Lamont joins CT, city officials to celebrate reopening of Derby-Shelton Bridge
SHELTON — Derby-Shelton Bridge rehabilitation is done, a
sign of the continued investment in this Valley corridor which city and state
officials said is a hub for economic development.
Gov. Ned Lamont, state DOT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto,
Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti, Derby Mayor Joseph L. DiMartino, former Valley
United Way chair and Derby Historical Society head Jack Walsh and a host of
state legislators braved a stiff wind Tuesday morning to celebrate the
reopening of the bridge connecting downtown Derby and Shelton. Work
on the project began three years ago.
“I welcome this day to be able to stand on this bridge and understand the prospects created by this upgrade,” Lauretti said.
Lauretti went on to thank the state DOT and Lamont for his
administration’s ongoing financial support, which has helped further spur
economic growth in the two Valley communities, he said.
"With projects like this, the Valley will continue to
be the economic engine for the state of Connecticut for years to come,”
Lauretti said.
The renovation work began in 2021. The final cost to
rehabilitate the bridge stands at $12.4 million — 80 percent of which was
funded by the federal government. State money covered the remaining 20 percent.
The original estimated project cost was $10.3 million.
“This is such a historic bridge,” said state Rep. Jason
Perillo, who worked with fellow state Rep. Nicole Klarides-Ditria and former
representatives Themis Klarides and Linda Gentile to obtain the initial funding
for the work.
"This is a wonderful job restoring a beautiful bridge,”
Perillo said. “This matters, and it is a great example how communities can work
together with the governor, cities and state agencies to make things
happen.”
The contract was awarded to Mohawk Northeast, Inc.
Construction. The project design was performed by AECOM under contract with the
Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments.
The project was designed to create an aesthetically pleasing
public space along the Derby-Shelton Bridge and provide a gateway that is
pedestrian and bicycle friendly to the downtown areas, according to NVCOG
Executive Director Rick Dunne.
Details included the replacement of bridge parapet walls,
the removal of existing lighting and replacement with period-style light,
colored LED “up-lighting” that will accent the archways and parapets from below
the bridge, a second travel lane for traffic heading to Derby, new pavement and
curbing, shifting of the travel lanes to accommodate wider sidewalks on the
south side of the bridge and a cycle track.
“I love the care that went into this,” said Lamont,
surveying the bridge. “People want to live in the Valley. They are coming back,
and this is all coming to life. This bridge is symbolic of this growth.”
The Derby-Shelton Bridge project also connects with the
existing Housatonic Riverwalk trail network in Shelton and the Naugatuck River
Greenway in Derby.
“This is the connection between two towns, the connection of
the two greenways,” said Dunne, “But it is also connecting the historic
industrial waterfronts that populated this area in the 19th century and really
made it strong.”
Dunne praised the Lamont administration’s investments in
projects such as the bridge, the Waterbury rail line and the Derby Shelton
Train Station as key to spurring further economic expansion in the two Valley
communities.
"The Valley is the future for affordable housing in
Connecticut,” said Dunne. “Look up and down the Valley. This is the anchor of
thousands of units constructed, under development or approved on the drawing
board for the future.”
Lauretti, during his comments, recognized former Derby Mayor
Anthony Staffieri, who was in the crowd of media and spectators at the bridge
opening celebration.
“We initiated this project years ago, because we saw a need
for a change," Lauretti said. "We saw the changing face of our
downtown areas and the economic opportunities that would be created by this
work.”
Walsh praised the renovation work before describing the
bridge’s history, which began in 1831 when it was a simple wooden
structure.
That bridge washed away in 1857 and was then rebuilt by
private developers who charged a toll to help pay for the construction, Walsh
said.
"This bridge has been and will continue to be critical
to the financial success of whole Valley,” Walsh said.
Through the years, Walsh said there have been several
bridges that spanned the Housatonic River between Shelton and Derby — from
covered bridges to iron bridges to the current concrete bridge, which dates to
1918.
