Construction of new 'Flex Lane' on I-84 in Danbury – the first in CT – to start in 2028
The state Department of Transportation is moving ahead with
a proposal to turn the left-hand shoulder on Interstate-84 in Danbury into a lane
that opens to cars during traffic jams.
Construction of the “Flex Lane,” which would extend about 4
miles between Exit 3 and Exit 7, is expected to begin in 2028 and finish in two
to three years, according to DOT. It would be the first
lane of its kind in the state.
DOT spokesman Josh Morgan said the Flex Lane, which is in
the design phase, and other roadway upgrades in the corridor will cost roughly
$250 million, according to preliminary estimates.
The project is a spinoff of a broader,
longer term and more costly effort to overhaul the highway from the
New York state line to about Exit 8.
“If you’re tired of getting stuck in traffic on I-84 in
Danbury, we’ve got some good news for you,” says a voiceover for a video DOT
posted to YouTube on Thursday. The video depicts a woman sitting in traffic and
throwing her head back in frustration.
The video explains the concept of a Flex Lane, describing it
as an “innovative traffic solution” already in use in Michigan, Wisconsin and
Ohio.
“The Flex Lane would allow vehicles to use the median
shoulder as a temporary travel lane during times of congestion by providing an
extra lane when traffic is heaviest,” the voiceover says. “The Flex Lane would
reduce the potential for bottlenecks and sudden slowdowns that can lead to
crashes.”
Once traffic dies down, the lane would convert back to a
shoulder, according to the video.
Signs on the highway would notify drivers when the Flex Lane
is open to passenger vehicles. Trucks and buses wouldn’t be allowed in the
lane.
If a sign shows a green arrow, car drivers can use the lane.
If it shows a red “X,” the lane is closed, and if it shows a yellow “X,” the
lane is closing soon, so drivers should merge with the rest of traffic.
Because the Flex Lane doesn’t involve the construction of a
new roadway, “everyone can enjoy a better commute sooner,” the video says.
In a release, DOT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto said
drivers will see that improvement “within
the next five years.”
Most days, the lane would be open during rush hour in the
morning and afternoon, in whichever direction traffic is busiest, according to
a website for the I-84
project.
The Flex Lane also is supposed to benefit drivers,
pedestrians and bikers on local roads because with traffic flowing on I-84,
drivers won’t get off the highway and take detours through town.
The right shoulder would remain available to first
responders, and the Flex Lane could return to being a shoulder during
emergencies, according to the I-84 website.
A fact
sheet on the website also notes that “additional wider emergency
breakdown areas will be constructed in the right shoulder at various
locations.”
Federal trial of former Connecticut school construction chief Kosta Diamantis set for Monday
Four years after a federal subpoena led to alleged
irregularities in the oversight of several Connecticut school construction
projects, a former seven-term member of the state House of Representatives will
fight the charges in Bridgeport federal court starting Monday, facing up to a
potential 20 years in prison for bribery,
extortion and lying to investigators.
Konstantinos "Kosta" Diamantis, 69, was a veteran
lawmaker from Bristol who jumped from the General Assembly to Gov. Dannel
Malloy's budget office. There, he ran statewide school building projects until
his October 2021 resignation from the Lamont administration, and was
arrested in May 2024 on 22 criminal charges. The allegations include
14 counts of making false statements to law enforcement officials.
Charges include taking tens of thousands of dollars in
bribes and kickbacks Diamantis coerced and accepted from Acranom Masonry Inc. of
Middlefield and the owner of a consultant firm that hired his daughter,
according to authorities.
Jury selection was scheduled to be completed Friday before
U.S. District Court Judge Stefan R. Underhill, with well-known defense lawyer Norman
Pattis representing Diamantis. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan
Francis and David Novick have a list of dozens of potential witnesses,
including three contractors – Salvatore Monarca, John Duffy and Antonietta Roy
– who already have pleaded guilty in connection with the case.
Pattis on Thursday asked for a delay in the case because the
federal budget shutdown "creates a risk that jurors will regard this trial
as so important that it must proceed while those otherwise dependent on the
government for salaries and benefits are required to go without. ... Finally,
the government shutdown reflects a passionate disagreement about how federalism
should function in the United States, a theme likely to emerge in this case,
which involves a federal prosecution of state officials performing state
jobs."
At about 5 p.m. Thursday, the court posted that Underhill,
after a 14-minute telephone conference and hearing with the lawyers, denied the
delay. Generally, government shutdowns do not affect federal courts.
Pattis on Thursday also added Gov. Ned Lamont to
Diamantis' list of potential witnesses.
