Glastonbury's K2 Infrastructure Builds Reputation By Finding Better Ways
CEG
K2 Infrastructure Group Inc. hasn't been around nearly as
long as many of the heavy civil contractors it competes against in Connecticut.
That hasn't stopped the Glastonbury, Conn.-based company
from taking on some very large and complicated projects.
Founded in 2021, K2 has quickly established itself as a
contractor willing to tackle difficult highway, earthwork, utility, drilling
and retaining-wall projects — often by looking at how the work was originally
designed and asking a simple question:
Is there a better way to do it?
That approach is clearly evident on a major Connecticut
Department of Transportation project along Route 44 in Norfolk, Conn., where K2
proposed an alternative construction method that substantially reduced
excavation and helped shorten the project's schedule.
It also can be seen in some of the equipment K2 puts to
work.
When the company needed to move thousands of yards of
material behind a massive retaining wall through an access area only about 8
ft. wide, Vice President Pedro Soares turned to Able Tool & Equipment and Wacker
Neuson for an unconventional solution — large articulated site dumpers
capable of carrying substantial loads through an area where conventional trucks
simply couldn't operate.
For Soares, that's K2.
“We love the most difficult, hard jobs and come up with
better ways to do it,” he said.
Experience Behind Young Company
Although K2 was established in 2021, the experience behind
the company goes back decades.
Owner Phil Karsen had spent approximately 40 years in the
construction industry and had extensive heavy civil experience before starting
K2. Soares also had worked his way through the industry, beginning as a laborer
and later becoming a foreman.
When Karsen formed K2, he reached out to Soares, who
initially joined the company as a foreman.
It didn't stay small for long.
One of K2's first major undertakings involved work on an
approximately $37 million interchange project at Exit 11 along Interstate 84.
K2 partnered with Rizzo Electrical Contractors on the CTDOT award-winning
project.
Karsen's experience and the relationships both men had
developed throughout their careers allowed the new company to start at a level
that normally would take a contractor years to reach.
“You build these relationships with people and you do what
you say you're going to do and you're honest with people,” Soares said.
From there, K2 continued to build its resume, including work
along Interstate 95 in East Lyme.
The company today performs road construction, retaining
walls, drilling, drainage, sewer and water work and other heavy civil
construction. It also established its own drilling division, allowing K2 to
self-perform soil nails, micropyles and other specialty foundation and
stabilization work.
K2 employs approximately 25 people directly, with its
workforce growing substantially when subcontractors are included on major
projects. The company also has developed its own equipment fleet.
But Soares has little interest in growing simply for the
sake of getting bigger.
K2's relatively small management structure is intentional.
“I think we're pretty good where we're at,” Soares said.
“Grow a little bit more, but you only get too big and then it's a big monster
to feed.”
That philosophy gives K2's senior management unusually
direct involvement in its projects.
Karsen oversees the ownership and financial side of the
business, while Soares is heavily involved in operations, safety, equipment,
employees and day-to-day project execution.
It is a structure that Rocco Micelotta of Able Tool &
Equipment believes is one of K2's greatest strengths.
According to Micelotta, there is very little wasted motion
within the company. Senior management is directly involved with the work, and
the company's resources are concentrated on completing its projects.
“They compete against much larger companies,” Micelotta
said. “The top people are intimately involved in the projects.”
Looking at Projects Differently
K2's willingness to challenge conventional construction
methods has become another defining characteristic.
Soares said the company spends considerable time reviewing
plans and considering whether there is a safer, faster or more efficient way to
perform the work.
“We spend a lot of time on redesigning and looking at better
ways and more efficient ways,” he said.
That philosophy has been particularly evident on CTDOT
Project 0097-0095 along Route 44 in Norfolk.
The project was awarded to K2 in April 2024 for
approximately $37.2 million and includes replacement of retaining walls,
stabilization of the northern slope along Route 44, roadway reconstruction,
drainage improvements and utility work.
The existing rubble masonry retaining walls had deteriorated
to the point that their integrity was compromised, creating the need to
stabilize the slope rising from the highway toward Center Cemetery.
It is a difficult location.
The roadway is squeezed between the steep slope and river,
with limited access and little room for construction equipment. The slope rises
approximately 60 ft. in places, while one of the retaining-wall sections
extends approximately 1,300 ft.
Rather than simply build the project exactly as originally
designed, K2 proposed a different approach.
