State Faces Long Road to Recovery as Flood Damage Assessment Begins
Nick Sambides Jr.
With severe thunderstorms forecast for overnight Monday,
state officials continue a cleanup and assessment of last
week’s deadly flooding damage, which is expected to take months to and cost
hundreds of millions of dollars.
So far, at least 2,000 homes and businesses have reported
significant damage from the heavy storms on Aug. 18-19, which resulted in
washed out roads and bridges, mudslides and water rescues from vehicles and
buildings, said William Turner, emergency management director at the
Connecticut Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.
“It could be a lot higher,” Turner said Monday.
Teams of workers from the Federal Emergency Management
Agency and federal Small Business Administration will start assessing storm
damage to determine if it meets the requirements of a presidential disaster
declaration. If it does, it will make storm victims eligible for federal aid
that should greatly help them, Turner said.
Such determinations usually take months. Exactly how much
the recovery from this storm will cost taxpayers also won’t be determined for
some time, but it will be a large figure, Turner said.
“Right now it’s all just estimates, so I don’t really have a
good number on it, but we’re probably talking about hundreds of millions of
dollars to rebuild [public] infrastructure,” he said. “When it comes to the
homeowners and businesses, it’s a little trickier. Uninsured losses are what we
focus on, so a lot of times people that might have insurance don’t always
report, so we don’t always have the full picture.”
Volunteers and emergency workers have worked around the
clock since Tuesday on repairs and in assisting victims. Southwestern
Connecticut was hit the hardest. President Joe Biden granted
Gov. Ned Lamont’s emergency declaration request for federal aid for
Fairfield, Litchfield and New Haven counties on Wednesday. Biden’s approval
allows FEMA and SBA teams to start the flood assessment work.
At least two people were killed; roads, bridges and railways
washed out; and several victims rescued from vehicles and buildings during the
storm. The greatest damage likely occurred in the Naugatuck Valley area towns
of Oxford and Southbury, Turner said.
Two Oxford women, 65-year-old Ethelyn Joiner and 71-year-old
Audrey Rostkowski, were killed after being swept away by floodwaters.
Additionally, two volunteer firefighters were caught by the flooding but
survived. A third person, Robert MacIsaac from Weston, is also believed to have
drowned, though this has not yet been confirmed.
The state’s search and rescue teams helped at least
100 people escape flooding. As much as 16 inches of rain fell in as little as
six to eight hours.
State Rep. David Labriola, who represents Oxford, Southbury
and part of Naugatuck, marveled at how energized residents have been since
coping with the storm.
“It’s been amazing to watch our community respond to this
crazy, once-in-a-thousand-year flood. Our spirits are high. Construction crews,
DOT, you name it, the entire community has come forth in really a remarkable
way,” Labriola said Monday. “There’s a guy I know whose foundation needed to be
reinforced, and he had 25 guys there Saturday helping him do it. Why? Because
that’s what neighbors do. It’s an inspiration, it really is.”
The flooding was of historic proportions, with
meteorologists calling it a thousand-year storm.
Oxford led the state with about 14 inches of rainfall,
followed by Sandy Hook with 12.17, Newtown with 10 and Southbury with 6.83,
according to the National Weather Service.
According to Kristina Walton, executive director of the
Seymour-Oxford Food Bank, the storm damage forced some victims to go hungry as
they paid for repairs or lost food during the power outages.
“Food insecurity was a big issue before the flood happened,
so this is just going to increase that, and I expect it to continue to increase
as people go longer without employment or having to spend the extra money on
the repairs or out of their homes,” Walton said. “I expect it to steadily
increase for some time.”
“It has been tough for a lot of people. It is hard to
see. It is hard to hear all of the stories,” she added. “I’m an Oxford
resident. I’ve lived here all of my life, so it is really hard to see how much
damage our town has seen, and I am just doing my best to stay in the good
moments of everybody coming together for each other.”
Lamont visited Seymour on Monday with Department of Economic and Community
Development Commissioner Daniel O’Keefe to announce his plan
to allocate $5 million in state funding to a grant program for storm
victims.
Grants of up to $25,000 will be available for small
businesses and nonprofit organizations in Fairfield, Litchfield and New Haven
counties that had flood damage. The applicants must have fewer than 100
employees. Damage cleanup and inventory replacement are among the items the
grants will fund, the governor said.
The program will launch on Sept. 3. Lamont encouraged
businesses and homeowners to apply through DECD or the emergency management
agencies in their towns immediately to have their damage recorded by those
agencies.