Pattis did not return requests for comment Thursday. In late
August, he filed a motion in attempt to prohibit the three guilty pleas from
reaching jurors in the case.
"Permitting the jury to learn of these pleas would
unfairly prejudice the defendant," Pattis wrote. "Mr. Diamantis
challenges what he regards as a gap in the law and raises the following
question: Can a principal of a closely held corporation be guilty of
the crime of trying to harm himself? It simply defies logic to say
that a person extorts himself."
Monarca and Duffy, executives at Acranom Masonry, were
involved with multimillion-dollar subcontracts at Weaver High School in
Hartford and Birch Grover Primary School in Tolland. The criminal case against
Diamantis includes charges that he threatened to end or reduce Acranom's role
in the projects if he wasn't paid promptly.
"... And I always usually work at 5% of total, just
FYI," the federal prosecutors quoted Diamantis in a pretrial summary of
the case. "I'm asking for reasonable numbering on the team,"
Diamantis wrote when a $44,000 kickback was late, prosecutors claim.
"Being on the team had value and it's not zero. 50 (thousand dollars) is
fair. Zero is an insult to my character."
The prosecutors claim Diamantis "pressured"
Tolland to hire D'Amato
Construction Co. of Bristol as the project manager for the Birch Grove
project. Diamantis became the head of school construction in May 2018.
Prosecutors' evidence includes text messages, emails, bank deposit records,
municipal records, contracts, receipts and testimony from witnesses and alleged
co-conspirators, prosecutors said. Roy was the owner of Construction Advocacy Professionals (CAP)
of Preston.
Witnesses
could include Josh Geballe, the former commissioner of the Connecticut
Department of Administrative Services; Stavros Mellekas, the former head of the
Connecticut State Police; Thea Montanez, a former Hartford chief operating
officer, now an adviser to Gov.
Ned Lamont; Luke Bronin, the former Hartford mayor; Leslie
Torres-Rodriguez, the former Hartford school superintendent; as well as state
employees who worked with Diamantis, and owners and employees of several
construction and architectural firms in Connecticut.
"As with Acranom, Diamantis induced Roy to make
payments from CAP both under color of official right (namely, in exchange for
helping CAP get work on projects in Tolland, New Britain and Hartford) and
through fear of economic loss (namely, by threatening to blackball CAP in the
school construction industry)," the prosecution's pretrial summation says.
Authorities claim Diamantis pressured Roy into hiring his
daughter, Anastasia, for an administrative job at $45 per hour.
"In exchange for Roy’s agreement to help his daughter,
in April 2019, Diamantis suggested that the town of Tolland hire CAP as a
construction administrator for the ongoing Birch Grove project,"
prosecutors said. "Understanding that her business’ success depended on
keeping Diamantis happy, on July 8, 2019, Roy wrote a $1,000 check to Diamantis
on behalf of CAP, which he cashed two days later."
The firm entered into a $460,000 contract with Tolland. By
October 2019, CAP had a $115-per-hour contract with the city of New Britain. By
the end of April 2020, CAP had a $1.7 million contract to administer work at
Bulkeley High School.
The government's list of potential witnesses includes
Anastasia Diamantis and Michelle Dixon, a state grant manager.
During interviews with FBI agents, Diamantis denied
recommending CAP for the Tolland project; denied recommending D'Amato
Construction for work in Tolland; and denied helping any businesses obtain
school construction work, among other alleged false statements.
Region 15 panel recommends building new schools over renovating old ones in Southbury
SOUTHBURY — A group charged with assessing the future of
Region 15’s two oldest school buildings has recommended constructing new
schools rather than renovating the existing ones.
The Feasibility Study Committee’s
preferred options for updating Gainfield and Pomperaug elementary
schools in Southbury include:
combining the two schools on a new campus; constructing new buildings on
the existing school sites; or building a new Pomperaug Elementary
School at a new location, while Gainfield would get a new building at
its existing Old Field Road site, according to Jeffrey
Wyszynski, a principal at Tecton Architects, the firm hired to oversee the
study.
All three of the preferred options reflect an emphasis on
new construction and the school district’s larger needs, Wyszynski said at
the board's Sept. 29 meeting.
The committee discussed a variety of issues related to the
possible projects, including disruptions to students and staff, quality of the
educational facilities, long-term planning and what’s best for students.
Officials emphasized that the Board of Education for the
school district that includes Southbury and Middlebury has
not decided which option to pursue.
