How many UConn stadiums could fit into CT's 3.2M square foot Amazon facility?
Lilli Iannella, Bryan Haeffele
Construction on a massive new Amazon facility on the Naugatuck/Waterbury line has been underway for just over a month. It came after the City of Waterbury closed a $2.5 million deal in late April, selling 157 acres of land to Amazon.
Spanning nearly 15 of those acres will sit a five-story fulfillment center that Amazon hopes to have up and running in 2027, where goods will be warehoused for distribution. There will be 3.2 million square feet of space among its five floors. That's nearly as big as Mohegan Sun's property, which spans 3.5 million square feet.
The multi-floor building is proposed to be 106 feet tall. That means it won't be nearly as tall as the Hartford State Capitol Building, reaching heights of over 250 feet, or any of Connecticut's tallest buildings.
It's hard to wrap ones head around the massive size, so to put it into perspective, here's how some of Connecticut's most well-known sites and people compare to the size of the new fulfillment center.
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DOT warns of nighttime bridge detours and Route 15 lane closures in Meriden
Mary Ellen Godin
MERIDEN —The state Department of Transportation is alerting motorists to nighttime closures and detours on Paddock Avenue and intermittent lane shutdowns on Route 15 beginning Sunday night.
The closures are expected to continue for about five weeks and are necessary to install girders for the Paddock Avenue bridge, according to the DOT. The bridge replacement is part of a three-phase project to improve safety at the junctions of 691, o91 and Route 15 in Meriden.
A detour will be implemented at Paddock Avenue while the new bridge girders are installed. Traffic will also be halted intermittently for 15-minute periods on Route 15 (Northbound and Southbound lanes) while the girders are lifted across the highway and set in place. After the closures on Route 15, one lane in each direction will be reopened.
The Paddock Avenue bridge replacement is part of Phase II of a multi-year project aimed at improving traffic flow at the 91,691, Route 15 interchange in Meriden and Middletown.
Realign and widen ramp from 691 eastbound to I-91 northbound to two lanes to meet traffic demand
Phase I will realign and widen ramp from 691 eastbound to I-91 northbound. It remains under construction and expected to cost $85 Million It will also provide one additional lane on I-91northbound to relieve congestion caused by a steep uphill grade and widen the bridge.
Phase II It is expected to cost $185 million and includes bridge replacement due to ramp realignment and widening. It will also build a two-lane exist ramp from Route 15 northbound to I-91 northbound to reduce congestion on the exit 68 ramp.
DOT workers will also close the existing Exit 17 ramp from I-91 northbound to Route 15 northbound and re-route traffic to exit 16 to provide a two-lane exit ramp with a right-side traffic merge onto Route 15 northbound. The exit 68 westbound ramp in Wallingford from Route 15 will be widened to two lanes. Engineers are reconfiguring the acceleration and deceleration lanes to provide adequate traffic weaving distances.
Phase III is still under design review, according to the DOT. The total cost of the project is expected to be $500 million.
The Paddock Avenue bridge detour routes starting Sunday at midnight:
Northbound
• From south of the Paddock Avenue Bridge on Paddock Avenue, head south
• Left onto Murdock Avenue
• Left onto Research Parkway
• Left onto East Main Street
Southbound
• From north of the Paddock Avenue Bridge on Paddock Avenue, head north
• Right onto East Main Street
• Right onto Research Parkway
• Right onto Murdock Avenue
• Right onto Paddock Avenue
Kaitlin Keane
NEW MILFORD – By next spring, the town’s Public Works Department hopes to begin work to replace the aging single-span bridge that carries Wheaton Road over the East Aspetuck River.
“In the grand scheme of things, this is going to be a standard bridge replacement project,” said Chuck Ballard, the roads design engineer for New Milford’s Public Works Department. “Easement acquisitions were reasonably small, and (it) will have minimal impact on private properties.”
Built in 1985, the 35-foot-long Wheaton Road bridge consists of a multigirder steel beam and concrete deck superstructure supported by concrete abutments and wingwalls, according to data from the Wethersfield consulting firm Close, Jensen & Miller. The bridge is located 300 feet east of Route 202 between Northfield Cemetery and Carlson’s Grove Park, and has an estimated average daily traffic of 890 vehicles per day, according to data from the state Department of Transportation.
The bridge has been deemed in “poor condition” and is vulnerable to failing due to erosion from flowing water on the East Aspetuck River.
Public Works applied to the state’s Local Bridge Program in 2021 for the full replacement of the Wheaton Road bridge and received approval in 2022, Ballard said.
The existing bridge on Wheaton Road will be replaced by a new single-span bridge consisting of a precast concrete box beam superstructure supported by reinforced concrete integral abutments and wingwalls. The overall bridge length will be increased from 35 feet to 69 feet, and it have a 60-foot clear span, according to the DOT.
Open bridge rail will be used across the new bridge, and curved walls will be installed at all four corners of the bridge, according to the DOT. Guide rail will also be installed on the bridge’s west approach.
The estimated cost of construction is $2.52 million, according to the DOT. Ballard said 80% of the project will be paid for with federal funds and 20% will be paid for with state funds.
Construction is tentatively expected to start the spring of 2026 and finished by November 2026, according to Ballard. A detour route will be prepared this year, with Wheaton Road traffic redirected to Litchfield Road and Upland Road, he said.
Public Works plans to advertise for construction companies for the project this fall.