Home and business owners are also encouraged to fill out an
online survey that will help state and federal officials assess
flooding damage, said Lamont, who wants the funding to get to those who need it
as fast as possible. He called small businesses “the engine of our economy and
the heart and soul of our communities.”
“This program is one component of the recovery effort. I am
committed to supporting Connecticut throughout the recovery process,” he said.
Meanwhile, places like the food bank continue to rely upon
volunteers. Walton said at least 30 extra volunteers have come to the food bank
since the storm. She welcomed them, saying that they will be needed as flooding
victims exhaust their funds.
“I think it has been absolutely beautiful the way our
community, near and far, has pulled together through all of this. The donations
are continuously coming in,” she said. “Just as food is going out, food is
coming in, volunteers are coming in. Our regular volunteers are staying here
way longer than they’ve ever had to before. It’s honestly been the beautiful
part in all of this mess.”
Greenwich residents start petition to delay start of North Street bridge repairs, question timing
GREENWICH — The
North Street Bridge needs to be replaced, but its neighbors are not
happy about the 18 to 24 month timeframe it will take.
So Lee Gerkin and another resident are spearheading a
petition that protests the current project plans and requests they be allowed
to present concerns and recommendations at the Sept. 12 Board of Selectmen
meeting. As of Friday, the petition had around100 signatures.
"I just started looking into (the project) and talking
with people in our area. They said, 'Please, anything you can do to help. This
is a terrible problem,'" Gerkin said.
The North Street Bridge was originally built in 1909 and
last rebuilt in 1950. When the bridge was inspected on March 7, 2022, the
town's Department of Public Works found it to be in "critical
condition," which resulted in emergency repairs.
But the bridge still needs to be replaced, which is slated
to begin in the spring of 2025, said Gabriella Circosta-Cohee, chief
engineer.
Circosta-Cohee said the current replacement plan calls
for the bridge to be constructed using the accelerated bridge construction
method which, according to
the Federal Highway Administration, is a way "to reduce the
onsite construction time that occurs when building new bridges or replacing and
rehabilitating existing bridges."
"The current design proposes to incorporate ABC
construction while maintaining traffic alternating one-way which is required by
emergency services," Circosta-Cohee said in a statement. "The design
looked at several scenarios with ABC construction being the option ultimately
selected as this was the least impactful and required a shorter duration for
construction."
The petition calls the 18-24 month timeline
"excessively long" and "will significantly disrupt the daily
lives of residents and the local economy." It urges DPW to
"conduct a thorough review" of the project to find ways to expedite
the construction process.
Because the bridge will only have one lane of traffic open
during the 18-24 month construction time, Gerkin said it will cause traffic
problems.
"That's what scares people in the huge area all around
that bridge ... because you don't know where the traffic is going to go and
it's going to be random," Gerkin said.
Circosta-Cohee said she has communicated with Gerkin as well
as other residents interested in the project.
"When we met in person, I noted that as we progress
with the final design of the project, we will look at ways to reduce the
construction period and continue to have conversations with emergency services
to ensure the roadway remains accessible for emergency response,"
Circosta-Cohee said.
The petition also says that the town did not conduct an
independent traffic study and is using data from the state that says 7,000 cars
drive along North Street daily. Gerkin said DPW conducted a traffic count
in mid-August and a DPW representative told Gerkin the department will conduct
more traffic counts throughout the year but he wanted a formal study to
"not only determine the traffic volume, but also evaluate the congestion
resulting from closing one lane at NSB with alternating lanes and a signal light."
"North Street is a major traffic artery linking the
Merritt to downtown Greenwich, the train station, I-95 and schools with 6,000
students/staff," the petition says. "A formal traffic study would not
only count traffic accurately, but it would also determine how to best manage
the traffic flows during construction."
Gerkin and the petition also said that a change in traffic
flow during bridge construction can also impact emergency vehicles from getting
through.
"The issue is that it's going to be so jammed, they'll
never get to the stoplight, even if they have priority when they get
there," he said.
"For the town to simply say that emergency vehicles
will have 'priority' at an alternating stop light is short-sighted and
negligent," the petition says.
Along with traffic, the petition also asks the town to
ensure the bridge will be constructed so it "enables future expansion of
upstream water flow so that once the downstream work at the North Street bridge
has been completed, there will not be any need for further construction work to
accommodate rising levels of stormwater runoff."