The original design called for a mechanically stabilized
earth wall requiring substantially more excavation into the hillside. K2
proposed a soldier-pile-and-lagging system using drilled casings, piles, soil
nails, tiebacks and other stabilization methods.
CTDOT accepted the alternative.
The result reduced the amount of excavation required and
helped make it possible to work through more of the winter.
CTDOT subsequently announced that the project's anticipated
completion had been moved ahead by approximately two years — from 2028 to 2026.
For K2, that is what innovation is supposed to accomplish.
The objective isn't to do something differently simply for
the sake of being different. It is to reduce excavation, shorten schedules,
improve safety and ultimately deliver better value to the project owner.
“We'll give time back,” Soares said. “Those are substantial
savings for the DOT.”
Eight-Foot-Wide Problem
Even after K2 developed a more efficient way to construct
the wall, another problem remained.
How do you efficiently place large quantities of backfill
behind a retaining wall when you have only about 8 ft. of working width?
At portions of the project, conventional triaxle trucks
simply could not get behind the wall. Skid steers could fit, but their limited
carrying capacity would have required an enormous number of trips.
Soares needed something between the two.
That's where Able Tool & Equipment and Wacker Neuson
entered the picture.
K2 had already developed a relationship with Able Tool and
its president, Derek Bauer. Soares knew Bauer from his earlier years in the
industry, and after K2 was established, the relationship expanded considerably.
On an earlier East Lyme project, K2 placed an approximately
$250,000 order with Able Tool for generators, pumps,
concrete buckets
and other equipment.
For a newly established contractor, that required trust on
both sides.
“We gave him our word, and we paid him on time,” Soares
said. “We still do. And that's how we built our relationship with Derek.”
That relationship has continued to grow.
K2 operates without a full-time mechanic for its smaller
equipment and relies heavily on Able Tool for service and support of small engines,
tools and specialty equipment.
More importantly, Soares said Able is willing to work
through unusual equipment problems with him rather than simply sell what
happens to be sitting in inventory.
That became particularly important in Norfolk.
Wacker Dumpers Provide the Answer
Soares contacted Able Tool looking for a way to move
material safely through the extremely narrow area behind the wall.
The initial solution was a smaller Wacker Neuson dumper.
It didn't take Soares long to realize the concept worked —
but he wanted more production.
“Second day in, I was like, 'I want a bigger one. And I want
two here,'” he said.
Able Tool responded by supplying Wacker Neuson DV90 Dual
View dumpers.
The DV90 occupies an unusual position between compact
material-moving equipment and much larger articulated haul trucks. According to
Wacker Neuson, the machine offers a payload of approximately 19,842 lbs., or 9
metric tons, and a heaped skip capacity of approximately 6 cu. yds. It measures
approximately 95 in. wide.
For K2's application, however, capacity was only part of the
attraction.
The DV90 features a 180-degree rotating operator station.
Instead of driving into the confined area and then attempting to turn the
entire machine around, the operator can rotate the seat and controls and drive
back out while facing the direction of travel.
From within the all-glass cab and rotating operator station,
the dumper operators could work very closely and safely to laborers and workers
climbing up and down the hill because of excellent visibility. It would have
been too close and unsafe to do with larger trucks. Also, dumpers allow anyone
to run them with no special licensing.
That was particularly important on the steep, narrow haul
route K2 had created behind the retaining wall.
“There was no place to turn around,” Soares said.
K2 ultimately put two dumpers into the operation.
Material could be loaded at the lower end, carried along the
narrow route and placed behind the wall, where another machine graded the fill.
K2 also created a pull-off area that allowed the two dumpers to pass one
another.
The result was essentially a small material-handling
assembly line.
An excavator
loaded the dumper, the operator hauled the material behind the wall, the load
was dumped and graded and the dumper returned for another load.
Back and forth, all day.
The system allowed K2 to move considerably more material per
cycle than it could have handled with skid steers while operating in a location
inaccessible to conventional trucks.
For Micelotta, the application is a good example of what
happens when K2's approach to construction is combined with Able Tool's
approach to equipment.
Soares understood precisely what he was trying to
accomplish. Able Tool helped find equipment capable of making it happen.
Able Relationship Goes Beyond Equipment
The Wacker Neuson dumpers aren't the first example of that
relationship.
When K2 expanded into drilling and soil-nail work, it needed
a specialized grout plant. The readily available units weren't large enough for
what Soares wanted.