The Derby–Shelton Bridge used to carry two streetcar tracks
until the 1930s. Part of that history was discovered in 2022 during the
construction phase of the rehabilitation project.
According to the Derby section of the old Electronic Valley
website, the trolley line dates to 1887 and the creation of the Derby Street
Railway Co., which focused on building an electric trolley line mainly to haul
freight between the Derby docks and the industrial center of Ansonia on upper
Main Street.
The Shelton Economic Development Commission, aided by a
grant from the Derby-Shelton Rotary Club, was able to secure $265,000 to
conduct a study that ultimately resulted in the current state bridge
reconstruction project, according to former Rotary President Kate Marks.
DOT’s $106 million upgrades to stations along Waterbury line to begin in 2025
LIVI STANFORD
WATERBURY – The state Department of Transportation is
planning $106 million in infrastructure upgrades at the Waterbury, Beacon
Falls, Seymour, Ansonia and Derby-Shelton train stations along Metro-North’s
Waterbury line, with construction beginning in 2025.
The improvements will be funded with a combination of
federal and state money, and about $3 million is expected to go toward
renovation of the southern part of the Republican-American building at
Waterbury station. That project will include an indoor waiting area with
seating and restrooms for travelers. There also will be private offices for
station employees.
Mayor Paul K. Pernerewski Jr. noted there have been
improvements to train service out of Waterbury and ridership has gone up, but
people still wait outside for the trains and are subject to the weather. The
renovations will enable people to wait inside, providing an “improved
experience,” the mayor said.
Construction is expected to occur between 2025 and 2027, DOT
spokesman Josh Morgan said.
“Making upgrades to stations along the line will improve the
rider experience,” he said. “It could also draw future investments into those
communities through transit-oriented development.”
Morgan said the upgrades are focused on modernizing stations
with longer platforms, canopies, parking lot improvements, and adding bathrooms
and passenger seating to waiting areas on the main level and some staffing
offices on the second level.
State Rep. Geraldo Reyes, D-75th District, said the
improvements are a long time coming.
“For the ridership that had the No. 1 volume during COVID,
it stands to reason why this infrastructure investment has been made,” he said.
“It opens up the opportunity to get more commuters going back to New York and
vice versa, whether for work or education. I am excited the day is here.”
State Rep. Ron Napoli, D-73rd District, said the
infrastructure upgrades are a necessity.
“Any upgrades we can make will improve (people’s) quality of
life,” he said.
DOT will hold two public information meetings to discuss the
planned improvements. The first will take place Monday at 6 p.m. at Waterbury
City Hall, 235 Grand St., in Veterans Memorial Hall on the second floor. The
second is set for Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Ansonia Senior Center, 65 Main St.
How a Connecticut company is turning used bottles into schools and skyscrapers
BEACON FALLS — Inside of an old stone fabrication plant
alongside the Naugatuck River, thousands of tons of glass from millions of
discarded soda and beer bottles are being ground down until they reach a fine
dust. Dust that can build skyscrapers.
The dust — sold under the trademark brand Pozzotive — is a cement alternative
developed by Urban Mining Industries and manufactured at the company’s
first-of-its-kind facility in Connecticut, where recycled glass is cleaned,
crushed and milled before being distributed to nearby plants to be mixed into
concrete.
Concrete mixed with Pozzotive has been used in hundreds of
building projects around the tri-state area and further afield since Urban
Mining opened its Beacon Falls facility in 2021. Previously, the company
operated a pilot plant in New York beginning in 2009.
Among those projects is the 60-story JP
Morgan Chase Building under construction in Manhattan — and scheduled
for completion in 2025 — which utilized the equivalent of roughly 20 million
discarded glass bottles in the concrete for its massive floor slabs and
building blocks.
