Two large offshore wind sites are sending power to the US grid for the first time
JENNIFER McDERMOTT
For the first time in the United States, turbines are
sending electricity to the grid from the sites of two large offshore wind
farms.
The joint owners of the Vineyard Wind project, Avangrid and
Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, announced Wednesday the first electricity
from one turbine at what will be a 62-turbine wind farm 15 miles (24
kilometers) off the coast of Massachusetts.
Five turbines are installed there. One turbine delivered
about 5 megawatts of power to the Massachusetts grid just before midnight
Wednesday. The other four are undergoing testing and should be operating early
this year.
Danish wind energy developer Ørsted and the utility
Eversource announced last month that their first turbine was sending
electricity from what will be a 12-turbine wind farm, South Fork Wind, 35 miles
(56 kilometers) east of Montauk Point, New York. Now, a total of five turbines
have been installed there too.
Avangrid CEO Pedro Azagra said 2023 was a historic year for
offshore wind with “steel in the water and people at work, and today, we begin
a new chapter and welcome 2024 by delivering the first clean offshore wind
power to the grid in Massachusetts.” Avangrid is an energy company
headquartered in Orange, Connecticut. Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners is a
large fund manager and global leader in renewable energy investments.
“We’ve arrived at a watershed moment for climate action in
the U.S., and a dawn for the American offshore wind industry," Azagra said
in a statement Wednesday.
Nearly 200 countries agreed last month at COP28 to move away
from planet-warming fossil fuels — the first time they’ve made that crucial
pledge in decades of U.N. climate talks. The deal calls for tripling the use of
renewable energy, and offshore wind will be crucial to meeting that target.
But the industry has had hard times recently. Developers
have canceled several projects along the East Coast, saying they were no longer
financially feasible.
On Wednesday, Equinor and BP announced a “reset” for Empire
Wind 2, a 1,260-megawatt offshore wind project off the coast of New York,
citing changed economic circumstances on an industry-wide scale. The project
isn't canceled, but it will take longer to continue the development and
participate in a future offshore wind solicitation. They did not change the
first phase of the project to develop an 800-megawatt wind farm in the same
lease area, Empire Wind 1.
Large offshore wind farms have been making electricity for
three decades in Europe, and more recently in Asia. Vineyard Wind was conceived
as a way to launch offshore wind in the United States, and prove that the
industry wasn’t dead in the United States at at time when many people thought
it was.
The first U.S. offshore wind farm was supposed to be a
project off the coast of Massachusetts known as Cape Wind. The application was
submitted to the federal government in 2001. It failed after years of local
opposition and litigation. Turbines began spinning off Rhode Island’s Block
Island in 2016. But with just five of them, it’s not a commercial-scale wind
farm.
Vineyard Wind submitted state and federal project plans to
build an offshore wind farm in 2017. Massachusetts had committed to offshore
wind by requiring its utilities to solicit proposals for up to 1,600 megawatts
of offshore wind power by 2027.
Vineyard Wind would be significantly farther offshore than
Cape Wind and the first utility-scale wind power development in federal waters.
In what might have been a fatal blow, federal regulators
delayed Vineyard Wind by holding off on issuing a key environmental impact
statement in 2019. Massachusetts Democratic Rep. William Keating said at the
time the Trump administration was trying to stymie the renewable energy project
just as it was coming to fruition.
The Biden administration signed off on it in 2021.
Construction began onshore in Barnstable, Massachusetts. This spring, massive
tower sections from Portugal arrived at the Port of New Bedford to be assembled
out on the water.
New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said Wednesday's announcement
is a "great way to kick off 2024.”
The 800-megawatt wind farm will power more than 400,000
homes and businesses in Massachusetts. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said
this is clean, affordable energy made possible by the many advocates, public
servants, union workers and business leaders who worked for decades to
accomplish this achievement.
Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives
support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate
initiative here.
The AP is solely responsible for all content.
City and state officials on Wednesday are kicking off the
next phase of the mixed-use Square 10 redevelopment project, which will bring a
new 277,400-square-foot life sciences and tech office building to the site of
the former New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
This project is Phase 1C of the larger Square 10
multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the 265 South Orange St. site. Phases 1A
and 1B of the project are largely residential.
Gov. Ned Lamont is holding a press conference Wednesday to
announce a $990,000 state Department of Economic and Community Development
brownfield remediation grant for soil remediation, excavation, and disposal of
impacted soils on the life sciences parcel.