A virtual public informational meeting for the project will be livestreamed Monday, July 15, at 7 p.m. on YouTube at portal.ct.gov/ctdotvpimarchive.
Ansonia's Kinneytown Dam ‘needs to go’ neighbors say as activists, officials take steps for removal
Stagnant water from a tributary of the Kinneytown Dam gives off a stench that keeps residents in the North Fourth Street area of Ansonia from opening their windows in the summer heat.
While below, at the base of the dam, shad, eels and salmon attempting to migrate up the Naugatuck River have found themselves stuck until they die trying. Then, vultures and other predators swoop in to eat the corpses.
And all around the dam, contaminated sediment has accumulated and emits methane, creating a powerful greenhouse gas manufacturing plant, experts say.
An eyesore and safety hazard that spans the river between Seymour on the west and Ansonia on the east, the Kinneytown Dam is “like a blighted building,” said Kevin Zak of the Naugatuck River Revival Group.
Zak and other environmental activists, elected officials and government agencies have been working for years to address the problems caused by the dam. And now, armed with $47 million, including $25 million in state funds received this month, they hope to acquire and remove the dam by the end of 2028.
The dam, which is 413 feet across and 30 feet high, was built in 1844 to divert water from the Naugatuck River to downtown Ansonia to power factories. Later, in the 1980s, part of the dam was converted to make hydroelectricity, but it hasn't produced electricity for at least five years.
In the last several years, a coalition of groups, including the Naugatuck River Revival Group and Save the Sound, came together to find solutions to the environmental problems caused by the dam, leading them to this point where removal of the dam is tantalizingly close.
At the end of the Coe Pond, North Fourth Street residents said the standing water and the trash surrounding it have brought rats and mosquitoes to their street, which is separated from the facility by a chain link fence.
The smell of sewage seeps into the area in the summer months, making it hard to bring over company and eat outside. If the dam were removed, the standing water would also go, Zak said, clearing up the smell and other issues.
Christina Cybart, who moved to North Fourth Street last July from Derby said "breathing it in, too, can’t be good. It does stink, it really does on those hot, hot days,” she said.
Cybart, in her 30s, said the smell makes her nauseous to her stomach and that the rats, which she thinks come from the trash around water, have created space for themselves in a wall off of her driveway.
“It needs to go,” Cybart said.
'A methane gas manufacturing plant'
Executive Director of the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments Rick Dunne said the land’s ultimate ownership and what the river will look like following the dam’s removal will remain foggy until plans are stamped by federal regulators.
The most costly and complicated part of the project is likely going to be dealing with up to a million cubic yards, roughly 50,000 dump tri-axle trucks-worth, of potentially contaminated sediment that has accumulated around the dam, said Paul Woodworth, senior director of ecological restoration for Save the Sound.
Unfortunately, the dam has done an extremely good job of trapping in sediment, said Laura Wildman, vice president for ecological action with Save the Sound.
“When you probe into the sediments in Kinneytown, it bubbles up with methane gas,” Wildman said. “So, it becomes kind of like a methane gas manufacturing plant, which is really a problem, because methane gas is a very powerful greenhouse gas.”
How much the sediment is contaminated and will need to be removed to avoid causing downstream problems will be decided by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Woodworth said.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency has plans to test the sediment this summer after it completed a first round last year. With the sampling, the team will decide what needs to be contained or capped or let run downstream, Woodworth said.
Dunne said the dam has been a problem for the environment since it was built, and its current owner, Trimaran Energy LLC, has “let it fall into severe disrepair.”
Trimaran Energy did not respond to questions sent by CT Insider.
"It doesn't generate any power. It serves no useful commercial purpose any longer, and it's been passed through a bunch of corporate hands. So we put together a group to try and resolve the issue and cure the problems," Dunne said. "This is a huge win, if we can get it done."
Officials initially planned to acquire the dam at essentially no cost by May last year. Since then, the written agreement to take on the dam from its owner has been extended six times as negotiations have been complicated by due diligence and six figures-worth of delinquent taxes the dam’s owner owes to Seymour and Ansonia, Dunne said.
“It has expired several times and been renewed several times,” Dunne said. “There are plans, and then there are plans.”
CT Brownfield Land Bank to take ownership
The Connecticut Brownfield Land Bank, a nonprofit aimed at supporting state municipalities dealing with potentially contaminated sites, will hold the title to the dam as it is torn down. Dunne, the president of the corporation, said he expects some of the land will be donated back to Seymour and Ansonia after the destruction has been completed.
He said he is confident the Land Bank will acquire the dam within the next several weeks, mainly thanks to additional funds.
Another hurdle will be two old sewer lines that run below the water, servicing Ansonia and Seymour, and officials will need to install new lines before the old ones can be decommissioned and removed, Woodworth said.
“One project can't happen without the other, and they both need to be synchronized,” Woodworth said.
Additionally, Route 8, which was built into the impoundment long after the dam was established, and the riverbank may need to be stabilized when the sediment washes away in the river. On the other side, railroad tracks line the east side of the river and also need to be protected, Woodworth said.
Despite the barriers, Zak said he remains optimistic about the pace of progress.
“It's said at every meeting and it's in everybody's mind, that this project seems like it's taking a long time. The last year has been very painful for me because of that,” Zak said at a community meeting in May. “However in its totality, this has been lighting fast. You’re talking about moving some of the most unmovable government agencies in this country.”