The North Street Bridge is built over the West Brothers
Brook, which is prone
to flooding. During Tropical
Storm Ida in 2021, the heavy flow of water moved the underlying
structure by several feet.
The Board of Estimate and Taxation included $3 million for
bridge replacement in the 2023-24
town budget, but the board conditioned the funding upon holding public
hearings and providing more information about flooding on West Brothers Brook,
downstream of the bridge.
DPW has not yet asked the BET to release the conditions,
according to BET chair Harry Fisher, so the money to replace the bridge is not
accessible yet.
Releasing conditions has been easier said than done this
year for DPW. The department sought access to $450,000 to make accessibility
fixes on Greenwich Avenue twice this summer
According
to the DPW's website, the North Street bridge project will be covered under
the Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program and the construction costs
will be 100 percent reimbursed.
Gerkin said the petition effort began about a month ago and
hopes it can get more than 1,000 signatures "because there's been such a
big response."
The town "listens to the residents," Gerkin
said. "If it's a small group, maybe not. But if you have a large enough
group, they listen. ... We want to make sure we really understand (the project)
well, we want to make sure we really understand why they're proposing what they
are, we want to come back with what we think will be better solutions and then
have so much support that we can have an impact."
CT Construction Digest Monday August 26, 2024
Windfall grant for state building trades
It was great to see a $389 million grant come from the U.S. Department of Energy to bring more offshore wind power to New England. These funds will not only help to lower costs to ratepayers for future offshore wind projects, but also create good paying jobs in southeast Connecticut, under a proposal now pending before the state. The proposed Vineyard Wind 2 project from developer Vineyard Offshore would make landfall in New London and tie into the New England power grid in Montville, where one of the federally funded transmission upgrades will take place.
Laying the 13-mile onshore cable between the two sites would be a significant, multi-year construction project for up to 150 members of the New London building trades. In its decision, which is expected in September, Connecticut should select Vineyard Wind 2 to ensure these jobs come to our region and move toward the clean, reliable, fixed-rate electric power we need in our state.
Keith R. Brothers
Pomfret
SLOAN BREWSTER
TORRINGTON – On Thursday, students will return to school in the old high school and in January, they will move to the new building.
A tour last Wednesday of the high school and middle school construction sites revealed a building on the cusp of completion.
Rooms are painted, bits of furnishings are in, walls have been tiled, lockers line hallways and many classrooms have been given final cleanings.
With most of the big jobs behind them, crews have begun working their way through punch list items, said Building Committee Co-Chair Edward Arum and Superintendent for O&G Industries Brian Pracuta.
While the middle school will not be ready for another year, a hallway off the main entrance will be used temporarily for locker rooms when the high school opens in January.
The cafeterias of the two schools, which are separated by a glass wall, are beginning to look like lunch rooms. Pracuta showed off high end steamers, grills and skillets that cooks will use to prepare meals.
“It’s very nice stuff,” Arum said. “Because, you know, eventually they’re going to serve 1,600 kids.”
Arum said the equipment should be functional by November. Once it’s ready, they plan to test it to make sure it all works by cooking up some chow for the workers.
During Wednesday’s tour, a noticeable transition was apparent in the auditorium, where a scaffolding that was up during past tours was down, exposing the slanted floor where seats are yet to be installed. The stage is scheduled to be painted next week, Pracuta said. After that, riggers will come in to install tracks for the curtain and backdrops.
Meanwhile, walls are scheduled for pre-drywall inspections and field measuring is underway for the seats.
“That’s a science in itself,” Pracuta said, explaining how seats will be various widths and arranged so audience members will have a view of the stage and not someone’s head.
Pracuta pointed to an area of the wall where angled drywall designs called “sails” will help deflect sound and then looked up toward flat white lights called “clouds” covering the ceiling.
“We’ll have clouds up above and we’ll have sails on the walls,” he said.
A food lab on the first floor contained a couple counters and areas for sinks and was beginning to look like a food lab.
Second and third floor science rooms were filled with lab tables, cabinets and counters; and bathrooms, while not yet connected to sewers, looked complete with tiled floors, sinks, mirrors and stalls in place.
The third floor media center was awaiting carpet installation. Walls of windows in the large sunlit room looked over the front entrance and down toward the courtyard, where outdoor movies will one day be shown on a large plaster wall. Down below crews prepared to lay sidewalks and a lone worker made his way to a pay loader.