Durham, NC-based Ancora L&G is the developer for the new
medical/lab building with a ground-floor restaurant. Ancora specializes in
building medical/lab spaces in academic centers, according to city
documents.
Josh Parker, CEO of Ancora L&G, said this new space will
become a landmark building for advancing research, academic collaboration and
continued growth for New Haven’s life sciences companies.
The coliseum was demolished in 2007 and the site has served
as a parking lot since, with earlier phases of the Square 10 project taking
shape nearby.
Developer Clayton Fowler, founding partner of Norwalk-based
Spinnaker Real Estate Partners and principal at LWLP New Haven LLC, is
building the residential components of Square 10.
City and state officials broke ground on the $76-million
Phase 1A residential project in November 2022, which will bring 200 new
apartments, 16,000 square feet of retail space and 25,000 square feet of public
open space by 2025.
Phase 1B calls for a new 650-space parking garage and up to
100 new apartments, 20% of which will be affordable.
The total projected costs for Phases 1B and 1C were not
disclosed, with estimated completion dates in 2027.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said this project fulfills an
important part of the Downtown Crossing initiative, which is a transformative
project providing housing, commercial, office and educational spaces that
reconnects neighborhoods and creates a new neighborhood within walking distance
of Union Station and the Medical District.
Lamont announces $990,000 remediation grant for former New Haven Coliseum site
NEW HAVEN — With new buildings rising nearby on the
former New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum site, Gov. Ned Lamont celebrated
the city's progress Wednesday and announced a $990,000 state
"brownfields" grant to remediate leftover debris from the Coliseum's
2007 demolition on property slated for a new, 277,435-square-foot life sciences
and tech office building.
The governor praised "what this means in terms of
bringing this old parking lot back to life," and said, "there are a
lot of reasons why people are rediscovering this state," one of them being
that "we have vibrant cities where young people want to be."
The $200 million building — designed by world-class, New Haven-based architects Pelli Clark & Partners — is expected to be the third to rise in the first phase of development of the long-vacant property, which was a parking lot for years following the demolition of the Coliseum.
The arena hosted the New Haven Nighthawks and other hockey
franchises, decades of concerts and a host of special events over the years,
including the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
The city and developer broke
ground for the first mixed-use building to replace the Coliseum in
November 2022. That 200-apartment
building is the first of three buildings in Phase 1 of the site's
redevelopment, to be known as "Square 10."
The overall development is led by Spinnaker Real Estate
Partners and LWLP New Haven LLC, to which the city transferred ownership
of the property in late 2022. The office building is being developed by Durham,
N.C.-based Ancora Partners LLC, which was represented Wednesday by Vice
President, Development Peter Calkins.
"Ancora and Peter, welcome to Connecticut," said Lamont, who also celebrated his 70th birthday Wednesday.
As he spoke, crews worked on the mixed-use building that is
expected to be the first to be completed on the site later this year.
"This is a site that has a long history of being an
important site in New Haven," said Calkins. He called the state grant,
which will pay nearly $1 million of the total $3 million cost to clean up what
is mostly Coliseum demolition debris that was buried on the site "really
important."
Ancora still has some space to lease in order to get to the
50 percent-leased benchmark it needs to obtain financing, Calkins said. He said
he hopes to have the building ready to occupy by early 2026. He said he expects
it to house about 750 jobs within the "life sciences ecosystem."
To facilitate construction of the latest building, the state
has awarded a $990,000 grant through the Connecticut Department of Economic and
Community Development’s Brownfield Remediation and Development Program to fund
soil remediation, excavation and disposal of polluted soils at the 0.8-acre
parcel.
Lamont and Calkins were joined by Mayor Justin Elicker, state Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, DECD Deputy Commissioner Matthew J. Pugliese and others.
Elicker called the building "an iconic and ... quite
incredible building."
He called the progress on the site "very
impressive" and said, "It's fast, what you're doing." Wednesday
was "an exciting day for New Haven," Elicker said, jokingly adding,
"because it's the governor's birthday."
Since the Coliseum was demolished, "we have had this
major hole in the center of the city that needs to be filled," said
Looney, expressing his hope that the new building can do that. "New Haven
needs to be a more populous city in order to thrive," he said.
