Norwalk construction site grows for Walk Bridge replacement project as super-size equipment arrives
NORWALK — The massive construction site is taking shape for
the Walk
Bridge project, with super-size equipment on the scene along the Norwalk
River.
The $1
billion multi-year project to
build a new railroad bridge requires the installation of eight 12-foot
drilled shafts, varying between 80 to 100 feet in depth, according to a
Facebook post from the state Department of Transportation on Oct. 9.
Due to the size of the drilled shafts and the site's soil
conditions, an oscillator has arrived on site to do the work, DOT said. It
exerts a twisting, rotational force on the steel casing that allows the casing
to be installed vertically into the ground to the needed depths. The
oscillator's force can push through the dense layers of soil and underground
obstructions, ensuring an efficient installation while minimizing the impact of
the vibration on the surrounding community, DOT said.
The oscillator is 21 feet by 41 feet, "weighing 250,000
pounds — the equivalent of four fully loaded concrete trucks or 21
elephants," the DOT said.
Further progress on the project can be seen with the arrival
of the additional equipment along with the construction areas at work
platforms/trestles at each of the four "corners" of the Walk Bridge.
The current four-track Walk Bridge, which carries Amtrak,
Metro-North Railroad and Shoreline East trains over the Norwalk River, was
built in 1896 and is considered obsolete. About 125,000 passengers and 175
trains traveled over the bridge daily before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the last decade or more, the bridge has failed dozens
of times to “swing” properly between allowing rail travel to go across it and
nautical traffic to go in and out of Norwalk Harbor. After the bridge failed
twice in a two weeks in May and June 2014, DOT decided it was time to replace
the structure.
After nearly a decade of work to do plans and secure state
and federal funding, the Walk Bridge Replacement project broke ground in
2023, with the demolition
of the Maritime Aquarium's IMAX theater beginning that March to make
space for the project site.
The Walk Bridge replacement project is anticipated to be
completed by 2029, according to DOT.
Developer seeks row houses next to Bridgeport's Steelpointe
BRIDGEPORT — The developers of the Steelpointe site along
the harbor want approval to build row houses just a short distance away.
And Robert Christoph and Robert Christoph Jr.'s proposal is
receiving praise for tackling two needs in that lower East Side neighborhood.
"It's affordable housing," said City Council
President Aidee Nieves, who represents the area. "(And) it’s
homeowner units ... for first-time homeownership. Not rentals."
Technically, according to a spokesperson for the Christophs,
the development will include"workforce" housing, so it will be more
modestly priced than market-rate, but not low-income. That same description
applies to some of the units included
in the luxury apartment complex currently under construction at
Steelpointe.
"We received a lot of feedback that the community
wanted home ownership options and have responded accordingly," Robert
Christoph Jr. said in a statement.
The row houses, if approved Tuesday by the zoning board of
appeals and later this month by the planning and zoning commission, will be
built on vacant land at 371 and 378 East Main Street. That property is at the
corner of Nichols Street and just above Interstate 95. Steelpointe, with its
Bass Pro Shops store, Starbucks coffee shop, marina and Boca seafood
restaurant, lies just on the other side of the highway.
According to the zoning application, the Christophs
want to subdivide the land into 29 building lots.
"The row houses will be clustered in six, five, four
and three-unit ... buildings," reads the document. "Each row house
shall be two bedroom, two and one half baths with a one car garage and
parking space behind garage."
The developer has partnered with Fairfield-based Rose Tiso
& Company, an architectural and engineering firm involved in recent
projects in Derby — the just-opened Cedar
Village at Minerva Square apartments and the under-construction Trolley
Point housing complex. Both developments also have a workforce component.
The spokesperson for the Christophs said the partners
"will likely seek (financial) resources from relevant
governmental programs to complete the project" but offered no more
specifics.
