I-95 shoulders in Norwalk close as crews prepare to replace Fairfield Ave. bridge post-fiery crash
NORWALK — More than a month has passed since the Fairfield
Avenue bridge over Interstate 95 was demolished following a fiery
crash. Now, crews are beginning repairs to prepare
for the replacement.
“Workers are beginning to remove slabs and do work to repair
the bridge abutments,” said Samaia Hernandez, spokesperson for Connecticut’s
Department of Transportation.
The shoulders of Interstate 95 are closed while crews
continue to remove the damaged concrete.
“Good news, the fire didn’t penetrate too deeply into the
abutment face,” Hernandez said. “Crews will need to chip back the concrete and
build back out new concrete on one of them.”
On the morning of May 2, a Chevrolet Camaro and two
tractor-trailers, one
carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline, crashed, causing the tanker to
catch fire and burn the road and overpass.
CDOT engineers determined the fire compromised the
structural integrity of the Fairfield Avenue overpass, and the bridge needed to
be demolished. Both sides of I-95
were closed for 80 hours as crews quickly worked to take down the
bridge and repave the southbound side of the highway.
State and local leaders vowed to replace the bridge quickly, as it provides a vital connection between South Norwalk and Route 1.
“We continue moving forward with the design and construction
plans to rebuild the Fairfield Avenue Bridge over the next year,” Hernandez
said.
Following the crash, Secretary of Transportation Pete
Buttigieg released $3
million in emergency relief funds to cover the initial cost of
removing the bridge. Additional funding for the bridge
replacement is expected, state and local officials said.
With the overpass gone, cars and pedestrians are directed
over the Cedar Street overpass.
Offshore wind interconnection 'hubs' needed in New England, Eversource says
Offshore wind "cable spaghetti" is not necessary
as developers vie for the best shore-based places to tie their projects to the
power grid, panelists said Tuesday at a business event in Boston.
With several offshore wind farms planned off the New England
coast, a hodgepodge of individual transmission solutions won't work. Instead,
they said, well-planned and shared infrastructure will deliver the most bang
for the buck while minimizing environmental harm.
"We cannot be sitting in silos and thinking about
solutions in our own spaces," said Dwarakesh Nallan, head of transmission
and interconnection for Equinor Americas, at the event, held by Reuters at the
Westin Boston Seaport District.
And while shared offshore-wind infrastructure may seem like
a reasonable solution, much needs to be worked out.
"The devil is in the details," said Christine Guhl
Sadovy, president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.
Participants laid out a set of challenges inherent in
building shared transmission infrastructure: How will costs and risks be
allocated? Which solutions are optimal? How will host communities be affected?
Ultimately, the benefits outweigh the costs, panelists said,
while maintaining that fewer undersea cables and more robust interconnection
points will lead to better community relations, lower costs, less environmental
impact and a stronger, more resilient framework for future clean energy
development.
Multiyear transmission planning now mandated by FERC
Long-term regional transmission planning must back such
investment decisions, said Vandan Divatia, vice president of transmission
policy and compliance at Eversource Energy.
He said there's hope on the planning front.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, for the first
time, is requiring regional grid operators to develop 20-year transmission
plans. And ISO New England — the region's grid operator — recently
released its own planning framework for meeting the region's
transmission needs through 2050.
Such planning directives give "a belt and
suspenders" to efforts already under way in New England, said Davatia, who
emphasized the need for utilities to participate in the process.
State clean-energy mandates in New England mean that 15
gigawatts of offshore wind capacity must be connected to the grid. And that can
best be done by building multiproject hubs at select locations, Davatia said.
To that end, Eversource is now developing a new switching
station in eastern Connecticut that could let multiple offshore wind projects
connect at a single site.
"There are five 345 kilovolt transmission lines that
are passing through this junction," Divatia said. "So we said, Why
don't we develop a hub that can inject 2,400 megawatts of offshore wind without
any deliverability constraints?"
Eversource, now divested from its prior offshore wind development partnership with
Ørsted, is now operating as a customer-agnostic transmission developer for the
offshore wind industry.
For instance, it has already beefed up infrastructure on Cape Cod to
accommodate Avangrid's Vineyard Wind project while concurrently solving
regional grid reliability problems. And other projects are planned.
In any case, it's not as simple as "plug and
play." And details must be worked out to ensure that offshore wind
development doesn't result in a redundant infrastructure.