Pugliese called the Brownfield Remediation and Development
Program "one of our most impactful programs" and said, "every
dollar that's invested," in addition to aiding economic development,
"is also a great win for environmental justice communities" in
Connecticut.
Tameika Miller, executive vice president of the Greater New
Haven Chamber of Commerce, said the grant "will allow Ancora's project to
bring more lab space" to New Haven.
Phase 1 is a 3.5-acre parcel that will be developed in three
sub-phases, which will include housing, public amenities and a "life
sciences" medical and lab office building, city officials said.
In addition to 200 apartments — 20 percent of which will be
classified as "affordable housing" — the first building, designated
Phase 1A, will have 16,000 square feet of retail space and a 25,000-square-foot
public plaza. Two other buildings are in the development pipeline.
Spinnaker and its partners will reserve 20 of those units
for households at 50 percent to 60 percent of the area median income,
or AMI, and 20 units for households at 61 percent to 100 percent of the
AMI.
Phase 1B currently calls for construction of a 650-space
parking garage and an additional 75 to 100 apartments, 20 percent of which will
be affordable units, officials said. The new housing will wrap partially around
the garage structure.
The overall five-acre site, which has been a parking lot
since the Coliseum was demolished in a billowing cloud of dust, is at the
city's front door, where vehicles exiting Interstate 95 and Interstate 91 on
Route 34 first enter downtown. It
eventually will be home to 700 units, with ground-floor retail, a
pool, a health club, a public plaza and many other amenities.
EPA proposes $11.4 million amended cleanup plan for CT Superfund site
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be holding a
“hybrid public hearing” on what the agency said is an amended proposed plan for
further work at a Connecticut Superfund
Site.
The hearing will be held starting at 7 p.m. on January 10,
2024 and running until all comments are heard, according to the EPA. The
superfund site is in Woodstock.
To attend:
In-person: Woodstock Middle School Cafeteria, 147B
Route 169, Woodstock, CT 06281
Virtually: epa.gov/superfund/linemaster.
The federal agency said it would accept comments on the
“preferred remedial alternative” identified for the Linemaster Switch Corp.
site. in the proposed plan. No new information will be presented at the
hearing, according to the agency. “The Proposed Plan presents EPA’s proposed
changes to the current (ongoing) remedy for the site.”
The EPA said the 45-acre Linemaster Switch Corp. site
is located in
Woodstock and that a facility on site “has made electrical and
pneumatic foot switches and wiring harnesses since 1952.”
“Operations used paint thinner, TCE and other VOCs for spray
painting and vapor degreasing operations. About 20 to 200 gallons a year of TCE
and other chemical were discharged into an on-site dry well in front of
Linemaster’s manufacturing building from 1969 through 1979,” according to
the agency’s
background information.
“EPA concluded that as long as soil near the dry well was a
source of groundwater contamination, VOC concentrations in groundwater posed an
unacceptable risk to human health and the environment, given the possible use
of the groundwater for drinking water. Cleanup activities included the
installation of soil and groundwater treatment systems,” EPA
reports in background on the project.
The proposed revised remedy includes “additional treatment
of contaminated soil, as as modifying the existing groundwater extraction and
treatment system,” according to EPA. Read the proposal here
Meanwhile, “the 2018 Five-year Review documented that the
site is protective of human health and the environment in the short-term,”
according to the EPA.
What else to know, per the EPA:
“In a 1993 Record of Decision, EPA selected a cleanup plan
for the entire site.
This remedy required the construction and operation of a
groundwater and soil vapor extraction system within the “source area,” as well
as the extraction and treatment of contaminated groundwater outside the source
area (i.e., downgradient areas).
Despite 25 years of active site remediation, and evidence
that the concentration of contaminants is declining, significant impacts to the
soil and groundwater remain.
As a result, EPA is proposing to amend the 1993 Record of
Decision. The proposed revised remedy includes additional treatment of
contaminated soil, as well as modifying the existing groundwater extraction and
treatment system.
The proposed amended remedy is estimated to cost
approximately $11.4 million and is estimated to take approximately one to two
years to design and implement.
EPA will be accepting public comments on the Proposed Plan
until midnight January 12, 2024. EPA will formally respond to all comments,
both written and oral, received during the comment period in a responsiveness
summary which will be part of the formal record. EPA will then release its
Amended Record of Decision.”
What’s been done so far, also per the EPA:
“The site is being addressed through potentially responsible
party actions.
