Massive tunnel 200 feet below Hartford is complete, but still waiting to go live
HARTFORD — The Metropolitan
District Commission’s four-mile long tunnel that’s 200 feet
underneath Hartford and West Hartford is on
track to start operating in 2026, but hinges on the completion of a $114
million pump station.
The tunnel, which will hold excess water during storms
before releasing it to the treatment center, began construction in 2018 and is
now finished.
But before it can do what MDC wants it to do, work
needs to finish on a new pump station on Brainard Road in Hartford
that will operate the tunnel.
Nick Salemi, MDC’s communications and public relations
manager, said the tunnel — which he said is the first of its kind in the
state — is one way to accomplish their Clean Water Project goal.
“The whole project is to eliminate combined sewer
overflows,” Salemi said. “There’s different techniques to do it. One is digging
in the street — where in Hartford and all the older cities have one pipe that
has stormwater and wastewater. You dig up the ground and you replace one pipe
with two. Another way is this tunnel method.”
The tunnel, which runs from the South Meadows area of
Hartford and into West Hartford, will keep MDC’s treatment center from getting
overwhelmed with water during major storms by holding onto the water until the
treatment center is ready to take on the water.
“It’s a big pipe,” Salemi said. “What this is supposed to
do, it will store the wastewater and storm water, and holds it down 200 feet
underground until you can release it in a more controlled manner when the storm
is over so the treatment center doesn’t get overwhelmed.”
Salemi said the project is one of many MDC has put into
place over the last 15 years “to eliminate combined sewer overflows
and reduce nitrogens for cleaner waterways in the Connecticut River and
eventually the Long Island Sound.”
In the Hartford area, the project made sense.
“You can’t dig up every street in Hartford,” Salemi said.
“The tunnel is another way to do it.”
Salemi said MDC is targeting September or October for the
activation of the tunnel, which will collect stormwater from the southern part
of Hartford, West Hartford and Newington.
PODCAST: How a proposed natural gas pipeline in CT cuts across typical partisan politics
There are plenty of issues that are Republican vs. Democrat.
A natural gas pipeline project in Brookfield, Connecticut seems to buck the
trend.
WSHU’s Ebong Udoma spoke with CT Mirror’s John
Moritz to discuss his article, “In Brookfield, opposition to natural gas
project crosses party lines,” as part of the collaborative podcast Long Story
Short. Read John’s story here.
WSHU: Hello, John, this story appears to be a classic
example of NIMBY, not in my backyard. Is that what attracted you to it?
JM: I think what attracted me to this story was that
when we talk about natural gas expansion and natural gas pipelines in the
northeast, it’s often framed in a view that it’s environmentalist versus the
Trump administration or more conservative politicians who are concerned about
keeping down costs. And what I think this story showed is that the reality of
the situation is more complex when you look at the communities that have to
bear most of these projects. And you’re right, you know, some of the sentiment
can be described as, you know, nimbyism, or people concerned about the impacts
of their community, but that doesn’t follow along the typical left right divide
we often think about when talking about things like natural gas projects, or
even, as I’ve written about before, solar projects, which have gotten pushed
back in more blue communities where they’ve been trying to build.
WSHU: Now, let’s talk about the issue with natural gas
and why we have such a problem supplying natural gas to Connecticut.
JM: So, natural gas is not produced anywhere locally in
Connecticut or New England. It’s produced in places like Pennsylvania,
Texas,and even Canada, and it has to be shipped into the state along pipelines.
There are three major interstate pipelines serving Connecticut: the Tennessee,
the Iroquois, and the Algonquin systems. And in order to get more, all three
pipelines are currently operating at or near their capacity, particularly in
winter, when the demand for natural gas is higher. So in order to build or to
get any more gas into the state, we either have to build more pipelines or
expand the capacity of the existing pipelines, which is what this project, the
Iroquois project in Brookfield, is attempting to do.
WSHU: Now, could you tell us a little bit, give us a
little bit of background, what this project in Brookfield is all about? You’ve
touched on it a little bit.
JM: So in the town of Brookfield, which is just over
the New York border, there is currently a compressor station that consists of
two gas-fired compressors. So essentially, what this station is doing is it
takes a little bit of gas out of the pipeline, burns it to, you know, spin a
turbine and produce power, and then it uses that power to push more gas through
the pipeline. So it’s essentially compressing the gas and increasing the
capacity of the pipeline. What the Iroquois, which is the pipeline owner, wants
to do is essentially double the size of that facility, building two new
compressors in Brookfield that would allow it to push an additional 125 million
cubic feet of gas through the pipeline each day. That’s about an 8% expansion
of the pipeline’s overall capacity.