Gov. Ned
Lamont toured the Beacon Falls plant on Tuesday, following the
announcement of a $37
million matching grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for Urban
Mining to build two new, larger facilities in Florida and Maryland, allowing
the company to expand its reach down the East Coast.
Urban Mining leases its current plant from partner
O&G Industries, a Torrington-based construction firm that also utilizes
Pozzotive at all eight of its concrete plants in Connecticut.
“The whole process, this whole manufacturing enterprise, is
a Connecticut start-up,” said Bill Stanley, the vice president of the materials
division at O&G Industries.
Unlike traditional cement — which is made from limestone or
clay that is melted down under extreme heat — Pozzotive can be made entirely
from post-consumer glass that comes from nearby material recovery facilities in
New York and Connecticut.
The resulting product uses 94 percent less carbon emissions
than a comparable amount of cement, according to Urban Mining. (Pozzotive can
replace up to half of the cement used in concrete, though the amount varies
depending on the project, the company said).
Patrick Grasso, the principal at Urban Mining, said the idea
for Pozzotive came about from efforts to distinguish his family’s concrete
block business in upstate New York by experimenting with new materials. The
company’s website credits Grosso’s nephew, Louis Grasso, Jr., as the lead
inventor of Pozzotive.
”It was an invention of necessity,” Patrick Grasso said.
“What was at time really a focus on recycled content evolved to low-concrete
concrete solutions. This kind of does both.”
Asked whether he feared that a potential shift
away from climate-conscious practices under another Donald Trump
administration would hurt companies like Urban Mining, Lamont said he was
optimistic about its prospects.
“I think a President Trump would like this, don’t you?”
Lamont said. “The guy builds a lot of buildings, he buys a lot of concrete,
this is the type of thing he could identify with.”
In Connecticut, Pozzotive has been used to construct
schools, libraries, a new
digital studio at the ESPN campus in Bristol as well as the Department
of Energy and Environmental Protection’s new Western
District Headquarters — the last of which required roughly 346,000
bottles, according to O&G Industries, project’s concrete supplier.
During the tour on Tuesday, Grasso also spoke to Lamont
about including guidance around the use of low carbon, locally-sourced
materials into the state’s green
building standards as a way of incentivizing the use of
Pozzotive.
Lamont offered to look into the matter — the regulations are
set by DEEP — before sharing his own thoughts on the product. “I love what you
guys are doing,” he said over the din of the mill.
In addition to utilizing less carbon during the
manufacturing process, high-performance concrete mixed with Pozzotive is also
more resistant to salt corrosion, according to Stanley, resulting in a longer
lifespan for road projects.
“The plan is to try and take this on a more national scale,”
Grasso said. “Certain regions are more focused on sustainability and low-carbon
concrete, and they seem to tend a little bit more toward the East and West
Coast, and so those will probably be some of the earlier markets we focus on.”
This 46-acre property in CT could become a solar farm
KURT MOFFETT
WINSTED – A 46-acre property at 132 Spencer Hill Road could
become home to a solar farm.
The undeveloped land was purchased by Vineyard Sky Farms
Corp. in February for $860,000
In recent months, tree cutting has occurred and town
officials said they were receiving inquiries about what was going on there.
Zoning enforcement officer Geoffrey M. Green said the
project manager for the property, Rodney Galton, contacted him and told him the
long-term plan is for a solar farm, but for now it is going to be a grazing
area. Green said Vineyard Sky has not yet applied to the Connecticut Siting
Council, which has jurisdiction over the location of power facilities,
transmission lines, hazardous waste sites, and telecommunication towers and
antennas.
Green noted there has been some “confusion” over the
Vineyard Sky property and an adjacent site that already received approval from
the Siting Council for a solar farm. The 16-acre parcel does not have an
address but is in the area of 140-142 Spencer Hill Road.
The council in February approved a proposal for the
development and construction of a 3.74-megawatt, ground-mounted solar array
from Greenskies Energy. The project calls for the installation of about 8,200
individual panels, which should generate 5.9 million kilowatt hours per year,
enough to power 350 to 450 typical homes.