The site has and is being addressed in two stages: initial
actions and a long-term remedial phase focusing on cleanup of the entire site.
EPA provided bottled water to residents whose wells were
contaminated before the cleanup.
Filtration devices have been placed on all formerly affected
wells and are periodically sampled and analyzed by Linemaster.
Linemaster’s main production well is being treated by a
filtration system.
This well supplies drinking water to the factory and one
on-site residence.
A water supply monitoring program was established for on-
and off-site wells. Groundwater monitoring wells were installed to determine
the extent of site contamination and to help in developing a cleanup remedy.
In June 1993, after extensive investigation and a public
comment period, EPA selected a cleanup plan to address contaminated soil and
groundwater.
The remedy included use of a soil vapor extraction system
with carbon controls as well as a system of groundwater extraction wells
connected to an air stripper.
EPA determined that the vapor extraction system operated
successfully and could be turned off with minimal impact on the future
operation of the groundwater system.
Physical cleanup activities at the site are ongoing.
The work currently includes a groundwater extraction and
treatment system.
Groundwater
and surface water monitoring is ongoing, and will continue until
cleanup goals have been reached.
Due to changing environmental conditions at the site,
a focused feasibility
study (FFS) is currently being developed using all available data to
evaluate optimization alternatives to more efficiently address contaminated
groundwater cleanup and to improve cleanup times.”
Further, according to the agency, the EPA Proposed Plan for
Linemaster Site, its Administrative Record File, and other site related
documents and other technical documents related to the site, are available for
review online at: epa.gov/superfund/linemaster.
A message seeking comment was left with Linemaster.
More, per EPA:
The Woodstock Town Hall can be used as an access point for
EPA’s Linemaster Switch Corp. Superfund Site webpage.
EPA’s Records Center is located within EPA’s regional office
at 5 Post Office Square in Boston, Mass. EPA’s Records Center is open Monday
through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. To make an appointment to view the
records at EPA’s regional office, please call at (617)
For a copy of the proposed plan to be mailed to you, contact
Charlotte Gray at gray.charlotte@epa.gov or
(617) 918-1243.
Submit comments during the 30-day public comment period on
the Proposed Plan no later than midnight January 12, 2024 by mail, hand
delivery/courier, or email to: John Bryant, Remedial Project Manager,
Linemaster Switch Corp. Superfund Site, U.S. EPA New England, 5 Post
Office Square, Suite 100, Mail Code: 7-MI, Boston, MA 02109
Modern-day ‘mountain man’ decries plans for quarry in Ledyard
Lee Howard
Ledyard ― Paul Cerveny has lived at one of the peaks on
Mount Decatur on and off since he was 8 years old, and for him it’s always been
home.
He loves the quiet on the 6-acre property where his parents
raised four kids not far from the former Dow Chemical plant. He also enjoys its
convenient location next to Route 12, a major thoroughfare in the Gales Ferry
section of Ledyard.
He cocks his head as he listens to the barest whisper of
traffic passing below the 250-foot high point of his property, a noise that
cannot be detected in the summer when the trees are festooned with verdant
leaves.
“That's about the loudest noise that you hear is just a
slight drone,” Cerveny said.
But Paul and his wife, Chrissy Cerveny, are afraid things
soon could change. A few weeks ago, they heard about a plan proposed by Cashman
Dredging & Marine Contracting to create a quarry by blasting large portions
of Mount Decatur close to the Cervenys’ property line.
Paul Cerveny showed up at a Ledyard Planning & Zoning
Commission just before Christmas to decry the plans by Gales Ferry Intermodal
LLC and to reveal that he lived at the top of one of the highest hills in town,
a place shrouded from the rest of the world.
Another public hearing is scheduled at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan.
11, at Ledyard Middle School, after which the commission could decide on the
required permit.
“There will be large environmental impacts when an entire
40-acre wooded area is blasted and detonated,” Cerveny told commissioners in a
prepared statement read Dec. 21. “Decatur Mountain will be permanently
disfigured and forever altered, despite its historical significance that should
be preserved and not destroyed. If this project is approved, my family and I
will seriously consider moving elsewhere.”
Paul and Chrissy, who has serious health issues that have
left her permanently disabled for more than two decades, worry plans to level a
large portion of Mount Decatur, also known as Dragon Hill and Allyn’s Hill,
could destroy the peace of mind they have found in the bucolic, tree-lined
property and might also ruin their well water and their health.
