The state Department of Transportation recently released a
detailed study recommending transformative changes to Greater Hartford’s
highway and other infrastructure that aim to ease roadway congestion and open
more land in Hartford and East Hartford for possible development.
Many of the high-profile recommendations in the Greater
Hartford Mobility Study have been discussed in the past, including the
relocation of the I-84/I-91 interchange and lowering of the I-84 viaduct.
Those are potentially smart long-term investments that could
benefit the region and enhance economic development within the city of Hartford
and neighboring East Hartford, including reconnecting both municipalities to
the Connecticut River.
Some of the recommendations mirror what was pitched a few
years ago in the Hartford 400 plan, developed by prominent urban planner Doug
Suisman and backed by the iQuilt Partnership in Hartford.
The Greater Hartford Mobility Study also recommends a
network of new trails, bikeways and transit options.
While having a plan and vision are important to achieving
any ambitious transportation infrastructure overhaul, the study doesn’t seem to
bring any of these projects closer to reality.
That’s because it fails to address perhaps the most
important aspect of any major infrastructure plan: how to pay for it.
In fact, the report mentions little about the cost of the
dozens of recommended short-, medium- and long-term projects.
Without a clear funding plan, one could skeptically presume
this will be another study that ends up on a shelf collecting dust.
In a follow-up email exchange with the DOT, an agency
spokesman provided HBJ with cost estimates. Overall, the entire program will
probably carry a $10 billion to $12 billion price tag, money the DOT and state
obviously don’t have in their coffers.
The projects, DOT said, would need to be planned for and
included in future capital programs, and require continued state funding to
match future federal dollars over the next three decades.
Yikes. Sustained investment from the state and federal
governments over three decades? That would require ongoing support from new
administrations at the state and federal levels, each with their own priorities
that might not include transportation infrastructure investment.
Connecticut already has a checkered history on funding
transportation. A January 2020 CT Mirror article, aptly headlined “Broken
promises to fund transportation defined last 15 years,” backs up that
assertion.
The article, penned by well-known state budget reporter
Keith Phaneuf, said: “Connecticut’s transportation program has been riddled,
for more than a decade, by broken funding promises from both political parties.
Between 2007 and 2019, officials pledged hundreds of millions of dollars for
highways, bridges and rail lines, only to frequently snatch portions of it away
at the last minute.”
To be fair, coming up with a funding plan to underwrite
billions of dollars in new infrastructure investment isn’t the responsibility
of those involved in putting together the Greater Hartford Mobility Study. It’s
the job of state policymakers, and it may not be politically popular.
Gov. Ned Lamont’s first year in office provides a good case
study. Lamont hit a roadblock in 2019 when he proposed adding electronic
highway tolling on cars and trucks in order to generate much-needed revenue to
maintain and upgrade the state’s aging transportation infrastructure.
Two separate tolling plans in 2019 and 2020 failed to garner
support from the General Assembly, and helped sink the Democratic governor’s
early approval ratings to below 30%, according to a Sacred Heart University
poll.
Lamont argued, at the time, the state’s key revenue sources
that fund transportation investment, including the gasoline and sales taxes,
didn’t provide the reliable revenues the state needs. That still remains a
longer-term issue, although Lamont in 2021 did persuade the legislature to
approve a new highway mileage tax on most large commercial trucks.
This is not meant to dismiss the hard work that went into
preparing the Greater Hartford Mobility Study, which incorporated input from
many stakeholders and was thorough in its analysis and recommendations.
But until there is a realistic funding plan in place, it’s
hard to envision grand plans to reshape Hartford’s inefficient highway system
becoming reality.
I-95 project continues to transform East Lyme, two lanes at a time
Elizabeth Regan
East Lyme ― Route 161 in the area of Interstate 95 was a
flurry of activity on a recent weekday morning as the four-and-a-half-year
reconstruction project that began last March entered its second stage.
The latest phase of the project was made possible by the
most visible hallmark of the project to date: the months-long effort by
engineers from Maine Drilling and Blasting to dislodge an 800-foot expanse of
ledge on the northbound span. The last blast went off earlier this month.
By the end of 2024, the project’s senior management team
said drivers can expect to see extensive overpass work, the creation of a new
Exit 74 northbound on-ramp and jarring elevation changes as the roadway is
leveled out in phases.
Drivers who have become accustomed to the 50 mph
construction zone with narrow, shifting lanes will see the situation intensify
over the coming year. Because of contractual obligations to keep two lanes open
at all times, there will be instances when southbound traffic will be shifted
onto northbound lanes as the overpass work is completed in three stages.