The East Main Street lots are located across from another
Christoph property where the father and son team had previously been working
with Building Neighborhoods Together, formerly Bridgeport Neighborhood Trust,
on a 44-unit affordably-priced apartment building. But as reported last
year BNT
was unable to secure the necessary state aid to move forward. The future of
that site is unclear.
Stamford residents upset Roxbury School project in limbo: 'Stop wasting time and wasting money'
STAMFORD — Roxbury
Elementary School teacher Kristyn O’Brien’s husband attended the
elementary school in the '80s, which she described as now being a “very
dilapidated school building.”
She also told the Board of Finance during its Oct. 10
meeting that she teaches second grade in the same portables her husband was
taught in.
The trailer-like structures were built to accommodate
overcrowding in the school and serve as temporary learning spaces, she said.
One of those portables lets rain fall through the ceiling and some have “old,
dirty ventilation systems” and “rotting, broken” decks at the doors that serve
as the fire exits.
O’Brien said she’s also had to throw away books and supplies
that have been damaged by animals that get into the portables.
It’s why she and other Stamford residents spoke in support
of a potential rebuild of the 70-year-old Roxbury Elementary School during the
Board of Finance’s meeting.
“I am hopeful that the same temporary learning space that my
husband learned in in the '80s will not be the same space my incoming Roxbury
kindergartner sits in when she comes to second grade in two short years,”
O’Brien said.
However, O'Brien and other people who came to the meeting to
argue for Roxbury left disappointed. Contracts for an owner's
representative and an architect to provide schematic designs for the Roxbury
project were removed from the Board of Finance’s agenda before its Oct. 10
meeting. The two contracts had a combined cost of $895,000.
The Board of Finance voted down the same contracts during
its Sept. 12 meeting, citing the swelling costs of the project
to rebuild the Westhill High School. Board of Finance Chairman Richard
Freedman told The Stamford Advocate the board would like to see a final,
set-in-stone cost for the Westhill project and hopefully see its cost come down
before working on Roxbury.
O’Brien taught second grade in the portables at Roxbury
Elementary School for 12 years and said the fixes to the structures and other
issues were band-aid solutions. She said she needed the same fixes every
year.
“At what point is it time to stop wasting time and wasting
money and solve the problem?” O’Brien asked.
Christina Hohl said she spoke on behalf of “dozens of
families” of the Roxbury Elementary School who had “deep concern and profound
disappointment” in the Board of Finance’s decision to vote against the Roxbury
contracts.
Roxbury Elementary School is long overdue for a rebuild,
Hohl said. She also said the school’s deteriorating condition “is not just
inconvenient, it's dangerous and unacceptable.”
She also said she has seen how not investing in schools
“have devastating consequences,” that negatively impact the academic
performance and wellbeing of kids.
“When we fail to invest in our schools, we fail our children
and our entire community,” Hohl said.
Hohl and the parents she represented wanted the Board of
Finance to reconsider the Roxbury project, which she called a moral, not
financial, decision.
“We urge you to act in the best interest of the community
and approve this project without further delay,” Hohl said. “Anything less
would show a lack of care for the public school children and the future of
Stamford.”
Under the current plan, the more than half-century old
building would be replaced with a new facility for students in kindergarten
through eighth grade. Once the project is complete, Cloonan Middle School would
be closed and students from that school would move to Roxbury.
The Board of Finance voted 2-4 against the two contracts
that were removed from the Oct. 10 agenda during its Sept. 12 meeting.
Many of the members cited the ballooning budget to
rebuild Westhill High School as their reason for shooting down the Roxbury
contracts. The members said they were
frustrated to learn in July the cost for Westhill rose from $301
million to
$461 million, mostly from increased construction costs.
After the Sept. 12 vote, Stamford Mayor Caroline Simmons
said to The Stamford Advocate that she was disappointed in the “short-sighted
decision” to vote down the contracts. She also said building adequate school
facilities was one of her administration’s top priorities.