Paul also is concerned that the blasting at Mount Decatur
will leave the historic site there forever changed, and that plans down the
road to use the area nearby as an industrial site could expose them to other
hazards. The quarry blasting most likely will result in water runoff, and in
the release of silica particles known to be a health hazard, he said.
“I mean there's no way they're going to be able to contain
that,” he said.
But representatives of Cashman Dredging & Marine said
Friday they take seriously their obligation to ensure the health and safety of
both their workers and the local community. Alan Perrault and Chase Davis,
project coordinators at the Ledyard site, said in a phone interview that these
are not the Wild West days of quarrying; every precaution is taken to ensure
that the blasting and processing of materials is done in a controlled way,
including the use of water to reduce the chance for silica dust to become a
problem.
“Material really shouldn’t largely get airborne,” Perrault
said.
As for the potential of well water problems, Perrault noted
that his company would be doing pre-blast surveys and analyses, including the
use of monitoring wells around the perimeter of the property, to determine the
effects. No blasting will be done closer than 750 feet from a well, he added,
and in a worst-case scenario the company would assist in having another well
drilled.
Perrault added that David George of Heritage Consultants is
still identifying historical artifacts on Mount Decatur and elsewhere,
including on the south side of the property near some power lines where he now
believe cannons were installed to ward off British attacks during the War of
1812. He said it’s the most thorough study ever done of the historic site, and
as more culturally significant areas are discovered it’s possible more of the
site will be declared off limits to the quarrying operation.
“We understand it’s a balance between cultural preservation
and economic development,” Perrault said.
Paul Cerveny, a self-described conservative pro-business
type who works as a master auto mechanic at Pep Boys Service and Tire Center in
Mystic, nevertheless can’t fathom disfiguring a mountain next to his quiet home
for the sake of economic development.
“Allowing this would decimate the historic value of this
area,” he told the planning and zoning panel this month. “Who in their right
mind would be willing to buy this property if you approve this?”
Cerveny first moved to Mount Decatur as a boy in 1978 after
his parents bought the unusual property with a long, winding driveway. His
father was a noncommissioned naval officer, and the family had lived elsewhere
in town before settling down in their little house on a hill, where Paul
remembers his parents tending beautiful gardens.
Very early on while exploring the woods, Paul discovered the
historic site and an engraved granite boulder on what he calls the second peak
of Mount Decatur, where a fort once stood during the War of 1812. The monument
rock, placed by the local Daughters of the American Revolution in the 1930s,
tells the story of Stephen Decatur, the man charged with saving a large portion
of the American naval fleet by setting up a fortified structure atop the hill
later named for him.
But to Chrissy, who married Paul just two years ago, the
mountaintop is her safe place where she finds peace of mind and can look
forward to each new day.
“It's my Snow White cottage in the woods,” she said.
Paul said during this month’s hearing that his biggest
priority is Chrissy, who suffers from emphysema, and making sure her sanctuary
is not turned into a war zone.
“I don’t want to lose one day of her life due to silica
dust,” Paul said.
As he showed off his mountaintop home, he expressed anger at
how his first notice of the quarry proposal came from a flyer sent to him by
opponents of the project who now meet regularly at the Gales Ferry Community
Center. He said GFI officials knew he lived on the mountain, or at least should
have known.
“But did they come up here? Nope. Like we're just the
invisible mountain people,” he said.
On the mountaintop are lots of wild animals, including deer,
turkeys, foxes and even bald eagles. This time of the year, it’s a barren
terrain as the trees have shed their leaves, but in the summer it’s lush and
beautiful and very private, the Cervenys said.
“Nowhere else has ever felt like my home,” Paul said. “I
lived in North Stonington for seven years. I own a house there, and it never
felt like my house. My name's on the deed, but it doesn't feel like my house.
Like, I feel like I'm living in someone else's house.”
“There's no other piece of property like this I've ever
seen,” he said, looking around. “You can't recreate this. ... Even a huge
life-changing offer I’d have a bunch of money in the bank. But I wouldn't have
this anymore.”
Work Accelerates on 16 Neck Road Development After Request by Old Lyme to Cease Work
Cate Hewitt
OLD LYME — Construction has accelerated on a nine-lot
subdivision project at 16 Neck Road more than a week after the town’s Zoning
Enforcement Officer instructed the Westport-based developer, Frank Nocito, to
halt work until he agreed to supervision by a town-approved engineer.