On Route 161 Wednesday morning, Resident Engineer Robert
Obey of the engineering firm GM2 was stuck at a light in his pickup truck with
state Department of Transportation project engineer Andrew Millovitsch. A
broken sensor on the month-old Exit 74 off-ramp traffic signal was creating
congestion on Flanders Road heading north.
“Andrew, this is not good,” he said. He looked on as the
highway dumped two lanes of traffic onto the road where drivers had to merge to
avoid a cable truck and a police detail that had closed the right lane for
utility work.
The sensor, damaged in heavy rain the previous Friday, was
awaiting replacement parts expected that day.
“It’s a perfect storm,” he said.
Obey emphasized the interconnected nature of the $148
million project planned in multiple phases through 2027. Utility work must
happen to allow for replacement of the overpass as well as the widening and
leveling of the northbound side of the highway by the end of this year. That,
in turn, must be finished before the southbound side and Route 161 underneath
it can be addressed.
The new northbound off-ramp was unveiled as what Obey called
an “early Christmas gift” in December. This year, work will continue to focus
on the northbound side.
“We’re not touching southbound,” he said.
At the busy construction zone that now sits where the old
ramp was, Obey said tall piles of dirt weren’t just “junk hills.” He pointed to
a surveyor with a GPS receiver standing with a drainage subcontractor on one of
the mountains of infill that will eventually become the foundation for new
northbound lanes rising more than a dozen feet over the existing span.
To rid the dangerous thoroughfare of the hills and valleys
that currently make it hard for drivers to see ahead, the side south of the
bridge will be raised more than a dozen feet while the other side will be
lowered about 9 feet.
Obey said a massive temporary retaining wall to be built
this year between the new off- ramp and the bridge will be the earliest
manifestations of the extent of the elevation changes ahead.
“People are going to drive by, they’re going to look over
and they’re going to see a 14-foot earth retaining wall that’s going to
temporarily support the highway,” Obey said.
Once the retaining wall goes up and the two new lanes are
constructed, northbound traffic will be traveling that much higher and about 40
feet to the side of where it flows now. He said the gradual shift won’t be
noticeable for those looking ahead, though a look down at the unchanged side of
the highway will leave drivers feeling like they’re 14 feet in the air.
On the other side of the bridge, crews were deep in the
crevasse next to the existing northbound highway where the new, wider span will
be built. They were using a rig to pound 30-foot rods at 30-degree angles into
the earth with grout reinforcements for another temporary retaining wall.
“When we put traffic down here, you’re going to see these
huge walls and go, ‘Wow, I’m in a hole. I’m in a big hole,’” Obey said.
The chasm was created by the blasting work that closed the
highway for short intervals most weekdays since Aug. 1. The goal was to keep
the closures below 20 minutes, though that didn’t always happen in the densest
areas of rock.
Millovitsch said a less intensive blasting project will
occur on the southbound side sometime in 2025, with brief closures expected.
The bridge
At the main construction site on Route 161, the cranes that
have started to show up on trailers for work on the south side of the bridge.
The engineers said installing the south half of the bridge will be the most
high-profile task through the winter.
“Once that crane boom goes up in the air, it’s going to draw
people’s attention,” Millovitsch said.
The cranes’ main job will be to swing 180-foot steel girders
into place sometime around April, according to Millovitsch. But they will be
used before that on abutment work necessary to widen the bridge about 40 feet
on either side.
Obey said the main traffic impacts will come from the
installation of the steel beams over two weeks. The work will require overnight
closures on Route 161.
When that happens depends largely on factors including how
long it takes the steel to arrive in a business climate that hasn’t fully
recovered from supply chain disruptions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic
and the war in Ukraine.
While clauses in the agreement between the state and its
contractors restrict major closures between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Obey
said the project can’t afford any major delays.
“We have a contract, but they have the authority to change
the contract at any time if it’s in the best interest of the project and the
best interest of the taxpayers,” he said.
He reiterated that each major step of the project relies on
completion of the one before it ― and on the vagaries of the weather. That’s
why putting off the bridge work for several months could snowball into an extra
year on a timeline already set to last more than four.
“Every business decision we make is one of balance,” he
said. “Trying to strike a balance between being productive on the construction
side and not turn the whole place into a parking lot with gridlock.”
Speed enforcement
The engineers credited the DOT’s work zone speed camera
pilot program, which expired with the new year, for “changing the culture” of
speeding on the interstate in East Lyme.
“Speeds are definitely down,” Obey said. “The vast majority
of drivers are sensitive to the speeds through the work zone.”
