, he estimated.

"I will tell you that having worked on it with the development team for 18 months now, we've come up with a plan that works for the applicant, works for the city and works for the neighborhood," he said.

Zoning Board officials had a handful of questions for the attorney, eventually sending the developer a list of 11 requests to be addressed before their next scheduled meeting on April 24. The two primary questions revolved around the ground-floor design and parking plan.

Zoning regulations require the developer to provide 215 parking spaces. Cacace said F.D. Rich planned to comply, but noted that the group's most recent downtown development, Summer House, has an excess of parking. The building has 228 apartments, but less than 100 spaces are regularly used.

Still, the attorney said F.D. Rich would satisfy the requirement while rotating 37 parking spaces between valet and self-park, though it could impede access to other self-park spots.

Zoning Board Chair David Stein requested a new parking plan that maintains full access.

"I agree with you. I think that there is a lot of evidence that we do require more parking than is needed, but I think the way to go about that is to change the regulations to reduce the parking — not to try to do this kind of scheme that I think is not really in compliance," Stein said.

F.D. Rich Owner Tom Rich said that his team "overcomplicated" the description at the meeting. The parking plan would allot 112 self-park and 103 valet spots. If one of the options reached capacity, new residents would be placed on a waiting list.

"Hopefully, we'll get the opportunity at the next hearing to really explain it, but it's a simple plan," Rich said. "It's a hybrid system. You can choose valet park or self-park. It's really not much more complicated than that."

Additionally, officials asked for a design plan for the back of the Gay Street passageway. Stein said he wanted to make sure the space connecting the garage with Broad Street and the apartment building would be open and welcoming.

“It’s an alley with a driveway," Stein said. "People are going to be walking from the ground parking area out to Broad Street, and we want to make them feel safe there.”

Rich said his team is submitting renderings of the property to the Land Use Bureau, which he hopes will clarify concerns.

"It's a very wide opening, sidewalks on both sides, 15 feet tall," Rich said. "It's not an alley."

Otherwise, the Board's requests for the developer included a long-term affordability plan and a plan for street trees, among several other asks. Cacace submitted a document on April 14 that responds to all 11 Zoning Board requests.

The Zoning Board plans to resume discussions on the project at its April 24 regularly scheduled online meeting. The meeting will include a public hearing to hear local comment.

The last building that stood on the parcel was a three-story brick building constructed in 1883. The building cycled through several uses including the Loudesbury-Soule shoe factory and the flagship Dress Barn, according to a 1985 Stamford Advocate article. It survived much of the city's urban redevelopment — where F.D. Rich turned the industrial New England downtown into a corporate hub, largely through eminent domain — before being slated for demolition in 1985.

After preservationists stood up to protect the building, the city and the owner made a deal to save it. But various development plans failed to coalesce over the next decade, and it was razed in 1995.

Chamber president in Denmark to drum up wind business

Lee Howard

Tony Sheridan headed to Denmark last week to tour wind-turbine component manufacturers in Copenhagen and Aalborg and perhaps lure a few of them back here to New London.

Sheridan, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut, told me the nearly weeklong trip is funded largely by the European Community to strengthen economic ties with the United States. He expects to speak to representatives of about 60 separate companies in what he called a “dating process” where he can assess firms interested in setting up shop in the innovation center that will be opening this summer at the new Chamber headquarters in downtown.

“My goal is to assess the level of interest in doing business with America,” he said. “New London ... has all the ingredients necessary for an offshore wind hub.”

This includes a deep-water port, local manufacturing already tied to maritime industry and no bridges or overhead power lines that could interfere with transporting these massive turbines up and down the coast.

The Danish wind-turbine manufacturing company Orsted, along with American energy producer Eversource, currently are watching the state finish up construction work at State Pier in New London to support their plans to seriously up the ante on wind power generation throughout the Northeast. The two companies last year sponsored a study of the potential for the wind industry here that predicted “rapid growth and significant economic impact” in Connecticut.

“We’re the hub of the wheel,” Sheridan said.

And New London is the only heavy-lift port in Connecticut equipped to do this work, he added.

He likened the first wind project in Rhode Island to “Tinker Toys” compared with the huge turbines envisioned in New London, whose height out of the water will loom about as tall as the Empire State Building.

He added that the Virginia-based energy company Dominion, which also runs the Millstone power plants in Waterford, will be building a special ship made in Texas just to transport these monster machines, whose blades are about the length of a football field.

While in Denmark, Sheridan said he will be seeking letters of interest from companies considering taking their turbine-related businesses to New London. But it will be up to the state, most likely through AdvanceCT or the Department of Economic and Community Development, to offer incentives to move here.

“We need companies that have some experience,” Sheridan said, citing the Swedes and Germans as other possible sources of turbine components. “We’re 25 to 30 years behind where they are. There’s a fabulous opportunity here.”

The most likely scenario, he added, would be to create American subsidiaries of these European companies. He called the local Chamber a perfect liaison to make connections between these foreign companies and people in Connecticut who can help ease the transition to America.

“We’ll be able to give them access to a whole host of people it would take months to have otherwise,” Sheridan said.

He added that there is currently one New York company interested in making the wind turbine blades, but believes at least two firms in the Northeast will be needed to create competition that would keep prices reasonable.

“This is an industry that keeps on giving,” he said, pointing to not only potential manufacturing opportunities related to wind power but also to the need for maintenance and training.

He added that the recent news about thousands of new jobs opening at Electric Boat combined with construction of the National Coast Guard Museum and the wind-turbine activity at State Pier will create a ripple effect throughout the regional economy.

“It you don’t try something, nothing will happen,” Sheridan said. “If I pull this off, I feel like I would do something significant to feel good about.”