Rather than settle for something that didn't fit the
application, Soares and Able Tool continued working through the problem until a
larger custom system could be sourced. K2 and Able worked together with
Chemgrout to determine what would work best and what parts the company would
stock on-hand.
That type of problem-solving is important to K2.
“When I call, I want something, I get it,” Soares said.
“They know me personally. They know we're going to pay. I know I'm going to get
the product.”
He added that the real value of a strong vendor becomes
apparent when the original plan doesn't work.
“If we're in some type of issue and they can't get the
product, we can talk through it and keep moving on the project,” he said.
Downtime is something Soares takes particularly seriously.
When K2 established its drilling operation, for example, he
asked what components were most likely to fail and stocked duplicates at the
job site. When parts eventually failed, crews could make repairs immediately
rather than wait for replacements.
“We used it all,” Soares said. “And we had no downtime
besides the time it took us to drive a mile to pick up the tool or the piece
that broke, replace it, put it back and go back to work.”
Able Tool plays a similar role by maintaining the service
capabilities and replacement equipment necessary to keep K2 working.
“If the Wacker breaks, they're there,” Soares said.
Lean By Design
For a contractor performing projects approaching $40
million, K2's operation can be surprisingly understated.
The company doesn't maintain a large corporate staff. It
doesn't even devote significant resources to a website or social media
presence.
That isn't where K2 wants to put its energy.
The emphasis is on the work.
Micelotta recalled first visiting K2 and expecting a much
larger corporate operation based on the scope of projects the company performs.
Instead, he found a lean organization where management's
attention and resources were concentrated almost entirely on executing
projects.
That, he believes, helps explain how a company founded only
five years ago can compete successfully with contractors that have been
established for generations.
Hard work is part of it. Experience is another.
But perhaps the biggest difference is K2's willingness to
look at a difficult project and refuse to assume the traditional method is
necessarily the best method.
That can mean redesigning a retaining wall. It can mean
establishing an in-house drilling operation. Or it can mean looking at an
8-ft.-wide path behind a massive retaining wall and figuring out how to turn it
into an efficient haul road.
“We love the most difficult, hard jobs,” Soares said.
And then K2 looks for a better way to build them.
Traffic shift coming to I-95 south as part of $137M project
Southbound traffic on Interstate 95 near Exit 43
in West Haven will
soon shift to newly built lanes as a major
construction project continues on the highway.
The traffic shift is scheduled to occur during the weekend
of Nov. 7 and Nov. 8, the state
Department of Transportation said Tuesday.
The overall project includes widening a portion of I-95 and
replacing decades-old bridges that carry the highway over Metro-North
Railroad’s New Haven Line and First Avenue in West Haven. Construction
started last year and is expected to wrap up in fall 2027, according to the project’s website.
The plans for the project include an auxiliary lane from the
Exit 44 on-ramp to the Exit 43 off-ramp on the southbound side of the highway.
On the northbound side, the plans call for lengthening the Exit 43 on-ramp’s
acceleration lane to make it easier for cars to merge.
The federal government is providing 90% of the funding for
the project, which the state DOT has said is expected to cost about $137
million.
The Exit 43 on-ramp to I-95 north, which is on First Avenue
in West Haven, has been closed since last year because of the project, and it
is expected to remain closed until November 2027.
There are two detour routes that drivers can take to get
onto the highway in New
Haven.
Connecticut’s highways have a surprising split: Interstates are good, other roads lag
For all the complaints about Connecticut
roads, the state's highways are not quite as bad as their reputation might
suggest a new report has found.
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The Federal
Highway Administration's latest national road report finds that most of
Connecticut's major highways have good or acceptable ride quality. The state's
interstates fare particularly well, with 84% rated good and just 2% rated
poor. But there is a striking difference once drivers leave the
interstate.
When you include major non-interstate highways, just 54% of
pavement is rated good and 11% is classified as having poor ride quality,
according to the Federal Highway Administration's "Our Nation's Highways
2026" report. The figures are based on 2024 pavement data.
Within
Connecticut, the roads most likely to feel rough are not necessarily the
ones carrying the most traffic.
The federal data point toward urban and non-interstate roads
as the bigger source of rough rides, while the Connecticut Department of
Transportation says its own data show the state's pavement network is facing a
more gradual problem: Pavement is getting worse, even though it has not yet
reached the point the state considers "poor."