A career center not quite finished sits down the hallway from the main entrance where a window opens to the office so visitors can be checked-in before they are granted entry.
A third floor hallway looks onto three chillers installed on a rooftop. While all three will likely never run at once, they are necessary for backup, Pracuta said. Two will run when weather neccessatates.
Three heating units will be used in much the same manner, seldom running in tandem but the extras on hand for when temperatures dictate.
Four elevators that will be in the school are yet to be installed and the lower level, which will hold shop classes, is being dry walled.
Ground was officially broken on the project in October 2022.
Initial plans for the 310,000-square foot school, which will house students in grades seven through 12, were to complete the high school portion by December 2024 and bring students in by February 2025. The project, however, is ahead of schedule so students will be let into the high school in January. Middle School students are expected to be let in by September 2025.
The state will reimburse 85% of the $179.58 million cost, with the city responsible for the remaining 15%, Arum said.
Shortly after school closed for summer break in June, part of the music wing at the old high school was knocked down so workers could work in that area. This month they have been constructing a new roadway on Major Besse Drive.
When school opens later this week, the high school music department will use the media center for classes and practices that would have been held in the razed wing, Arum said.
Major Besse Drive will be closed and only accessible for construction traffic until Aug. 27. Public can access the property via Daley Drive behind the school near the athletic fields.
Preston to hold public sessions on Poquetanuck Cove plans
Claire Bessette
Preston – With the Norwich Hospital cleanup nearly complete, Preston is ready to take on its next big project.
The town has secured $3.46 million in state grants thus far, has tentative approval for two additional $4 million grants and applied for $3 million more, all for a project to turn the Route 2A area in Poquetanuck from a speedway to nearby casinos or shoreline spots into an inviting village atmosphere.
The town is ready to launch the first phase of the project from Preston Community Park to Poquetanuck Cove, which includes wide walkways, decorative lighting and crosswalks, traffic calming measures to slow down vehicles, public parking areas and a kayak launch at the cove.
The state funding already secured by the town includes a $3 million Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program grant for construction costs, a $400,000 state Community Investment Fund grant for design and planning and another $60,000 from the Recreation Trails Program to enhance the project.
Phase 1 is expected to go out to bid for construction next year. But first, the town agencies working on the project will hold three public forums next week to hear ideas from the public on what they would like to see included in the project.
The Conservation and Agricultural Commission will lead off with a meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at Town Hall, 389 Route 2, for a presentation by town staff on the status of the project and grants. They will take questions and comments from the public.
On Tuesday, the Preston Planning and Zoning Commission will meet at 7 p.m. at Town Hall with a presentation by town staff and the project engineer, who also will take questions and comments from residents.
On Wednesday, the Board of Selectmen will meet at 6 p.m. at Town Hall for a third presentation and question-and-answer session.
“The whole thing started because we wanted to slow the traffic,” Town Planner Kathy Warzecha said. “We’ll have extra traffic signs, crosswalks, maybe some beacons, a plaza area at Schoolhouse Road, so drivers will see the different color and pattern and will slow down.”
The decorative walkway from Poquetanuck Village to the cove is designed to be 5 feet wide, while the area from the Grant’s bed and breakfast at 109 Route 2A to Preston Community Park will be 10 feet wide to better accommodate bicycles.
Warzecha said staff will show maps and design plans, give some options of features being considered and hear ideas from the public. Afterward, project officials will finalize the designs and put the project out to bid next year, Warzecha said.
Conservation and Agricultural Commission Chairman Gary Piszczek said his commission’s biggest concern is with protection of Poquetanuck Cove and public access to the cove.
The town has received tentative approval for another $4 million Transportation Alternatives grant that would help extend the village project from the Preston Community Park to Lincoln Park senior housing. The town also has learned it has tentative approval for another $4 million Local Transportation Capital Improvements Program grant to extend the project to the Route 2A-12 intersection. The project would include safety improvements to the busy intersection across from the former Norwich Hospital/Preston Riverwalk and extend the pedestrian trail to the riverwalk.
The town has applied for an additional $3 million Community Investment Fund grant for design and engineering planning for that portion of the project.
The cleanup of the former Norwich Hospital property is nearly completed, and the town anticipates turning over the property to Mohegan, the development arm of the Mohegan tribe, by the end of this year.
Piszczek said the conservation commission hopes to meet with Mohegan officials to discuss ways to protect Poquetanuck Cove amid the future development and to provide public access to the waterfront areas.