“We asked our engineer Jacobson Associates for a proposal to
supervise the work that is being done there. We have received a quote for that
proposal and we have provided it to the property owner. We have instructed the
property owner not to do further work until they agree to have a supervisor by
Jacobson,” Eric Knapp, the town’s zoning enforcement officer, told CT Examiner
on Dec. 21.
As of Jan. 2, Knapp told CT Examiner that he still had not
heard from Nocito, who is developing the property as Keystone Capital
Corp.
“I have not heard back from him or anybody else regarding
the engineering that needs to get done for that site – or the review of
the work rather by the engineer – for that site. I am still pressing on this
issue and I hope to have news shortly,” Knapp said in response to a query by CT
Examiner.
Knapp said that he had not issued a cease and desist to the
developer to halt work on the 12.3-acre parcel. “We don’t really issue cease
and desists particularly,” in the case of subdivisions, Knapp told CT
Examiner.
Knapp said that such work does not need to be inspected
continuously but that an engineer needs to check at key points of
construction.
“There are certain points where there need to be inspections
of certain improvements to make sure they meet the quality and the performance
as set forth in the approved subdivision. There are certain things that need to
happen regarding the retention basin regarding the base road quality,” said
Knapp.
“The point,” Knapp explained, “is that before they get too
far along, we want to inspect to make sure that the work has been done
correctly. Otherwise, it leads to problems down the road.”
Nocito, who hasn’t responded to questions shared by CT
Examiner before the Christmas holiday, was sued by
a former partner in a dispute over purchasing the 16 Neck Road property. That
lawsuit was later withdrawn.
As Old Lyme CT Properties Corp., Nocito is also named in an
unresolved lawsuit filed
in August in New London Superior Court by a local family regarding the
long-stalled completion of a house in the Lords Meadow Subdivision in Old Lyme.
After that lawsuit was filed, William Pitt Sotheby’s Realty
in Old Lyme continued to sell and advertise projects in the Lords Meadow
Subdivision.
Questions asked prior to the Christmas holiday regarding the
company’s business practices, and the decision to continue its business
relationship with Nocito, were not returned by William Pitt Sotheby’s.
Asked earlier in June about the apparent lack of erosion
controls on the 16 Neck Road parcel, which drains into the Connecticut and
Lieutenant Rivers, two town commissions – Planning and Inland Wetlands – placed
the burden of enforcing erosion controls on the zoning enforcement officer.
Knapp explained to CT Examiner at the time that enforcement in the case of a
subdivision would be a matter for the town’s Planning Commission.
“The remedy would be to bring the developer back to planning
and to revoke the subdivision,” Knapp said.
“But we are hoping not to get there.”
Job openings rise 10% to highest level since 2022
Construction job openings rose in November to 459,000, a
10.3% increase from the month prior, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics
report released Tuesday.
The BLS data measures the number of positions for
which employers
are actively hiring, and when November ended, 5.4% of jobs had gone
unfilled. The month closed with 32% more open jobs than in November 2022.
“The number of open, unfilled construction positions
increased to the highest
level since the end of 2022,” said Anirban Basu, chief economist for
Associated Builders and Contractors. “November’s 5.4% job opening rate is
higher than at any point from the start of the data series in 2000 to the end
of 2021. Contractors continue to grapple with skilled labor shortages even as
the demand for and supply of labor in the broader economy rebalances.”
Federal funding for major infrastructure and manufacturing
projects is flowing, leading to a
boom in those critical sectors. Nonetheless, as money rolls in for those
projects, it only highlights the ongoing labor shortage and creates more
challenges to staffing, said Justin Bruce, executive vice president of Bruce
& Merrilees, a New Castle, Pennsylvania-based project management and
engineering firm for electrical and communication installations.
“[IIJA and CHIPS are] saying, ‘Here’s this money, let’s go
build these facilities or reinvest in these facilities,’ and that creates the
demand for the workers,’” Bruce told Construction Dive at
a trade event in December.
Basu echoed that sentiment in his analysis, pointing out
that some industrial projects in regions experiencing shortages have
had to pause work due to an inability to staff jobs with skilled
workers.
“As construction spending in manufacturing and
infrastructure subsectors continues to surge in the coming months, labor
shortages should remain a top concern for the construction industry,” he said.