"We have a team that annually collects, processes,
analyzes, and reports on pavement conditions," DOT spokesperson Eva
Zymaris said.
The department measures ride quality, rutting and cracking
and uses deterioration models to decide where pavement work will provide the
greatest return on investment.
Where the rough roads are
The FHWA's measure uses the International
Roughness Index, a measurement of how much a vehicle moves vertically as it
travels along the horizontal road.
An IRI below 95 is considered good or very good ride
quality. A measurement below 170 is considered acceptable. At 170 or above,
FHWA classifies the pavement as having poor ride quality.
That measure points to a familiar pattern in Connecticut:
Rougher roads are more likely to be found outside the interstate system and in
more heavily urbanized areas. DOT said urban areas face several factors that
can accelerate deterioration or make roads feel rougher.
"Urban areas have many intersections, driveways, and
utilities that can impact ride quality," Zymaris said.
Heavy traffic and trucks also take a toll.
"Heavily urbanized areas would generally see higher
roughness due to several factors, including heavier truck traffic,"
she said. "Additionally, the increased traffic found in a more
urbanized area tends to cause pavement to deteriorate faster than lower traffic
areas."
Connecticut's weather adds another complication. The
state's freeze-thaw cycles accelerate pavement deterioration, DOT said,
while the age of a roadway and deferred maintenance can make the eventual
repair substantially more expensive.
The department's pavement network is old by design. The
structure on which Connecticut's highways are paved was constructed nearly 50
years ago on average, although the surface itself is much newer, about seven
years old on average, according to DOT's 2025 Transportation Asset Management
Plan.
That distinction matters. A road can have an old underlying
pavement structure while still receiving a relatively new asphalt surface, and
Connecticut has a lot of pavement to maintain.
DOT maintains about 3,700 miles of roads. Municipalities
maintain another 17,480 miles.
Of the state-maintained roads, about 1,406 miles are part of
the National Highway System, including 346 interstate miles. The vast majority
of Connecticut's roads are therefore outside the system measured in the FHWA's
statewide comparison.
The interstate divide
Of Connecticut's Interstate pavement, 84% had good ride
quality in 2024, 14% was acceptable and 2% was poor, according to the FHWA
report. For the entire National Highway System, the numbers were 54% good,
35% acceptable and 11% poor though that does not mean 11% of
Connecticut's NHS pavement is considered "poor" by DOT's
standards; the two agencies are measuring different things.
DOT's Pavement Condition Index incorporates cracking,
rutting, drainage, disintegration and ride. FHWA's figures in the 2026 report
are specifically a measure of pavement smoothness.
DOT's own 2023 data showed 74% of interstate pavement in
good condition, 26% fair and 0.1% poor. For non-interstate NHS pavement, 41%
was good, 57% fair and 1.4% poor.
The department said interstates tend to fare better because
they are typically designed to accommodate greater traffic volumes. That
generally means a more substantial pavement structure, DOT said, allowing more
time to pass before deterioration becomes apparent.
DOT also said it does not prioritize interstates over
everything else, instead, using different pavement treatments depending on the
type and condition of the roadway, selecting projects based on the expected
return on investment.
The department spends approximately $240 million annually on
pavement preservation and resurfacing, with additional funding for
rehabilitation projects that varies from year to year.
Better than the neighbors
According to the FHWA, Connecticut had 11% of its National
Highway System pavement classified as poor based on ride quality, far lower
than its neighbors. In Massachusetts 25% of the NHS highways are
classified as in "poor" condition, 20% in New York, 21% in New Jersey
and 32 % in Rhode Island. Nationally, about 10% of NHS pavement was
classified as poor.
Looking at just interstates, 84% of interstate roadways were
rated good, compared with 86% in Massachusetts and 78% in New Jersey. New
York's figure was 73%, while Rhode Island was at 70%.
DOT attributes some of that performance to a
pavement-preservation strategy that began decades ago as asphalt costs rose.
Zymaris said DOT has developed a "robust and
streamlined pavement preservation program" that covers numerous NHS miles
each year with overlay treatments.
That strategy, along with broader use of smoothness
requirements in construction, has helped maintain the network, DOT
said. Consistent funding also matters, according to the department.
"Reductions in funding, even short-term, significantly
impact the ability to maintain the roadway network cost-effectively,"
Zymaris said.
The future looks rough
There is, however, a warning buried in the state's own
projections: DOT's 2025 asset plan modeled what would happen to pavement
under its then-current $207 million annual budget for state-of-good-repair
work.