No work, however, has begun on the Greenskies project, Green
said. The plan is for Greenskies to lease 16 acres from the 190 acres owned by
Frank Ahern and Karen Merete. The property consists of forest, wetlands and a
pasture/hayfield.
Meanwhile, Vineyard Sky is allowed to cut the trees down
because it owns the property and is only opening up more space for grazing, an
agricultural use of the property, Green said. He took written guidance from the
Hartford-based Halloran and Sage law firm in determining that the tree cutting
did not violate state law or local regulations, he said.
“Clear cutting has generally been defined to mean the
removal of substantially all of the trees, bushes and wooded vegetation within
a particular area,” Halloran and Sage wrote. “Selective cutting, even a
majority of the timber, is an exempt activity. … Agricultural crop land would
include hay fields and land on which animals are to graze, in addition to land
on which crops are cultivated for harvest.”
Green said the property has “historically been farmland, but
Vineyard Sky does not have a zoning farm permit. So even though the use could
be considered pre-existing, I have advised them to pull a farming permit, which
should close any questions as to the allowable activity of harvesting timber to
open up additional grazing fields.”
Two large apartment projects planned for Route 32 in Montville
Daniel Drainville
Montville ― The town has received applications for two
projects that would construct a total of 257 apartments on Route 32.
When the Planning and Zoning Commission meets on Dec. 10, it
is expected to set a public hearing date for the two projects.
The first project calls for a four-story mixed-income
apartment building on Route 32 across from Fort Shantok Road. West
Hartford-based developer Honeycomb Real Estate Partners, LLC, has submitted an
application for the project, along with site plans a traffic study and drainage
report.
According to the plans, Horizon View would contain 57
apartments, including 25 one-bedroom units and 32 two-bedroom units. Twenty
percent would be rented at market rate, while the other 80 percent would be
reserved for people making up to 80% of the area median income.
The apartment building would be constructed on 3.4 acres of
vacant land.
According to a letter from project attorney William Sweeney
to Planning and Zoning Chairperson Sara Lundy, Honeycomb has an agreement to
buy the land.
An entrance would be built directly across from Fort Shantok
Road, creating a four-way intersection. The traffic report states 259 vehicles
would leave and enter the property each day.
The developer’s traffic engineer, Roy Smith, wrote in the
report that the project would not have a significant impact on traffic. The
project would have 132 parking spots.
A sidewalk would be built along the southbound side of Route
32, which would be connected by an existing crosswalk to a sidewalk on the
northbound side.
The second project calls for five four-story apartment
buildings on 12.9 acres of vacant land on Norwich-New London Turnpike across
the street from the Tantaquidgeon Museum. It would contain 200 units.
East Hartford-based Four Seasons Construction has submitted
plans for the project known as Shantok Village, along with reports on traffic
impact and drainage and a letter from the state Department of Energy and
Environmental Protection stating there are no endangered species on the site.
Plans also call for a 3,500-square-foot community center and
408 parking spots. A traffic report prepared for the developer states the
impact of the project on Route 32 “will be limited.” Between 74 and 78 vehicles
will leave or enter the project during peak hours, according to the report.
Construction starting on $27M affordable housing project in New Haven
City officials on Tuesday marked the start of construction
on The Monarch, an affordable multifamily development in New Haven’s West River
neighborhood.
Being developed by Honeycomb Real Estate Partners, the
64-unit building will be located at the site of the former New England Linen
company, at 149 and 169 Derby Ave.
The industrial laundry facility dates back to 1900 and was
known as Monarch Cleaners.
The $27 million project is being funded in part by a 4%
federal low-income tax credit through the Connecticut Housing Finance
Authority, a $500,000 brownfields grant from the Connecticut Department of
Economic and Community Development, and $500,000 from American Rescue Plan Act
money.