The local roll-out of the DOT’s Know The Zone pilot program
on June 5 brought SUVs equipped with cameras to snap pictures of vehicles going
more than 15 mph over the limit. The first violation came with a warning
directed to the registered owner of the vehicle, while the second came with a
$75 ticket. Subsequent violations cost $150 each.
DOT spokesman Josh Morgan said the agency is writing a
report and drafting a bill proposal to continue the work zone speed camera
program. It’s up to lawmakers to decide if the pilot program authorized to last
through 2023 should become permanent. The upcoming session of the state General
Assembly begins next month and adjourns May 8.
Millovitsch expressed surprise and disappointment the
camera-equipped SUVs are no longer a fixture in East Lyme.
“We were lucky enough to be part of the pilot program,
because it was obviously super beneficial for us,” he said. “So if they do
implement a more permanent program, I’ll certainly see that we get on the
list.”
Morgan said 24,875 warnings and 724 tickets were issued in
the pilot program statewide. He could not provide the tally from East Lyme by
press time.
He said the state spent $4 million on the pilot program.
Obey said state troopers will go back to doing speed
enforcement the old-fashioned way.
“The backup plan has always been to have Connecticut State
Police do active speed enforcement through the work zone,” he said. “So we
would simply revert back to that.”
More information on the project, including interactive 3D
models of the upcoming work, is available at www.i-95eastlyme.com.
New London State Pier could be threatened by new wind power projects in Providence and Salem, Mass.
Energy experts have differing opinions on whether efforts to
establish a new off-shore wind farm staging areas in Rhode Island's port of
Providence and in Salem, Mass. just north of Boston could impact the number of
projects served by Connecticut's New London State Pier.
The two out-of state projects are potential threats to the
amount of staging area activity at the State Pier in New London, according to
Robert McCullough, managing partner of Oregon-based McCullough Research. The
project in Salem, Mass. involves
the impending acquisition of a 37-acre waterfront property in that city by
a Massachusetts quasi-public agency, while the plans
in Rhode Island are for a $70 million shipping and staging area for
offshore wind turbines near the mouth of the Providence River in that city's
port area.
"A lot of the attraction assumes that the wind projects
will add employment locally," McCullough said. "As with all massive
projects, this is a case of devil in the details. The effect is likely to be
smaller than expected."
The primary economic benefit to the project will come from
local laborers assembling the wind-turbine components in the port area, he
said.
"The big dollar items are unlikely to benefit the local
economy," McCullough said. "Offshore wind is tremendously challenging
and the expertise and technology is primarily in Europe."
Eric Smith, the associate director of Tulane
University's Energy Institute and a professor of energy issues, said not every
port is capable of hosting wind power staging facilities.
"These facilities need acreage, an adequate workforce
and deep water," Smith said. "And people always want the shortest
distant between the shore base for the work and the ultimate destination of
where these turbine are going to be erected."
But even with that specific set of requirements, he said
wind power staging areas that are in relatively close proximity to each other
run the risk of stealing work from each other.
"There is a finite amount of this work being done and
it's a function of how many of these turbines will be assembled," Smith
said.
McCullough said components for the turbines are shipped from
Europe. And right now, the specialized ships used to install the wind farms
come from overseas as well: The Charybdis, the first U.S.-made
turbine-installation vessel, is currently under construction in Brownsville,
Texas.
Growing pains in the United States' comparatively new
off-shore wind industry have already claimed a project whose staging area was
to have been in Bridgeport. Orange-based Avangrid
pulled out of the Park City Wind project in October 2023.
Craig Gilvarg, an Avangrid spokesman, declined comment on
whether competition from other wind power staging areas being in New England
had any impact on the company's decision to pull out of the Park City Wind
project. But Ken Kimmell, the company's vice resident of development for
offshore wind, told
the Boston Globe in late December that when Avangrid puts out new bids for wind
power projects across the region, it intends to use the Salem staging area.
Avangrid is expected to be among the bidders submitting new
wind power proposals to officials in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode
Island, which are due to be submitted the end of January. Officials
from the three states agreed in early October to launch a joint effort to
procure new wind power contracts.
While Smith and McCullough contend that plans for wind power
staging facilities in Salem, Mass. and Providence could pose a threat to New
London's standing as a wind power staging area, it's not an opinion shared by
New London Mayor Michael Passero.
"To achieve the scale of off-shore wind development
planned for the next 10-to-20 years, use of all the ports capable of handling
the assembly will be required," Passero said, "Port New London has
great natural assets, including a strategic location that make it an especially
attractive port for deploying wind turbine assemblies.
