Residents want noise mitigation on I-95 in Westport, Norwalk
WESTPORT — Neighbors are looking to the state to make I-95
quieter as part of an ongoing two-mile construction project in Westport and
Norwalk.
Westporter James McKay, who has lived in his current home
near I-95 for 22 years, wants the state Department of Transportation project on
Route 33 of I-95 to include noise mitigation components like those the state is
asking for in Greenwich, he said.
“If it is good enough for Greenwich, then it's good enough
for Westport,” McKay said.
The state recently nixed a $205 million improvement project
on I-95 in Greenwich that would have added noise mitigation components. Gov.
Ned Lamont said that he is going to direct the DOT to “revisit” the project and
find a “more comprehensive solution,” according to the
Greenwich Time.
McKay said the level of noise has been increasing over the
past two decades. He said his neighbors have been complaining about the noise for
years as well.
He blamed changing traffic patterns and commerce market
conditions for the rising noise levels.
There are no new noise walls included in the
Westport-Norwalk project, according to a public informational meeting
about the project in June. This project does not meet the criteria for
adding noise walls using federal funds, according to the meeting presentation.
It would have to be a completely new highway, lane expansion, change in
alignment or addition of new facilities for to be included.
A Norwalk resident asked why state funds could not be used
to add noise barriers in Norwalk during the meeting. Project officials said it
would take “an act by the state legislature.”
“As noted in our previous response and discussed in the
presentation, the allocation of state funds for new noise barriers at a new
location requires an act by the state legislature,” Brett Stark, a consultant
liaison engineer from BL Companies, said at the meeting in June. “A local
legislator must be the one to initiate the request, it is not the matter of DOT
requesting the funds.”
Stark said this is a safety improvement project.
The DOT proposal for this project includes installing a
concrete barrier, increasing the width of the shoulder, replacing the
guide-rail, as well as adding new lighting and a longer on-ramp on Interchange
16. It also includes updates to the drainage system, pavement, replacing the
bridge over Saugatuck Avenue and the “rehabilitation” of the bridges over
Franklin Street and the Saugatuck River, Stark said.
The construction will cost $98 million, with 90 percent paid
for by federal money and 10 percent from the state, according to the
informational meeting presentation. Back in June, the project was expected to
begin in late 2021 or early 2022 and completed by the fall of 2024.
McKay said the time to act on adding the noise features is
now since the project hasn’t been awarded yet.
Should construction noise reach 90 decibels or higher, the
construction team will make efforts to decrease noise levels, according to the
presentation.
The DOT and state Sen. Will Haskell, D-Westport, could not
be reached for immediate comment.
Gas and water pipeline project to begin in Wilton
WILTON — Aquarion Water and Eversource Energy are beginning
construction this month on 1.8 miles of new water pipeline and two miles of new
gas pipeline between New Canaan and Wilton.
Both pipelines will run along Route 106/New Canaan Road from
Old Kings Highway to Belden Hill Road. The joint project is expected to be
completed by December.
Two miles of 16-inch gas pipeline will be installed along
Route 106 between Wilton and neighboring New Canaan. Eversource Senior Project
Manager Ken Zembrzuski said the company has invested $9 million into the
project.
He said the pipeline is vital to strengthening and
protecting the natural gas distribution system, “particularly as the demand for
natural gas increases.”
Aquarion Water is choosing to “strengthen the resiliency” of
the existing Southwest Regional Pipeline by adding another parallel pipeline.
The Wilton phase of the project will start at the Belden Hill water tanks. Work
will then “proceed approximately 1.8 miles southwest to the New Canaan town
line at the Silvermine River,” according to Project Manager Dennis Fields.
Future work may be done in New Canaan to extend the pipe further southwest
through the town.
Burns Construction was awarded the contract for the project
and three crews from the firm will complete the work.
Wilton Coordinator of Community Affairs Sarah Gioffre
reiterated that this is a “year-long project” and that various town officials,
including Town Planner Michael Wrinn, Wilton Police Lt. Dave Hartman and
Department of Public Works Director Frank Smeriglio, have been working with
Aquarion and Eversource since last year to iron out specifics.
Route 106/New Canaan Road is a state-owned road, therefore
all work is officially authorized by the state.
However, town officials are requiring Aquarion and
Eversource to inform residents who live along New Canaan Road and its adjacent
streets about the project. The companies must also, per Gioffre, send updates
to local media and keep a section of their websites dedicated to the project
and provide updates as they come.
There will be a detour down Old Boston Road and Beldin Hill
Road, connected by Seir Hill, during the working hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Monday through Friday. All school bus stops will remain at their current
locations. The roadway will not be closed to school buses and emergency
vehicles, but all other vehicular traffic must follow the detour routes.
Gioffre also notes that residents should be given ample
opportunity to have their voices heard. She is encouraging residents to send
comments to Fields at dfields@aquarionwater.com or Zembrzuski at
kenneth.zembrzuski@eversource.com. All public comment will accepted through May
1.
