State to receive $3 million from feds to fix state roads and bridges damaged in floods
PAUL HUGHES
HARTFORD — The Federal Highway Administration will
award Connecticut $3 million in emergency funding to help repair state roads
and bridges damaged in the Aug. 18 flash floods.
The governor’s office on Thursday announced the FHWA
notified state officials that the “quick release” funding from its Emergency
Relief program is being directed to the state Department of Transportation.
The emergency funds will assist DOT with ongoing road and
bridge repairs to restore essential transportation links. State transportation
officials reported 30 state roads were damaged in the 1,000-year rainstorm and
flood that swept across western parts of Connecticut.
At this time, only two state roads remain partially closed.
There are two sections of Route 67 in Oxford and Seymour and a section of Route
34 in Oxford. DOT officials expect to complete temporary bridges that will
allow Route 67 to fully reopen by the end of September, and a temporary bridge
needed to reopen Route 34 in Oxford is anticipated to take until the end of
October to complete
In a joint statement, Gov. Ned Lamont and Transportation
Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto applauded $3 million in emergency FHWA
assistance.
“The quick support of federal emergency relief funds ensures
that the rebuilding efforts on our roads will continue uninterrupted,” Lamont
said.
The governor’s office reported state officials continue to
prepare requests for major federal disaster declaration that could make federal
funding available to help homeowners, businesses, and local and state
governments pay for recovery costs. Meanwhile, the Lamont administration will
also continue to pursue more emergency relief funding.
At Lamont’s request, President Joe Biden issued an emergency
declaration on Aug. 22 for Fairfield, Litchfield and New Haven counties. The
declaration authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency to supplement
state and local response efforts and help coordinate relief efforts.
In a related development, the state Department of Economic
and Community Development received 129 applications Tuesday and Wednesday from
small businesses for state grants to cover cleanup efforts, replenishing lost
inventory, replacing equipment, and offsetting lost revenue.
In the immediate aftermath of the Aug. 18 flooding, the DECD
stood up a $5 million grant program for businesses with fewer than 100
employees in Fairfield, Litchfield and New Haven Counties. Businesses are
eligible for grants of up $25,000 to help them rebuild and recover. Nonprofit
organizations are also eligible to apply.
DECD spokesman James Watson said Thursday that 129 businesses submitted
applications in the first two days after the online application window opened
Tuesday. The requests totaled $2.8 million.
The state grants are intended as a stopgap until expected
federal disaster assistance starts flowing to businesses. Grants will be
awarded on a rolling basis until the $5 million runs out.
Connecticut River Bridge project begins
Kimberly Drelich Old Lyme ― Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner told a crowd of people gathered at a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday that “it’s really time” to replace the Connecticut River Bridge, which was built in 1907 between Old Lyme and Old Saybrook.
Now, a project is doing just that.
Federal, state and local officials gathered at Ferry Landing
State Park to celebrate the start of a $1.3 billion project to build a
replacement bridge, which they said was years in the making.
The railroad bridge is the oldest movable bridge between
Boston and New Haven, and it sometimes does not open and close as it should,
Gardner said.
He said the new railroad bridge will be better in every way:
resilient, reliable, modern and designed with a taller, 24-foot span above the
water so it will need to open less often for boats passing underneath and be
prepared for higher water levels.
Amtrak will be able to increase train speeds on the new
bridge from the current 45 miles per hour to 70 miles per hour, added Gardner.
The bridge carries more than 50 Amtrak trains, Shore Line
East commuter rail trains and freight trains each day, according to Amtrak.
Polly Trottenberg, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department
of Transportation, said she has celebrated a few infrastructure projects up and
down Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, and it never ceases to amaze her the hundreds
of thousands of people they serve, the important economic role they play, and
how the infrastructure needs renewing.
She said this project will build a better, safer bridge
where trains can go faster.
“This bridge has been cranky and creaky for a long time,”
said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “It has been a great bridge. It was a
masterpiece in its time, but its time has passed, and we now recognize that
resilience and reliability require that it be essentially just completely
rebuilt.”
He said the new bridge, which is important to the whole rail
system, will be the same kind of masterpiece as the original bridge, calling it
“a key to commerce, commuting and culture” in the rail-dependent state. It also
will be key to curtailing emissions from cars.
He pointed out that the northeast’s transportation system is
older, so the region needs to rebuild its infrastructure faster than the rest
of the country.
Jason Hoover, assistant vice president of major bridge
programming at Amtrak, said in an interview that the new bascule-span bridge is
expected to be completed in 2031. The project also will entail replacing and
moving the nearby fishing pier further out to the river.
He said the contractors, Tutor Perini Corp. and O&G Industries, are
ready to begin the work, and environmental work on the project already started
last month.