"We shouldn't be looking at this in a siloed manner of
just interconnecting offshore wind," said Divatia.
CT Port Authority hires first maritime development manager
The Connecticut Port Authority said it has hired its first
maritime development manager to lead the agency in future infrastructure
projects and grant allocations.
Coast Guard veteran and former American Cruise Lines
executive Eric Dussault began his post as the port authority’s maritime
development manager earlier this month. Dussault will now oversee the
quasi-public agency’s Small Harbors Improvement Projects Program (SHIPP), port
and harbor dredging projects, the Pilot Commission administration, and
coordination of state and federal grants and other initiatives.
Specifically regarding SHIPP, Dussault will work with the
Connecticut Marine Trades Association and other stakeholders to allocate and
support those looking for grants through the program, which provides money for
infrastructure improvements and maritime economic development.
In three rounds of grant funding so far, SHIPP has awarded
more than $12 million for 33 projects in 16 Connecticut municipalities, the
port authority said. The authority is accepting applications for the fourth
round of SHIPP grants until July 1.
Prior to his new role, Dussault worked for travel company
American Cruise Lines for nine years, most recently as director of port
operations. He’s also a licensed 100-ton captain and has previously worked as a
sea tow operations manager in Connecticut. He currently sits on the Old
Saybrook Board of Finance.
Connecticut has a growing 'blue economy.' What exactly does that mean?
Those returning to a Connecticut marina this summer after a
charter fishing excursion might spot one of QuanTech's newest hires waiting
dockside to tally up the day's catch for federal fisheries management purposes.
You, the boat captain and that fish counter count when it
comes to Connecticut's so-called "blue economy" — which appears to
be on the upswing amid burgeoning commercial work in seaports, and
people casting about for leisure
time along the shore.
In 2021, Connecticut’s marine economy generated its highest
economic output on record, with employment in the sector hitting an estimated
61,385 jobs as estimated by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That was about 1,200 more jobs
than in 2019, which had shattered the previous record employment figure the
year before. BEA and NOAA have yet to publish state-level figures for
2022.
Now a Connecticut Blue Economy Coalition has formed to boost
businesses linked to the sea through the products and services they sell. Last
week they held a ceremony at Mystic Seaport Museum to mark the start of their
work.
"I think it will create a great network for us to think
of other ways to build the blue economy," said Paul Whitescarver,
executive director of the Southeastern Connecticut Enterprise Region nonprofit
in Groton and the former commander of the U.S. Naval Submarine Base New London.
"Connecticut has hubs like biotech — I'd love to see a blue economy
hub."
The marine economy generated nearly 2 percent of U.S.
economic activity in 2022, according to estimates last week by the BEA and
NOAA, with Connecticut's marine economy having had a 3 percent share of total
gross domestic product.
In their marine economy estimates, BEA and NOAA include
everything from federal installations like the Groton naval base or the U.S.
Coast Guard's research center in New London; to commercial work like
Connecticut’s oyster and kelp harvesters; to recreational spending and related
jobs, like beach lifeguards or charter-boat captains.
Maritime development for ports
Connecticut's biggest maritime bet has been on State Pier in
New London, which after more than $300 million in upgrades and cost overruns
has been transformed into a staging hub for construction of offshore wind
farms. Wind farm developer Orsted is now loading tower sections, turbine
blades and other parts on barges at State Pier for transport to the ocean site
where the Revolution Wind farm is being installed. The wind farm will supply
electricity to Connecticut and Rhode Island.
The last week of May, the Connecticut Port Authority
submitted an application for an additional $6 million in federal funding for
equipment at State Pier that would allow ships to draw electricity while docked
at the pier, eliminating any need to run their engines for
electricity.
To boost the state's waterfront economy further, the
Connecticut Port Authority announced the hire on Thursday of a "maritime
development" manager whose responsibilities include not just the deepwater
ports of New London, New Haven and Bridgeport, but also more than 30 small
harbors. Earlier in his career, Eric Dussault served on the U.S. Coast Guard
cutter Reliance, then oversaw port operations for American Cruise Lines based
in Guilford, which offers "small ship" river and coastal cruises in
the United States.