Ulysses Hammond, interim executive director for the
Connecticut Port Authority, said the staging area at the State Pier can coexist
without having its work poached by other ports.
"If we are to even come close to achieving any of our
climate change goals within the next 10 to 20 years, it will require a
robust set of wind marshalling terminals," Hammond said. "We are
about collaboration, not competition. This is about brining a new
industry to America."
The port of New London is in a unique position, he said, in
that it is the first operational U.S.-based heavy-lift marine terminal that
will accommodate offshore wind towers, nacelles and blades. The pier can
support cargo of up to 5,000 pounds per square foot on its two separate heavy
lift platforms.
Justin May, an external spokesman for Eversource Energy's
wind power business, said the State Pier is currently being used for staging
and turbine assembly for the South Fork Wind project, now underway.
"Once South Fork Wind is completed, turbine staging and
assembly activity for Revolution Wind — Connecticut’s first offshore wind farm
— will commence at the site," May said. "As we’ve stated publicly,
New London State Pier is a tremendous resource for offshore wind developers due
to its unobstructed access to the sea, proximity to offshore wind lease areas,
and heavy-lift capabilities."
Hartford's Bushnell Park South plan advances with $3M loan to buy parking lot for redevelopment
HARTFORD — The Capital Region Development Authority will
loan money to Norwalk-based Spinnaker Real Estate to purchase a parking lot in
the future Bushnell
South neighborhood, according to the authority's executive director.
The parking lot, known as "Parcel A," is a
90,000-foot swath of pavement bordered by Hudson Street, Capitol Avenue, West
Street, and Buckingham Street. CRDA is spearheading the development of this
lot, as well as several other properties south of Bushnell Park, in hopes of
building housing and other development, eventually
creating a new neighborhood.
The CRDA board met Jan. 18 to approve a $3 million loan to
Spinnaker, which did not respond to requests for comment.
"What we just approved yesterday is a loan instrument
that would help Spinnaker purchase the property, but also would require the
property to be developed consistent with the overall plan of development for
Bushnell South that's probably not likely to happen for three to five
years," said Michael Freimuth, executive director of CRDA, in an interview
with CT Insider on Friday.
The Bushnell South project combines the work of several
different developers, under the guidance of CRDA's specific vision for the
12-acres of "under-utilized" real estate.
The new neighborhood, when completed, will include
"commercial, apartment rental, and new homeownership" according to
the CRDA wesbite, but Freimuth said that vision will not come to fruition until
the mid-2030s, after Freimuth says he will have departed his role. When all is
said and done, CRDA hopes for over 1,000 units of housing in the neighborhood.
The housing will vary in density. Freimuth said the plan is
to "drop the scale of the development down as you go from the park into
the neighborhood to be more of a neighborhood scale, and pick up that row house
brownstone effect that goes toward Main Street."
The property slated for redevelopment by Spinnaker is home
to 250 parking spots, several billboards, and Y2KG Auto Detail, a garage in the
corner of the property on Capitol Avenue. The loan agreement approved Thursday
allows CRDA to put covenants on the property to guide what can be developed
there.
The need for surface parking in the Capitol Avenue
corridor has declined recently after the construction of two new parking
garages, including one for state employees, Freimuth said. As a result, the
paved lots are often vacant. Figuring out how to provide parking for new
developments without repeating the overly paved patterns of the past is top of
mind in the Bushnell South planning.
Freimuth said CRDA anticipates at least two new garages,
including one on Parcel A, now owned by Spinnaker, and one on another lot,
Parcel Four, run by New Jersey-based Michael's
Organization.
"We'll have to incorporate into both of those sites a
different parking dynamic that will service not just the buildings that are
built, but the area, generally whether it's the Bushnell (Theater) or state
employees or other residential development," Freimuth said. "It's
really the biggest challenge of the site."
Leadership at the Bushnell, which has 300,000 patrons across
the region and is a main Hartford attraction, has been enthusiastic about the
project despite concerns about parking and traffic, Freimuth said.
"We will have a voice as an active and engaged
participant in shaping the development of Bushnell South as we march toward the
100th anniversary of the opening of the Bushnell in 2023," said David Fay,
president and CEO of the Bushnell in a statement. "We look forward to
sharing the news of each phase of development as it emerges in the months
ahead."
The biggest project at the moment is the redevelopment of 55
Elm St., a former state office building set to become 264 apartments. Freimuth
said it will likely open up in June or July.
CRDA, which operates the XL
Center and the Connecticut Convention Center, is responsible for
several other Hartford-area
developments including the Front Street Lofts, Spectra on Pearl,
and the
Swift Factory. The authority gets its funding both from the state and
revenues from existing properties and projects.