The old building was razed, and the 1.77-acre site was
remediated and will soon be home to a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom
apartments. Most units, 47, will rent at 60% of the area median income, with 13
units at 50% AMI and four units at 80%.
This project is one of the latest multifamily housing developments on vacant or
abandoned sites throughout the city. Since 2020, more than 2,000 new housing
units have been built in the Elm City and an additional 3,500 new units are
currently in the pipeline, of which an estimated 40% are affordable.
How will a second Trump administration affect transportation policy?
Former President Donald Trump will become the next president
of the United States. Following the Biden administration, which put billions of
dollars into Amtrak, high-speed rail, public transportation and the transition
to electric vehicles and buses, what might change under the incoming
administration?
On transportation policy that affects cities and states
nationwide, Trump has a mixed record. In his first term, he proposed a
trillion-dollar infrastructure plan that never came to fruition. He repeatedly
tried and failed to cut funding for Amtrak’s long-distance trains and attempted
to take
back nearly $3.5 billion in already-awarded federal grants for the
California high-speed rail project to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Instead, the first Trump administration largely favored highway
expansion projects.
Smart Cities Dive asked experts Wednesday morning for their
thoughts on how the second Trump administration could affect forthcoming
transportation policy impacting U.S. cities.
“The Trump administration in the past and the Republican
Party’s general approach has been to advocate for significant cuts in public
transportation,” said Yonah Freemark, research director of the Land Use Lab at
Urban Institute. He added that pursuing those policies next year “could be
absolutely devastating for urban transit systems.”
Federal grant programs under the Trump administration will
likely focus on roads and rural areas, marking a big shift from the Biden
administration’s prioritization of transit, cyclists and pedestrians, Freemark
said.
However, rural Americans want more trains, not less, some
rail advocates say. Staff from the Rail Passengers Association have traveled
across the country over the last two years in an effort to bring back
discontinued train routes, and “we’ve heard from rural communities that they
feel disconnected and left behind,” said Sean Jeans-Gail, RPA vice president of
government affairs and policy.
The previous Trump administration blocked
funding for the Gateway project in New York and New Jersey to build a
new two-track tunnel and rehabilitate the existing tunnels under the Hudson
River that carry Amtrak
intercity trains and New Jersey Transit commuter trains. The project
began construction this year under the Biden administration.
“Investing in infrastructure has always had bipartisan support, and President-elect Trump has promised to strengthen America’s economy,” the Regional Plan Association said in an email statement. “Delaying these capital investments only drives up their costs and weakens our economy. We will be looking to our delegation and leadership in the House and Senate to continue these investments.”
Trump opposes New York’s plan to toll drivers entering
Manhattan at or below 60th street, which would generate needed funds for
subways, buses and commuter trains. He vowed May 24 on
social media to “TERMINATE Congestion Pricing in my FIRST WEEK back in
Office!!!” The plan has been on hold since New York Gov. Kathy
Hochul ordered an indefinite pause to implementing congestion pricing
on June 5.
In an email statement on Wednesday, Riders Alliance Policy
and Communications Director Danny Pearlstein urged the governor to reverse her
stance before Trump is inaugurated. “Governor Hochul must race against
time to secure the money New Yorkers need to fix our aging subway and
protect riders from climate change,” he said.
The Biden administration put forth a major effort to support
the transition to electric vehicles, including a $5
billion program to create a network of EV charging stations every 50
miles along the interstate highway system or within one mile of an interstate
exit, and federal
incentives for electric vehicle buyers.
But “all EV policies are on the table” with the
incoming administration, said Genevieve Cullen, president of the Electric Drive
Transportation Association. “What will hopefully emerge from the fog of
campaign rhetoric is when folks take a closer look at these EV policies,
they’ll understand more clearly what the impact on investment and jobs in the
United States are, and how consumers are benefiting and communities are
benefiting,” she said.
More clarity on the incoming president’s policies will
emerge in the coming months.