The Authority is now soliciting applicants for a fourth
installment of grants under the Small Harbor Improvement Projects Program. Just
over $5 million was authorized in the third round, including $3 million to
dredge channels for Cove Island Park Marina in Stamford as part of an extensive
recovery effort from damage in the 2012 storm Sandy; about $1 million for
repairs and upgrades to Branford Point Wharf; and $250,000 for work on
a Stonington pier where multiple fishing vessels are berthed.
"The infrastructure improvements for small harbors is
probably the best opportunity for us," Hammond said. "It's about
tourism, it's about fishing, it's about recreation with respect to our small
harbors."
Tourism and recreation accounted for the biggest dollar
increase to the U.S. marine economy in 2022 of the major subsectors tracked by
BEA and NOAA, with an additional $16.5 billion in activity.
Up and down waterways of the East Coast, commercial
enterprises exist elbow-to-elbow with recreational outlets, and that is no
different along Connecticut's shore and river valleys. Late last year across
the water from Bridgeport's budding Steelpointe Harbor development that is in
line for a new Residence Inn by Marriott, onlookers got a sight of the corvette
warship USNS Hiddensee getting hauled from the water. The ship had been put up
for scrap by the Massachusetts museum Battleship Cove, having deemed repairs
and upkeep too expensive.
Hornblower Marine tapped Bridgeport Boatworks in 2021 as its
main yard to overhaul its fleet of New York ferries and tourist boats, with the
two companies creating a scholarship program for Bridgeport students enrolled
at Porter and Chester Institute who are interested in maritime trades.
"We took a piece of waterfront ... that had been cut
off from the public for 100-plus years, and we opened up that waterfront to the
public," said Bobby Christoph Jr., principal of Bridgeport Landing
Development which landed Bridgeport Boatworks in 2021 at the former Derecktor
Shipyards facility. "Having my office there, I see people all the time
drive down ... just to walk or stroll or take a lunch break on the waterfront.
It's so neat to see it actually be utilized now."
'Out of the DOD realm'
Nationwide last year, shipyards saw the biggest increase in
U.S. marine economic activity at 14.6 percent. Connecticut has been a major
beneficiary, with the General Dynamics Electric Boat plant in Groton on a
sustained hiring binge to keep up with U.S. Navy submarine orders, along with
Electric Boat’s auxiliary plant at Quonset Point, R.I.
Electric Boat's newest addition is a massive new
construction “shed” in Groton, where workers will piece together a new fleet of
ballistic missile submarines as their Navy crews get trained to operate them in
an attached lodging and learning facility.
Across the Thames River, turbines for the planned Revolution
Wind farm are being staged to be barged off the New England coast for
installation. BEA and NOAA are now for the first time reporting offshore
wind farm construction and operation in its marine economy figures, estimated
at $116 million in 2022.
And upstream along the Connecticut River in Portland, Birdon
invested in an existing boatyard where it is overhauling more than 100 U.S.
Coast Guard rescue boats, to include refurbished hulls, decks, propulsion,
electronics and other upgrades.
Despite the massive employment bases for Electric Boat and
the submarine base, BEA and NOAA estimate that New Haven County has a slightly
larger camp of workers in marine industries, at just over 20,000 workers in
all. New Haven County added nearly 3,000 industry jobs over two years, between
2019 and 2021.
New Haven climbed five rungs in 2022 on a U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers tally of cargo tonnage at U.S. ports, leaving it just outside the top
50 ports in the United States. Hammond said that extensive dredging work is now
underway in New Haven to widen and deepen the harbor's channels to accommodate
larger vessels. New London was not included in the rankings.
Bridgeport had one of the largest drops in the Army Corps of
Engineers study, with cargo tonnage down 30 percent. And despite the success of
Bridgeport Boatworks, the city absorbed a blow after Park City Wind scrapped
plans for a wind farm staging hub there as construction costs spiraled beyond
revenue forecasts for the electricity Park City Wind would generate.
One example of the possibilities for smaller Northeast ports
is Portsmouth, N.H., where the Navy has a submarine maintenance yard. The
Piscataqua River city generated the third biggest increase in cargo tonnage in
the United States in 2022, among nearly 150 ports for which the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers published data for both that year and 2021.