He said the project will make the corridor more reliable and
faster.
“This is a really good example of how the bipartisan
infrastructure bill is helping us transform our network to get us to double
ridership by 2040,” Hoover said.
Amtrak said in a news release that the project received $826.64
million from the Federal Railroad Administration due to the Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act, and the state and Amtrak are contributing the rest.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said during the ceremony that it
was never a foregone conclusion that there would be resources to do this
project. He said the project is moving forward after decades of talk because of
the commitment of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, along
with elected officials in Congress, to the bipartisan infrastructure bill. He
also credited the northeast delegation for advocating that $30 billion of $66
billion reserved for rail infrastructure upgrades go to improvements to the
Northeast Corridor.
But citing a backlog in needed infrastructure improvements,
Murphy said the bridge project can’t be the end. He said there will need to be
more investment in the future.
U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, said that as far
back as 2006, an engineer had found the bridge was structurally deficient and
repair work was no longer capable of keeping it functional.
“It is just so exciting to finally see this come to
fruition,” Courtney said of the project.
Courtney also said he helped secure a commitment from Amtrak
for a project labor agreement, which guarantees local workers will be part of
this project and there will be job training and fair wages.
“This is an exciting day for us,” said Nate Brown, vice
president of the Connecticut State Building Trades.
Gardner said 150 workers will be on site on average, with a
peak of up to 300 workers.
Gov. Ned Lamont said the project has a special meaning to
him after the state lost a number of bridges during the recent flooding in the
Naugatuck Valley. Those bridges have to be rebuilt with extra structural
support, extra culverts and ways to reroute water.
He also said that while discussing the Francis Scott Key
Bridge in Baltimore which was struck by a ship in March, Trottenberg told him
that boats are now bigger than before.
Lamont said the new bridge between Old Lyme and Old Saybrook
will be taller to accommodate larger boats and rising waters.
He noted that the new bridge will be another “100-year
bridge.”
Plan calls for six-story Amazon warehouse with 1,000 parking spaces in these CT towns
Representatives of a Pennsylvania industrial property
developer have submitted plans for a 650,000 square foot warehouse
straddling the Naugatuck-Waterbury border, more than two-and-half-years after
the plan was first announced.
A limited liability company affiliated with the Bluewater
Property Group, which is based in suburban Philadelphia, submitted plans for
the project on Aug. 30 to the inlands wetlands commissions in both communities.
The plan
was first made public in January 2022.
The footprint for the warehouse calls for a 652,400 square
foot facility with 59 loading docks and parking for over 1,000 vehicles. Thomas
Hyde, chief executive officer of Naugatuck Valley Regional Development Corp.
which is representing the two communities in the process, said the warehouse
will be six stories tall.
"It's an encouraging sign," Hyde said of the
application being submitted.
The warehouse is being proposed for a 183-acre site
straddling both communities, located off of South Main Street in Waterbury with
easy access to Route 8, Interstate 84 and near rail service. Hyde said that the
site is one of the few large undeveloped properties in the immediate Waterbury
area.
As originally proposed, the plan had been expected to create
as many as 1,000 jobs. Bluewater officials were not immediately available for
comment on the submission of the development plan.
The application was expected to be introduced into the
record before the Naugatuck Inland Wetlands Commission on Wednesday.
Waterbury Town Planner Robert Nerney said the city's Inland Wetlands Commission
will likely consider the application for the warehouse at its Oct. 4 meeting,
Amazon Proposes Sprawling Warehouse on Waterbury-Naugatuck Line
Nick Sambides Jr.
A developer working for e-commerce giant Amazon has
submitted plans to build a sprawling multistory warehouse straddling the
Waterbury-Naugatuck line that proponents say could create as many as 1,000 jobs
in the lower Naugatuck Valley.
A project almost three years in the making, the six-story,
approximately 650,000-square-foot robotic-assisted facility would feature 59
loading docks and parking for more than 1,000 vehicles on 183 acres at
the Waterbury/Naugatuck
Industrial Park off Waterbury’s South Main Street.
Both municipalities partnered on the industrial park because
they likely couldn’t have developed it otherwise, said Tommy Hyde, chief
executive officer of the Naugatuck
Valley Regional Development Corp., a nonprofit economic development agency
formed to help the cities develop the parcel.
About evenly divided by the town lines, with access to Route
8 and bordered to the south by Sheridan Drive, Great Hill Road and Union City
Road, the park space intended for Amazon accesses Route 8, Interstate 84 and a
new rail line. The industrial park is one of the rare plots of large, wooded
parcels of open space left in both municipalities, Hyde said.
“It’s a property the city’s owned for several decades, and
they could never develop it because there was no access from the Waterbury
side,” he said. “And then one day, the two mayors were together and they
realized you can access it from the Naugatuck Industrial Park. They teamed up.”