Amazon developer offers $2.5M for 157-acre building site in Waterbury/Naugatuck
Pennsylvania-based Bluewater Property Group is offering
Waterbury and Naugatuck $2.5 million for a 157-acre site on the municipalities’
shared border, where the developer hopes to build a distribution facility for
Amazon.
Officials in both communities will vote on the
negotiated proposal in the coming weeks, but it contains a few caveats
before a deal is finalized.
Bluewater will require a deal on local property taxes, must
clear regulatory land-use reviews and must finish its own due diligence on site
conditions before a purchase is finalized, according to a written summary
shared with Waterbury’s Board of Aldermen ahead of its Monday meeting.
Representatives of Pennsylvania-based Bluewater will appear
at a meeting of Waterbury’s aldermen Monday night to explain basics of their
proposal, Mayor Neil O’Leary said. The company is still investigating the site
so it won’t be ready to share details of the facility's size.
“They want to build a substantial building,” O’Leary said Wednesday.
Gov. Ned Lamont said the proposal had the possibility to
create 1,000 jobs when Bluewater’s involvement was first announced in January.
Waterbury has sought for decades to develop a roughly
150-acre site it owns on either side of its shared border with Naugatuck. Plans
for a dog track, mall and other developments were raised, but always thwarted
due to difficult topography and a steep and difficult approach from Waterbury’s
South Main Street.
O’Leary partnered with Naugatuck Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess
to work out a plan to access the site through Naugatuck and share the tax
revenue from the resulting development. The borough of Naugatuck and Waterbury
jointly paid $390,000 in 2017 for a 10.5-acre property needed to complete the
access.
O’Leary said the land-sale proceeds will go to Waterbury’s
general fund, after Naugatuck is repaid $195,000 for its half of the 10.5-acre
purchase.
Prior Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s administration authorized a
$2.8 million grant to defray the costs of building an access road and utilities
into the property to further development prospects. That money has not yet been
tapped and the infrastructure not yet built. Officials want to tailor the
infrastructure to the development ultimately secured for the site.
Bluewater’s founders were among the senior management and
founders of KTR Capital Partners, a private equity fund that was sold to real
estate investment trust Prologis for $5.9 billion in May 2015. Bluewater has
repeatedly pursued projects for Amazon.
Bluewater is currently proposing Amazon facilities in
Galloway Township, New Jersey; and is building a 3.8 million-square-foot
warehouse in Johnston, Rhode Island, where a 20-year tax deal was approved for
the project, according to media reports.
Bluewater is also involved in an effort to build a $300
million, 2.8-million-square-foot, Amazon facility in Charlton, Massachusetts.
The project was approved last year for a tax-increment financing agreement
expected to save Amazon nearly $12 million in taxes over the agreement’s 10-year
lifespan. Charlton, meanwhile, expected to collect $65 million in new taxes and
fees over 20 years.
Solar and water construction key in the future of data center sustainability
It's estimated that the number of online devices will reach
29 billion in 2030, up from 18 billion in 2018. As a result, the global data
center market will grow, with some forecasts saying the market will reach $517
billion by 2030, up from $187 billion in 2020.
With the impressive expansion comes growing urgency—and
opportunity—to make data centers more sustainable.
Data centers accounted for an estimated 400 terawatt hours
in 2020, and in the U.S. alone, data centers consume 1.7 billion liters of
water per day. Today, a medium-sized data center uses 15 megawatts of power and
more water than two 18-hole golf courses.
"Everybody wants to make data centers more efficient
and sustainable," says Sean Mulligan, PCL's director of data centers and
mission critical. "The key is implementing greener practices while still
allowing the data center to operate at full capacity."
Boosting sustainability without compromising the performance
of the data center requires deep expertise in many fields, according to
Mulligan. These include sustainable power generation and transmission; data
center performance requirements and construction techniques; relevant local and
regional regulations; water treatment construction and more.
Every Solution Under the Sun
A construction partner with extensive experience in these
areas – such as PCL Construction - can make a big difference
for clients looking to build new data centers or retrofit existing ones to be
more environmentally friendly.
"There's a true complexity to the energy world,"
says Rodolfo Bitar with PCL. "You might not see solar fields next to a
data center for it to be using green energy. Colocation is not necessary for
solar power to reach a data center. Green energy is almost like the banking
system—you can pull money from any ATM, not only the branch where you deposit
it."
Bitar manages business development for PCL's solar work, which grew to close to $1 billion in new
work last year.
"We're always growing our expertise – for example,
we're currently exploring battery technology and other storage sources that
could help data centers stay powered during the night or days with less
sun," Bitar says.
The company is also working on another side of sustainable
data centers: conserving water used to cool down overheating servers. PCL's
Civil Infrastructure Division is leveraging its experience building water
treatment plants across the U.S. to develop cutting edge water filtration
systems that can help data centers achieve a net-zero use of water.