Back on the Thames River, Whitescarver had a video created
early this year to showcase the waterway's economic assets, from the University
of Connecticut Avery Point, U.S. Coast Guard Academy and Marine Science Magnet
High School of Southeastern Connecticut; to Electric Boat and the Naval
Submarine Base New London; to heavy industries like Thames Shipyard, marine
construction contractor Mohawk Northeast and Cashman Marine Dredging and
Contracting.
Work proceeds on the National Coast Guard Museum slated for
New London, which when completed will give the area a fourth destination
tourist attraction on the maritime front, after the Mystic Seaport Museum,
Mystic Aquarium and the USS Nautilus at the U.S. Navy Submarine Force Museum in
Groton. And Whitescarver said land is available for additional enterprises.
"There's so much going on on the Thames — a lot of
development which is really impressive for our region, and the diversification
that gets you out of the DOD realm and into some other things,"
Whitescarver said.
Meriden approves MidState Hospital expansion, soccer field move to Columbus Park
MERIDEN – City Council recently voted to accept about $1.7
million from MidState Medical Center to break
a 99-year lease and relocate two grass fields at MidState to the
current site of two softball fields in Columbus Park on Lewis Avenue.
The city would use an additional $2.4 million from its
capital improvement plan to install synthetic turf on the fields to increase
play.
The resolution was proposed in early May by Mayor Kevin
Scarpati, who has been a vocal supporter of the project. He said it would allow
the hospital to expand its operations and bring an investment of between $60
million to $100 million to the city’s grand list to offset an increased tax
burden for city residents.
“I don’t feel like we’re losing anything. If anything, we’re
making a tremendous enhancement in that area of our town,” he said. “For me,
this is a win-win-win-win all the way around.”
Nevertheless, the proposal has received
pushback from city councilors and current users of Columbus Park
throughout the debate and approval process. Representatives of Hawks Fútbol
Club, the Mexican Soccer League, and the Meriden Amateur Softball Association,
better known as MASA, attended Monday’s meeting. Particularly, members of the
Mexican Soccer League were upset because they said they were not
consulted or included in the relocation discussions.
Resident Sebastian Hurtado started an adult team in the
Mexican Soccer League and has players from across the state and different
heritages. He has been involved in sports since he was in high school and said
both soccer and softball were important for the city’s identity.
“I have people from all over the world who are coming to
this league and diversifying our community,” he said. “I think it’s
irresponsible for us to not take the communities’ opinion and not allow it to
be heard and to allow all this stuff to be changed without anybody’s input on
it.”
Despite the pushback from some residents, several city
stakeholders supported the decision.
Board of Education president Rob Kosienski wrote an
email of support for the artificial turf soccer fields because of the increased
use of turf fields at schools and the growing needs of the district.
City Councilor Joseph Scaramuzzo, D, sits on the board of
the Meriden Soccer Club. Over the years, the club has invested more than
$100,000 in what they thought would be their home until 2086 by improving the
field and the concession stand at MidState.
After some debate, Scaramuzzo said the club decided to
support the proposal and were willing to move to new turf fields across the
highway.
“When this first came out, (the club’s) first reaction was
‘go pound sand; we want to keep our fields.’ But then, as they discussed it and
discussed it internally, the right thing for the city is to increase the grand
ist,” he said.
Parks and Recreation Director Chris Bourden also supported
the resolution and said the project would be a win for the Mexican Soccer
League as they would get a field with a better playing surface. He added it
would decrease disagreements between the league and the department about
maintenance and playing after rain.
In addition, he said a turf field would be open to greater
use by the public as heavy use of the current grass field at Columbus Park by
the Mexican Soccer League, the Hawks and the public.
“Pretty much anybody can come and play on it, and our
department can’t keep up with the maintenance on the soccer field the way a
soccer field should be maintained,” he said.
Bourden also said part of the plan is to relocate MASA to
Nessing Field on Murdock Avenue. To help ease the transition, the department
plans on improving Nessing Field by adding clay bricks around the mound and
home plate, raising the grade of clay, adding conditioner to make a better
playing surface, cutting and re-sodding the field’s lips, adding irrigation to
the field and extending fence lights. He added the upgrades also extend to the
area surrounding the field as improvement plan includes upgrading the
bathrooms, concession area, bleachers and dugouts.
City Councilor Larue Graham, D, is a former softball player
from MASA. He said that it made sense for him to vote in favor of the
resolution because of the growing number of youth who are interested in soccer
over softball. He added that the relocation of MASA gives them space to expand
up to 40 games a week, or 80 teams.