WSHU: Now, let’s talk a little bit about the politics
of Brookfield. This is a town that voted for the president.
JM: Yes, the town voted for President Trump in 2024.
It’s voted for the Republican in four of the last five elections. The town did
vote for former President Biden in 2020 and it has a Democratic majority on the
board of selectmen. So it’s not a dark red town by any means, but for
Connecticut. It’s certainly, you know, a more conservative community.
WSHU: It’s also the town where the Republican leader in
the Senate is from, Stephen Harding.
JM: Yes, so Steve Harding is the top Republican in the
Connecticut State Senate, and his point, which is the point made by a lot of
residents in this town, is that the project is being built by Iroquois, and
they’ve stated this publicly. Their intention is to sell the additional gas
that would flow through the pipeline to customers in New York. So the pipeline,
you want to think of a map, the pipeline kind of crosses diagonally across the
southwestern part of Connecticut, then it goes underneath Long Island Sound and
then pops up again in Long Island, and it runs West in Long Island and then
terminates in the Bronx, New York. So their purpose in this expansion is to
sell more gas to residents in Long Island and New York City, which opponents,
such as Steve Harding, have pointed out that Connecticut, they don’t see that
Connecticut or their community is getting the benefit from the project, even
though they’re the ones having to host it.
What makes that situation a little bit more complicated is
that the pipeline currently serves about 30% of the gas that flows through the
pipeline ends up going to either residential or commercial customers in
Connecticut or to fuel a handful of power plants in the state that are
producing electricity. An economist I spoke to said, you know, even if the
additional gas is being sold or is being intended to be sold to Long Island,
one, it doesn’t prevent Connecticut from purchasing that gas at some point in the
future. And in fact, the company says that gas will be available to Connecticut
on the majority of days, probably not in the winter, when the pipeline is at
the, you know, its most constrained point, but on the majority of the days
during the year, the company says this extra gas will be able to be available
to Connecticut customers. The other thing the economist mentioned is that, you
know, just by the factor of increasing the capacity, it will lower the cost of
the gas compared to the national average, essentially, which you know, would
both be a benefit to gas customers in the state, as well as to electric
customers who are paying to have that gas be used to fuel power plants.
WSHU: But the residents of the area are concerned about
safety.
JM: Exactly. So their concern is that this pipeline is
located about a third to about a half a mile away from a nearby middle school,
where a lot of the people in Brookfield send their children to school. In
addition, because the compressor station, as I mentioned, burns gas to fuel its
compression, that burning releases local air particulate matter emissions into
the air that would be released into the surrounding community. So that’s one of
the other points that they’ve raised concerns over.
WSHU: Now this also plays into interstate relationships
between New York and Connecticut. What’s Governor Ned Lamont’s position on
this? He’s a Democrat, and we’ve got a Democrat as governor in New York. What
are they saying about this?
JM: So Lamont has not weighed in directly on the
Iroquois compressor station expansion project. However, his Department of
Energy and Environmental Protection has issued draft permits, essentially
saying that unless anything changes, their plan at this point is to approve the
project. We’re awaiting the final release of those permits, which could come
around March or potentially later if legal actions stall that consideration.
But more generally speaking, Lamont has spoken with Governor Kathy Hochul in
New York about his desire to see more pipeline expansions, or pipeline projects
being built to serve Connecticut in New England, as I mentioned, you know, the
Iroquois and the other pipelines that serve our state, they pass through New
York before they come here. So in order to get that expansion built, you would
also need the approval of New York regulators. In the Iroquois case, New York
regulators have already approved and given all the permits on their end that
would allow the gas to flow into Connecticut, and now they’re waiting on
Connecticut to give the final approval to allow that gas to continue on its way
to Long Island. More recently, the New York regulators have taken a more
adversarial or a more cautious approach to another project known as the Constitution
pipeline. It wouldn’t come into Connecticut, but it would connect to the
Iroquois and the Tennessee pipeline, the other two serving the Connecticut and
New England economies, and it would essentially serve as a direct conduit
bringing gas up from Pennsylvania into those pipelines so that they could
service New England.
WSHU: So bottom line, what do you think is going to be,
what’s, what’s going to happen here? Because of this, there’s a lawsuit; as a
matter of fact, Save the Sound has filed a lawsuit on this whole issue. So
where do we stand? Is there going to be any movement?