The percentage of interstate pavement rated good was
projected to fall from 74.2% in 2024 to 71.4% in 2028.
For non-interstate NHS pavement, the projected decline was
considerably larger, from 40.6% good in 2024 to 32.4% in 2028.
Across all DOT-maintained pavement, the department
projected the share in a state of good repair would fall from 77% in 2024 to
71% in 2028, though the state's goal is 80%.
DOT cautioned that those projections do not capture all
improvements funded through its broader capital program, meaning actual
performance is expected to be better than the model suggests.
"DOT is proud of the state and federal investments
being made in Connecticut to address infrastructure," Zymaris said.
"These investments represent a commitment to modernizing the state’s
transportation network, improving roadway safety, and ensuring infrastructure
can meet the needs of generations to come."
Following the pattern of Manchester,
East
Hartford is looking to modernize its downtown with traffic roundabouts, a
road diet and new pedestrian amenities.
The
$38 million overhaul is intended to reduce traffic accidents, make biking
and walking safer, and revitalize the stretch of Route 44 through the central
retail district. Plans are still fluid, but state officials said last week that
they’re looking to nail down a firm design.
With the state and federal governments picking up the cost, Mayor Connor Martin
sees the project as part of a wider campaign to strengthen the town and its
business base.
The past year has seen Walmart preparing to operate a
1.2-million-square-foot warehouse on Connecticut Boulevard, he said last week,
while the Simon Konover Corp. is pouring the foundation for a 150-unit
apartment complex along the Connecticut River. Port Eastside’s partners are
progressing toward a winter groundbreaking for work on the $90 million reuse of
111 Founders Plaza into a 19-story upscale apartment complex.
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loss?
“It’s ambitious, but they want to start in January,” Martin
said.
“Change is hard, but change is necessary. As local
residents, we know best how busy, how fast, and how difficult Main Street can
be to navigate or cross,” he said when the state Department of Transportation
publicly detailed the proposal.
“The proposed improvements are designed to make this major
corridor safer and more accessible for everyone—whether you’re walking, riding
a bike, or driving,” Martin said.
Because the nearly mile-long stretch of Main between Pitkin Street and Burnside Avenue is a state highway, the DOT will lead the project.
The current plan is to put in roundabouts at the Pitkin and
Burnside intersections, and make intersection improvements where Main passes
Bissell Street as well as Connecticut Boulevard. There would be a multi-use
trail replacing one lane of traffic, and sidewalks and crosswalks would be
improved, according to
consultants who gave an update at town hall on Oct. 7.
The town and DOT are encouraging residents to examine the
current plans and offer
comments or questions before Nov. 28.
Manchester for the past two years has been working on a
similar multimillion-dollar overhaul for its Main Street, looking to add two
roundabouts at high-traffic intersection along with a road diet, wider
sidewalks and a bike lane.
There has been pushback from some Manchester residents and
businesses that say they want to retain the layout that’s there: Four lanes of
traffic bordered on each side by parallel parking. But others support the
changes, saying the more car-centric configuration discourages pedestrians and
cyclists while making traffic more dangerous.
Martin said that so far, East Hartford residents and
businesses have been almost uniformly behind the Complete Streets proposal in
his town.
Martin trying to coordinate the DOT’s future construction
along Main with local initiatives, including the development of Bissell Street
as a pedestrian plaza.
Martin envisions new housing projects along with restaurants
as a part of reviving Main, where blight and neglect were steadily gaining
ground until former Mayor Mike Walsh began a revitalization drive.
A few of the key projects Walsh identified were Concourse
Park, a 402-unit apartment complex at the former Showcase Cinema site, and
National Development’s twin 1.2-million-square-foot mega-warehouses.
Despite recent news of the potential collapse of the
Concourse Park plan, East Hartford has been buoyed by success with the
warehouses. Lowe’s operates one; Wayfair was expected to use the second, but
pulled out. Last winter, though, Walmart paid $213 million for the second, and
is refitting it for more automated operations and plans to open this winter.
Several other projects are advancing, too, Martin said.
Progress at Konover’s Commerce Center is moving quickly; the company working on
the $48 million, market-rate apartment project along East River Drive, and
expects construction will take about a year and a half.
More than 10 new restaurants have moved into East Hartford
this year, and on Silver Lane a new one is on course to open at the
long-abandoned Pizza Hut building.