“I know it has a rich tradition and I played in MASA for
years and enjoyed it, but in those times, there were literally hundreds of
teams. They currently have 24, but this (resolution) does give them the ability
to grow,” he said.
Throughout the process, Majority Leader Sonya Jelks, D, has
raised concerns about the lack of community input and small amount of green
space in Area 1, which she represents.
She voted against the resolution, but thanked community
members for turning out to the city council, staying late and being passionate
about the use of public spaces. Moving forward, she urged the council to
continue to listen to the needs of the community.
“I appreciate the discussion," she said. "I do ask
that we continue the conversation. Regardless of what we do tonight, the
conversation isn’t done until the community is done with the
conversation."
New Haven to rebuild Valley Street with speed bumps, raised crosswalks and safety in mind
NEW HAVEN — Sonya Augustine Blakeney, Brenda White and April
C. are tired of seeing vehicles race up Valley
Street as if it were just a cut-through and not the main artery of
their West
Hills neighborhood community.
"I've lived in my house for almost 30 years now. The
traffic has increased," said White, who lives on Parkside Drive off
Valley, after listening to Mayor Justin Elicker and other key officials at a
news conference in front of The Shack community center at 333 Valley St.
talk about some big improvements to come.
"It's sped up," White said, sitting in a shady
spot near where city officials were set up to discuss the project on the
hottest day of the year so far.
In recent years, the city put a speed bump on her street,
"which helps," White said.
Now, the city is taking on Valley Street as a whole,
reconstructing it and adding speed bumps, raised crosswalks and redesigned and
rebuilt intersections over the next three months.
All are designed with safety in mind as part of a $2.2
million project funded through the state Department of Transportation's Local
Transportation Improvement Program.
"I feel that this will help," White said, pointing
out a host of new projects at the bottom of the hill where Valley Street
begins, including a pickleball
complex at Whalley Avenue and Blake Street and new apartments at on
Blake Street, that will only increase the amount of traffic, making the safety
improvements even more important.
Blakeney was happy to see the speed bumps, but asked officials if there's any
way to get an additional traffic light.
City Engineer Giovanni Zinn said that one possibility would
be a light that requires vehicles to stop when someone pushes a button.
April C., who did not want to share her last name, said she
stopped by the announcement "to see what's going on.
"They need to do something," she said, pointing
out that for many people, "this is the entrance to the highway, and people
treat it like the entrance to the highway."
She said she thinks that improvement city officials outlined
should help. "Nothing has been done, so anything they do will be an
improvement," April said.
"This is an exciting moment," said Elicker.
"This is a big project," for which construction already has begun
along the stretch of Valley Street between Pond Lily Avenue and Blake Street.
"People deserve a safe street," Elicker said.
"We ask people to obey the law, to drive the speed limit, obey the light.
But unfortunately, not everyone does that."
In dealing with people throughout the city, "one of the
most common requests we get is, 'I need speed humps on my street,'"
Elicker said.
He thanked the state's legislative delegation for working to
secure New Haven the funding.
The Valley Street project follows a similar traffic calming
project underway along State Street. An additional project is in the pipeline
for Quinnipiac Avenue, Elicker said.
Zinn said the project wouldn't have happened without the
state Local Transportation Improvement Program funds.
With regard to Valley Street, "what we've always heard
is, 'This is a community. This is not just a cut-through,' and we want an
infrastructure that reflects that," Zinn said.
"We're really excited to see this happen," he
said.
Other speakers included state Rep. Patricia Dillon, D-New
Haven, West Hills and West Rock Alder Honda Smith, D-30, and Board of Alders
Majority Leader Richard Furlow, D-27.
"There are a number of reasons why Valley Street, we
need to keep it safe," said Dillon, who said she was representing the
city's entire state delegation not just herself. She thanked the Board of
Alders "for always telling us what is needed to keep people safe."
Alder Smith said the finished Valley Street project "is
going to be something that is beautiful, that is really going to be good for
our community."
The Board of Alders "work together" to make sure
that important projects like Valley Street happen, she said.
"This has been years in the works," said Furlow,
whose ward includes parts of Beaver Hills, Westville and Amity. "Nothing
just happens. This is the result of years of meetings, years of thinking.
"I'm very happy that we were able to get the
funds," Furlow said.