JM: It’s hard for me to say what will happen on this
particular project, but I think what the opposition in Brookfield has shown us
is that, you know, in order for this to happen, pipelines to be built, they
have to be built across communities that aren’t necessarily the direct
beneficiary of the pipeline. And if, as you know, Republicans and some
Democrats, including Lamont, want to see an increase in natural gas, it’s going
to require cooperation between the states and the federal government to
overcome some of these local concerns. Environmentalists, I would point out, a
lot of people who are concerned about the climate do not want to see these
pipelines being expanded or more natural gas being brought into the state, and
they have come down on the side of the local residents who are also opposed to
the project.
WSHU: So it’s not something you can place different
people in. It’s all jumbled up. And it really comes down to what your interests
are, rather than what your politics is.
JM: Yeah, I think it shows that local interests on
these types of energy projects really kind of jumble the political spectrum.
And it creates, you know, in certain circumstances, a set of odd bedfellows in
terms of who we find supporting these projects and who we find in the
opposition.
$250M improvements at CT airport aimed at future growth. See what it means for passengers.
A
major concourse expansion at Bradley
International Airport is expected to open soon, adding three new gates
— the centerpiece of $250 million in construction projects framed as
positioning Connecticut’s largest commercial airport for future growth, airport
officials say.
The expansion of Terminal A is part of a two-level,
80,000-square-foot structure tucked behind the Sheraton
Hotel. The project got underway in 2023 and was partially funded by $120
million in federal transportation grants, including from the federal
infrastructure legislation. The balance will be paid for from airport revenue
and passenger facility charges, up to $4.50 per passenger boarding an aircraft.
“All these projects position Bradley for future growth and
will better serve our growing passenger base,” Michael W. Shea, executive
director of the Connecticut Airport
Authority, which oversees Bradley’s operations, said recently. “We are
extremely proud to showcase them to our passengers, local community and
Connecticut visitors.”
The concourse expansion includes two new storefronts with
nearly 2,500-square feet of space for a store and a dining establishment, both
as-yet unannounced. Seating for waiting passengers have more convenient
charging stations. New modern restrooms were built with privacy stalls that
include more room for luggage.
The construction projects follow a
$210 million ground transportation center that opened in 2022. The
center consolidated car rental businesses a structure that is connected to the
airport’s terminal, allowing for easier pick-up and drop-off. The center added
850 spaces for much-needed parking.
The airport is now planning to use the 13-acre swath of land that once accommodated rentals cars for a massive parking expansion to add another 2,000 spaces. Planning is now underway for that that project to relieve a looming parking crunch amid route expansion.
The concourse expansion at Bradley comes as the airport
served 6.66 million arriving and departing passengers in 2025, according to the CAA. That
is 1.3% shy of the most recent peak of 6.75 million in 2019, prior to plunge in
travel during the pandemic. In 2020, in the teeth of Covid, arriving and
departing passengers fell to 2.36 million.
The number of passengers in 2025 was essentially flat,
compared with 2024, the CAA reported.
In recent remarks at a ribbon-cutting for the concourse
expansion, Gov.
Ned Lamont hailed to construction, noting that the airport was
integral to the state’s future.
“A strong transportation system that includes an easily
accessible robust airport is key to a state’s economic success and its ability
to strengthen businesses and grow jobs,” Lamont said. He also praised the
state’s Congressional delegation for securing crucial federal grants.
The imminent opening of the new concourse follows the recent
debut of two new exit corridors added to the east and west sides of the main
terminal. The two new exits, the airport says, provide more direct access to
baggage claim, car rentals, ground transportation and shuttles. The exits were
designed with “meet-and-greet” area, with seating and arrival monitors.
The old center exit stairwell is permanently closed and
reconfigured to expand the security checkpoint area adding more screening lanes
and passenger queuing space,
Under the concourse is a new, $185 million baggage checking
and screening system — a significant portion of the $250 million project.
The system — already in use at most airports in the country
— removes baggage screening from the lobby, opening up space for potential
future airline ticket counters.
At Bradley, when a passenger checks baggage at a ticket
counter, a one-mile conveyer belt carries the bags to the new screening area.
The system eliminates the step of passengers having to wait in the lobby area
for bags to be run through explosive detection machines that have now been
removed.
The new system first came into use in the fall. Bradley said
it checks an estimated two million bags a year.
“The opening of Bradley International Airport’s (new)
baggage screening facility, and now the new concourse space serves as a
capstone for the recent customer service enhancements we have unveiled since
last summer,” Shea said.