When assessing the value of renovating as new versus new
construction, several factors should be considered, Wyszynski said. For
example, a renovation project would include spending more time looking at the
condition of the building as well as costs of installing temporary education
facilities.
Hence, the committee’s preferred options included a combined
school, with a total cost projected to be $147 million. After state
reimbursements, the anticipated cost to Region 15 would be around $78 million,
Wyszynski said.
Meanwhile, building two new separate buildings at the
existing sites would come at a total cost of $166 million. The projected cost
to the school district would be $87 million.
The third option of relocating Pomperaug and building a
new Gainfield at its existing home would come with an expected total cost of
$163 million, with an expected $86 million cost for the district.
Meanwhile, an option to renovate the two existing buildings
carries a projected $159 million price tag. The total cost to the district
would be $83 million, Wyszynski said.
John Michaels, the Southbury Board of Finance chair who
sat on the feasibility committee, said there wasn't a significant cost
difference between renovation and new construction.
For a few dollars more a month to the average taxpayer, it
was “a no-brainer,” Michaels said.
“It’s more about education than money,” he said.
When the school district submits its school construction
grant application for the project it chooses, it will need to show projected
enrollment over an eight-year period, Wyszynski said.
Enrollment at both schools is projected to slowly grow
over that time, Wyszynski said. Current projections show at Pomperaug,
enrollment may increase from 395 students in 2024 to 452 by 2032, he said.
Meanwhile, Gainfield is expected to grow from 319 students to 375 over the same
time frame.
“What you can see without a doubt is that there's still a
slow and steady increase across the board,” Wyszynski said.
Meanwhile, a new school construction project could allow the
district the ability to relocate students from its Middlebury schools, which
Superintendent Joshua Smith previously said are overcrowded.
Mew facilities might allow the possibility of “pulling 80
students out” of a school such as Long Meadow Elementary School, “to give them
some more capacity to function the way that they would like to,” Wyszynski
said.
Work begins on $95M LEARN magnet school in Waterford
Sofis Acosta Silva
Waterford — Work at the former Southwest School, which shut down in 2011, has started as crews begin environmental remediation, part of a $95 million project to build a new regional magnet school campus for children from pre-K to second grade.
The abatement process, which involves removing any asbestos-covered materials and any other contamination in the building, is the first step in the site’s transformation.
LEARN, the regional education service center, purchased the closed school from the town for $770,000 and is undertaking the project. Executive Director Kate Ericson said the center was looking to own its own building as a way to take control of its long-term future in town.
The state has approved $90 million in bonding for the project. Ericson credited former state Rep. Kathleen McCarty with helping LEARN secure the funding. LEARN will fund the remainder.
After the abatement, construction will begin in January, and the new campus is expected to open in August 2027.
Ericson said LEARN, which already runs four magnet schools across southeastern Connecticut, is using the opportunity to bring back a middle school and reenvision what is possible for one of its magnet schools.
The centerpiece for the multifaceted campus will be the Early Learning Magnet School, serving children from pre-K through second grade. That program will connect directly to New London’s Regional Multicultural Magnet School, which will expand to Grades 3-8.
“That way, parents have a full pathway from pre-K to Grade 8 if they choose to stay with a LEARN school,” Ericson said.
In addition, the campus will include two specialized regional classrooms for students with individualized education plans.
Ericson said she understood special education was a “pain point” in the region and wanted to expand beyond the Ocean Avenue LEARNing Academy in New London to create a more flexible program.
“It is truly an example of how we’re trying to support the region by creating enough space for students who aren’t being successful and need something a little more restrictive than their public schools can offer,” she said.
Recognizing southeastern Connecticut as a “child care desert,” the campus will also feature a new program called Creating Connections, which will provide 58 seats for children under the age of 3. The program will be tuition-based, with some state-supported scholarships available.
“You know, the magnet school serves students and families in a unique way,” Ericson said. “But it really is to help the workforce. We know when people don’t have high-quality day care options, they can’t work.”
Magnet schools, Ericson said, are structured around themes to create a diverse and engaging learning environment that draws students from multiple districts. LEARN already operates schools with marine science and early childhood themes. The new museum-themed campus will join that network while expanding opportunities for families.
Ericson noted that community input also shaped the project. Families from the current Friendship School, which will move into the new facility once complete, were invited to share feedback on the building design, naming and vision.
Through that process came the building’s formal name: Early Learning Magnet School.
“There’s just a lot of small parts that are coming together, but we’ve been very fortunate,” Ericson said. “We just feel really fortunate to be able to do this and to be able to have a showcase of a school that allows parents to have a high-quality program.”