The parcel intended for Amazon was about 150 acres until
primary developer Blue Water Property Group of Pennsylvania bought an adjoining
parcel within the last two years, Hyde added.
Blue Water did not respond to a request for comment on
Thursday.
Amazon, a giant multinational technology corporation with a
market capitalization of $1.87 trillion, already owns 10 warehouses in
Connecticut. They are mostly located along the Route 15, I-91 and I-95
corridors, in Bristol, Cromwell, Danbury, Meriden, North Haven, Orange,
Stratford, Trumbull, Wallingford and Windsor.
The Waterbury-Naugatuck warehouse would be about the same
size as Windsor’s.
Amazon has a mixed record as an employer. The company said
it provides good working wages, benefits including health, vision and dental
insurance, a 401(k) with company match, and paid pregnancy or parental
leave.
Medical advice lines, employee assistance programs, child,
elder and pet care referral services, support for children with disabilities
and survivor transitional support and education funding are also offered. Its
warehouses are climate-controlled and have prayer pods and multifaith rooms on
each floor, according to its website.
But Amazon has opposed the formation of unions within its
warehouses. Workers at a warehouse in Staten Island, New York, made history
by forming the
country’s first Amazon Labor
Union two years ago.
Workers formed the union in response to what they said were
unreasonable deadline pressures, oppressive working conditions and excessive
worker injury rates while the company recorded record profits.
“Amazon workers know the only way we’re going to pressure
the company into treating us with respect is by uniting under one banner and
exercising our right to come together as an independent union,” the union
website states.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and
Health Administration has issued citations to
Amazon facilities in Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois and New York for
failing to keep workers safe, and delivered hazard
alert letters for exposing workers to ergonomic hazards.
OSHA investigators found Amazon exposed warehouse workers to
a high risk of low back injuries and other musculoskeletal disorders through
the high frequency with which employees must lift packages, the heavy weight of
the items handled by workers, employees awkwardly twisting, bending and
extending themselves to lift items, and long hours required to complete
assigned tasks, the agency
said in a statement.
In response, Amazon said it has invested more than $1.5
billion since 2019 into safety initiatives and cut its recordable injury rates
at U.S. warehouses by 28%.
The company also has a longstanding commitment to robotics,
which critics say can greatly limit its need for human workers.
Pending legislative bills in Connecticut and New York would
compel Amazon to require its facilities to disclose work-speed data to present
and former employees. The legislation would also protect workers from being
fired or disciplined for failing to meet undisclosed speed quotas or deadlines
that do not allow for proper breaks.
The wetlands boards in Naugatuck and Waterbury will start
reviewing the proposals this month, Hyde said.
East Norwalk Train Station reopening after 3-week closure, with new temporary platform for commuters
NORWALK — After a three-week
closure to complete work related to the Walk
Bridge Replacement Project, the East
Norwalk Train Station is reopening Saturday.
“During this recent phase of work, crews demolished the
existing north platform, constructed a temporary platform and installed access
ramps to facilitate the future construction of the new station,” said Josh
Morgan, spokesperson for Connecticut’s Department of Transportation. “We advise
commuters to arrive a bit earlier than usual as they get adjusted to the new
temporary platform.”
Future closures will be planned for crews to replace
the East Norwalk Train Station. When complete, the
station will have new six-car platforms on both sides along with
improved parking and drop-off loops.
“Getting this work completed in only three weeks and inside
a small footprint is a great success,” Morgan said.
DOT coordinated with the city of Norwalk to ensure commuters
were able to travel on a free shuttle to use the South Norwalk Train Station
instead.
“Over the last few weeks while work has been ongoing, the
shuttle service has proven to be successful,” Morgan said. “In just the first
10 days, we saw over 750 commuters utilize the shuttle.”
This is the second
time this year the station was closed for three weeks. In
March, the station and a portion of East Avenue under the rail bridge
were closed as well.
“We have not heard complaints from residents or commuters
during construction,” Morgan said. “That is really a testament to the strong
collaboration between CTDOT, the City of Norwalk, Norwalk Transit District,
Park Norwalk and Metro-North Railroad. We all worked in partnership to ensure
the public was aware of the temporary closure and that alternative means of
transportation were available.”
The next closures are anticipated for fall 2025 and summer
2027, Morgan said.
The new station project is connected to DOT’s $1
billion Walk Bridge Replacement project along with other rail
improvements in the Norwalk area.
With East Norwalk only a few minutes ride from the Walk
Bridge, DOT is improving the area in what are called TIME-2
projects for Track Improvement, Mobility and Enhancement project.
These projects are designed to improve the railway speed and rider experience.