It's another reason why PCL's broad expertise and experience
is useful to clients. The team can leverage expertise from across sectors to
solve challenges and break new ground in the mission critical industry.
"The combination of solar, water and data center
experience is a rare find in the construction industry," says Patrick
Malone business development manager for PCL's Civil Infrastructure Division.
"It helps us to find win-wins for our clients and for the
environment."
"There's an ever-increasing demand. Coming up with
solutions to meet those demands is the beauty of this industry. Creativity and
expertise are both renewable resources."
Economic headwinds threaten construction's spring recovery
Jen A. Miller
After two years of pandemic-related fits and starts,
builders are set for a busy spring.
Construction and engineering spending reached $1.57
trillion in July 2021, according
to Deloitte, and revenue growth will likely accelerate in 2022. In a survey
of over 500 U.S. executives and other senior leaders in the field, Deloitte
also found that 92% characterize their business outlook as somewhat or very
positive, 23% higher than the previous year.
But this spring isn't all roses and sunshine. Supply chain
constraints and rising costs, in some cases exacerbated by pent-up COVID
demand, are making sourcing materials and sticking to budgets more
difficult.
"It just very hard for an industry that typically
operates on a small margin and has to go through competitive bidding process to
accurately predict what they're going to be paying or, as important, when those
materials are going to show up," said Brian Turmail, vice president
of public affairs and strategic initiatives at the Associated General
Contractors of America. "It's a really challenging time for what was
already a challenging time."
Supply chain, inflation woes
Problems sourcing materials, and the rising prices of those
materials continue to weigh on many construction sectors. In its March Construction
Quarterly Survey, the National Multifamily Housing Council found that 89%
of respondents were facing construction delays. They also found that 92% of
their members repriced deals over the last three months, with increases
averaging 25%.
"Continued volatility of both available materials as
well as pricing changes and significant cost impacts" are mostly to
blame, said Paula Cino, NMHC vice president for construction, development and
land use policy. "It doesn't seem to be a blip anymore."
Mark Luegering, senior vice president and chief operating
officer at Cincinnati-based Messer Construction, said that they're seeing
estimates go up 10% to 20% over original calculations due to supply issues
and inflation. The company is reworking budgets and doing value engineering to
keep jobs within budgets, and clients are willing to cut back and "make
adjustments in materials they need," he said. "Owners have been
very flexible and understanding."
Jodi Rennie, vice president and regional general manager for
Turner Construction Co.'s Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia and South
Jersey operations, said that Turner, like other firms, is facing supply chain
issues, but the firm has managed to mitigate some of those pressures because of
a strong supply chain division with more than 300 people — a division it
began more than a decade before the pandemic.
"They all focus on supply chain and where are hiccups
in supply chain," she said, and to see future challenges before they
become current problems. Turner also shares that information with clients, and
determines if they can pre-purchase materials and "maybe store it
somewhere to get our material to the site long before we need it."
Pent-up demand
While winter can affect building schedules, most contractors
have learned to plan for it, and build their schedules accordingly, said
Turmail. But a slightly more mild winter combined with pent-up COVID demand has
pushed up schedules, which has exacerbated supply chain issues, particularly
with concrete.
"We've got different parts of the country where
contractors are being told there's no concrete," he said. He's
received notices from groups in Georgia, Alabama and Arizona about the
problem.
"The above usual demand for concrete products during
the winter depleted most concrete firms' stockpile," he said.
"They have downtime for maintenance and now don't have anything
left."
AGC is continuing to see "waves of supply chain
issues," he said. For example, where concrete is a problem now, it
was roofing materials in the fall and winter.
Construction isn't immune to global conflict either.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine is also impacting the industry, even in smaller
material segments. "We're hearing sporadic things [about delays] like tile
products that have clay in them because Ukraine is a big exporter of clay and
tile," he said.
The labor problem
Labor continues to be a challenge. According to the
Deloitte report, 52% of engineering and construction executives said that their
company is facing a severe labor and talent shortage.
Vaccination rates for construction workers continue to be
low (46.2% nationally, according
to the Center for Construction Research and Training). However, it's been
manageable so far, said Luegering, because they have enough workers that they
can keep vaccinated workers on projects where owners require vaccines, like
many healthcare projects do.
Because an OSHA vaccinate mandate for companies with over
100 workers was deemed unconstitutional in January, it hasn't been as major a
disruption as it could have been, he added, though "still a potential
concern with federal and military" projects, he said, because of
continuing court battles over federal and military vaccine
mandates.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic no longer seems to be a major
contributing factor. NHMC began its Construction Quarterly Survey – then called
the COVID Construction Survey — at the start of the pandemic. Cino said
this most recent report is the first time the coronavirus has not been
considered a significant challenge, and is no longer causing delays and
shutdowns.
"That really has been stripped," she said.
"Now we're in a place where we're facing broad economic headwinds."