BLT Loses Effort to Narrow Claims for Collapse of The Lofts in Stamford
Angela Carella
STAMFORD – Embroiled in a complex lawsuit over its
collapsing Harbor Point building, The Lofts, developer Building & Land
Technology looked to lighten the number of claims it faces.
So BLT filed a motion requesting that a judge strike several
of the claims brought by the New York City real estate investment firm that
bought The Lofts from BLT in 2016.
But a judge has rejected BLT’s request.
So the claims by the real estate firm, Gaia, against
Stamford’s biggest developer, landowner and taxpayer will stand. So does the
massive lawsuit, which names BLT, 18 of its affiliates, a number of its
contractors, and the city.
Gaia sued BLT last year, after it had to vacate all 225
Lofts apartments in 2022. It was discovered that the century-old wooden
supports are rotting and shifting, causing the converted lock factory – six
stories high and nearly three football fields long – to tilt and sink.
Walls, ceilings and beams at The Lofts are cracking; floors
are buckling; and window and door frames are bending. Gaia representatives have
said in court filings that they began seeing those problems in 2017, a year
after buying the building from BLT.
In August BLT attorneys presented their arguments for
striking a number of Gaia’s claims to Judge Sheila Ozalis in state Superior
Court in Stamford:
The Lofts purchase agreement prohibits Gaia from suing
BLT.
Gaia cannot seek money from BLT because when Gaia signed the
agreement, it waived its ability to collect damages.
Gaia cannot pursue certain claims because they are subject
to a three-year statute of limitations that has run out.
Gaia did not provide sufficient evidence to show that BLT
sold The Lofts knowing the foundation is failing.
Gaia cannot sue BLT because BLT didn’t sign the purchase
agreement; its affiliates did.
But this month Ozalis denied BLT’s motion on all counts.
Among the judge’s conclusions:
The statute of limitations must be taken up during trial,
not in pre-trial motions.
Though BLT affiliates, not BLT, signed The Lofts purchase
agreement, affiliates are subject to obligations in the agreement.
Gaia presented sufficient evidence to allege that BLT
breached its contractual obligation “to act in good faith,” and to allege that
BLT failed to share information about problems with the building.
Because there is evidence that BLT may have misrepresented
the condition of the building, the purchase agreement may not be valid. That
could, in turn, invalidate Gaia’s promises not to sue, and to waive any claims
for damages.
BLT’s motion to strike the claims and the judge’s denial
were a swing and a miss for the developer, caught in a lawsuit that began in
November 2022 and will continue for about two more years. According to
Connecticut’s Judicial Branch website, jury selection isn’t scheduled to begin
until September 2025.
The Lofts was BLT’s first, and signature, Harbor Point
building when it opened in 2010. It was reconstructed from the Yale & Towne
lock factory, which put Stamford on the map as a manufacturing center more than
100 years ago.
After The Lofts, BLT erected multiple new luxury apartment
high-rises in Harbor Point, the developer’s project to remake the old
industrial South End.
But the historic factory building was reconstructed on its
original wooden pilings, which now are damaged by dewatering, Gaia alleges.
Dewatering happens when the water table beneath a building drops, exposing the
pilings to air, which rots them. The pilings also are settling at a fast rate
as the drier soil compacts, Gaia claims.
The water table beneath The Lofts dropped because BLT
installed an impermeable liner to contain contaminated soil at the site, Gaia
charges. The effect was that rain could not soak in.
The city had a role, too, Gaia alleges. City crews failed to
maintain underground drainage pipes, further diminishing groundwater at the
site, and failed to inspect the foundation when Gaia sought a permit to repair
it in 2020, Gaia alleges.
The company further alleges that BLT took soil tests in
2010, when it was building The Lofts, but withheld the results. Gaia alleges
that it discovered the foundation problems in 2022 after doing its own
groundwater tests.
BLT’s attorney, Wendy Venoit of Cozen O’Connor in Boston,
did not return a request for comment.
A spokesman for the New York City law firm Anderson Kill,
which represents Gaia, said attorneys will not comment.
The Lofts building at 200 Henry St. now is empty and dark,
surrounded by a chain-link fence and a proliferation of weeds. Gaia states in
court filings that the building faces “inevitable demolition or destruction”
and settlement is progressing “at a dangerous rate.”
Gaia executives have said the company’s insurance carrier
will not cover any damage caused by dewatering. The company is seeking
compensation from BLT “in an amount to be proven at trial,” the lawsuit states.