New $4 million roundabout in New London set to break ground next spring
John Penny
New London — The city’s latest roundabout project, this one
planned for the busy intersection of Broad and Williams streets used heavily by
bikers and pedestrians, is expected to break ground in the spring.
Bids for the $4 million state-funded project were opened
late last month and are due back on Sept. 18, Public Works Director Brian Sear
said on Wednesday.
Sear said planning for the roundabout, slated for 1.7 acres
bounded by Williams Park and a mix of businesses and historical properties,
began about four years ago with the city just in the last year securing the
necessary right-of-way easements around the four-way intersection.
Sear, who noted the intersection possessed a roundabout
until the 1940s, said the state Department of Transportation in July signed off
on the project, but only after an intensive design review, including those
related to proposed centerpiece elements.
“We worked hard to get this right and to make this
roundabout as effective and safe as possible — and not just the intersection
itself, but all the components,” he said.
The project, funded with state Local Transportation Capital
Improvement Program monies, calls for replacing antiquated signal lights and
poles — which would cost about $800,000 to upgrade — with a stamped-concrete
circle inside the intersection. Entrance streets will be narrowed, and new
sidewalks, wider curbs, better drainage and yield signs will be added.
A custom job
Sear said building a new roundabout is always a custom job
that takes into account a location’s geography, traffic patterns and
surrounding aesthetics. For instance, a roundabout introduced to Jefferson
Avenue in 2023 was aimed primarily to reduce the lines of idling vehicles that
would frequently back up near the high school.
Sear said despite the current traffic configuration on
Williams and Broad, with its dozens of possible turn options that can lead to a
dangerous travel route, vehicles tend to move at a fairly steady pace.
“What we do have is much more pedestrian and bike traffic
than Jefferson,” Sear said. “And roundabouts are the great traffic equalizer;
everyone gets a fair chance to move through.”
To address that non-vehicular movement, “splitter islands”
will be added to the location where pedestrians on crosswalks can take refuge
halfway across the intersection.
Crash data compiled by the Fuss & O’Neill civil
engineering firm found 16 accidents at the intersection from 2018 to 2020. Of
those crashes, 13 involved only property damage, while three included injuries,
including a 2020 fatality.
A piece of Venice in the middle
Sear said one piece of the project, its anchoring
centerpiece design, was the subject of several back-and-forth discussions with
state officials. He said those “vertical elements,” typically a flagpole, serve
to alert drivers to an upcoming roundabout and, hopefully, slow them down.
The Jefferson Avenue roundabout was built with a break-away
sail feature in its center that’s since been removed.
“It got a little ratty, so we’re replacing it,” Sear said.
State Siting Council approves public hearing for Plainfield trash plant
Sara Bedigian
Plainfield — The state Siting Council voted unanimously
Thursday to schedule a public hearing for the widely opposed plan for a
waste-to-energy trash plant.
Since the petition was filed to the council by SMART
Technologies on Aug. 7, the town, state Sen. Heather Somers and three dozen
residents have submitted requests for a public hearing. Somers, a Republican,
represents the 18th District, which includes Plainfield.
Siting Council member Khristine Hall said that “given the
size of this project, I think a public hearing is needed,” and made the motion
to schedule one.
The council is not required to hold a hearing.
SMART’s proposed waste-to-energy plant, if approved by the
Siting Council, would be constructed on 81 acres within a larger 506-acre sand
and gravel mine property owned by O&G Industries, which operates Rawson
Materials near the intersection of Norwich Road and Black Hill Road. The site
is undeveloped except for sand and gravel operations.
The facility would convert municipal solid waste into 45
megawatts of electric power and renewable natural gas.
The rest of the Siting Council agreed. Vice Chair John
Morissette said he looks forward to the public hearing to hear everyone’s
concerns. It has not been decided when the public hearing will take place.
SMART attorney Lee Hoffman told the Siting Council in an
Aug. 19 letter that the developer is not opposed to a public hearing and
welcomes “the opportunity to hear from members of the public regarding the
project and to answer any questions the Council or staff may have regarding the
project.”
Plainfield is holding a referendum Thursday from 6 a.m. to 8
p.m. at Town Hall for residents to vote on whether to allocate $250,000 of its
fund balance to hire attorneys to fight the trash plant.
In a town public information meeting last week, residents
continued to express their public health and environmental concerns about
the plant.
First Selectman Kevin Cunningham said Thursday that he is
glad the Siting Council decided to hold a public hearing to allow residents to
express their concerns.
He is encouraging residents to submit their comments to the
council before the Sunday deadline.
Cunningham said he has a special meeting with the
Northeastern Connecticut Council of Governments board at 11 a.m. Friday to
approve a resolution opposing the facility.
He said has also been in contact with three nearby towns on
whether they would want to help fund legal fees to fight the plant.
The Town of Scotland has a special Board of Selectman
meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday to discuss joining the opposition for the plant and
funding legal fees, with a motion to move it to a special town meeting for a
vote.
“We are trying to work together on this, and whatever money
comes in will be appreciated,” Cunningham said Thursday. He said Plainfield and
other towns do not want the trash plant.
The city initially pushed to installs for a ground
flush-mounted fountain for the Broad and Williams roundabout which Sear
described as having "a European look, like Venice or Paris.”
But the state declined to fund the idea.
“We came to a compromise to add in the main bid a series of
plantings in the middle, a sort of vegetive mix,” Sear said. “Then, the water
feature – which the city would have to fund if approved, is included in an
alternate bid package.”
The project is tentatively scheduled to begin on April 1.
There is no firm completion date.
“This is a historically interesting neighborhood,” Sear
said. “The intersection corners have historic houses from the 1860s and a
church, the old Martin Center and courthouse. We want to complement that
setting.”
Siting Council to review plan for 7.5-MW fuel cell in Hartford
The Connecticut Siting Council will review a construction
and management plan for FuelCell Energy’s proposed 7.5-megawatt fuel cell
facility in Hartford.
Homestead Fuel Cell 1 LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of
Danbury-based FuelCell Energy, submitted the Development and Management Plan in
July for the project at 235 Brainard Road.
The Siting Council is scheduled to consider the plan at its
Sept. 3 meeting.
The council approved the underlying project in March,
finding it would not have a substantial adverse environmental effect.
FuelCell Energy plans to install three 2.5-MW SureSource
3000 fuel cell units on a 0.76-acre leased site near the end of Brainard Road,
close to the Metropolitan District Commission’s wastewater treatment plant and
Hartford-Brainard Airport.
The facility would use natural gas to generate electricity
through non-combustion fuel cell technology and is expected to operate for 20
years. Under a power purchase agreement, the electricity would be sold to Eversource
Energy and United Illuminating Co.
The Brainard Road project replaces a larger facility that
FuelCell Energy had planned for Homestead Avenue.
The company was selected in 2018 through a state Department
of Energy and Environmental Protection request for proposals to develop an
8.4-MW fuel cell facility on Homestead Avenue. That project stalled over the
cost of extending natural gas infrastructure and was ultimately abandoned in
2024.
State regulators approved relocating the project to Brainard
Road in December 2024.
The council has until Sept. 26 to issue a final decision on
the construction and management plan.
If approved, construction is expected to begin this year and
take about 12 months.
The project’s cost has not been disclosed. The Siting
Council issued a protective order keeping information related to project costs,
cost recovery and pricing confidential.