The Westhill project is part of a multi-year, $1.5
billion plan to improve all of the city's schools, which includes replacing
some aging schools with new buildings. The city is expecting to pay for roughly
half of that amount, with the state picking up the rest.
The price tag for the Roxbury project has also increased,
though. The project was projected to be $86 million in 2022. It has since risen
to between $120 million and $130 million.
The state agreed to pay for 60 percent of eligible expenses
for the new Roxbury school in summer 2023. The initial plan was to open the new
facility in 2027. The state also would have covered some of the cost for the
two contracts the Board of Finance voted against Sept. 12. The city would have
to pay about $359,000 for the contracts.
Katherine LoBalbo, the school district's director of school
construction, however, said during the Sept. 12 meeting the state may pull the
support if little or no progress is made on the project. One board member said
she wasn’t convinced that’d be the case.
The next Finance Board meeting is Nov. 14.
Plainville Middle School renovations move forward with New Britain based architectural firm
PLAINVILLE — An architectural firm has been chosen and funds
have been awarded for the middle
school building project, which is anticipated to be completed in the
fall of 2028.
“We're very excited that we're able to move forward with an
architect. It's an important step in the process,” said Plainville Town Council
Chair Christopher Wazorko. “I must give some kudos to our Capital Projects
Building Committee for moving so quickly, in interviewing and recommending an
architect."
"We're very happy to move forward and we'll start
looking forward to some concrete plans and going out to bid on the project
itself and get this thing started as soon as we can," Wazorko said.
The town put out a request for proposals for the design work
for the project back on June 24. The Capital Projects Building Committee
received eight proposals, four were selected for an interview and Kaestle
Boos Associates, Inc. of New Britain was chosen and recommend to the Town
Council.
“We were really fortunate to have eight very great proposals
that we received, but we had four very good interviews," said Town of
Plainville Assistant Town Manager Andy Cirioli. "And I think all of the
architectural firms recognize that the phasing of the project and the students
occupying the building throughout the project were going to be a challenge. So,
Plainville was in a position to really hire the best fit for this
project.”
Kaestle Boos Associates, Inc. will take the town through the
design phases and aspects of the construction.
“The Capital Projects Building Committee felt very confident
that KBA was the right fit for it," Cirioli said. "I think they've
had successful experiences with KB A in the past and we're excited to work
with KBA and overall, it's an exciting project for us."
KBA has worked on other school projects in town including
the Wheeler School renovation project about five years ago.
“Now that the award's been made, we as staff are going to
meet to discuss kind of a plan forward,” Cirioli said.
Once the contract is finalized sometime in October the
committee will work with KBA to establish realistic goals and make sure that
everyone's on the same page about preliminary design and through to the final
design process, officials said.
The preliminary design process will be about four months
going into the first quarter of 2025. They will then spend the following five
months getting the actual design documents completed and have the construction
documents created.
Town Coucil also recently approved about $2.6 million for
the architectural costs, which comes out of the
amount that was approved at referendum back on March 19.
“I think we actually had budgeted like $2.7 million so this
is actually a little bit below, I think, what we budgeted when we went out to
referendum,” Wazorko said.
Plainville residents voted on the referendum regarding
whether the town should appropriate $61 million for renovations and
improvements to the middle school and authorize the issuance of bonds and
notes to finance the portion of the project not covered from grants.
While the total estimated cost of the project is more than
$61.9 million, the estimated local cost to the town is a little more than $25.7
million.
The town will go out to bid for construction manager in late
2025 or early 2026. That role will manage the construction and hire the subs
that would work on the project to do all the all the actual tasks.
Proposed schematics for the renovations include a security
vestibule; core content instructional space; physical education facilities and
equipment; and student support services on the main level. The lower level
includes college and career pathways learning areas; STEAM labs; and fine art
rooms.
Construction of Phases 1-3 would take place from 2026 to
2028.
Wazorko said the project is slightly ahead of schedule based
on the timeline started 10 months ago.
"But we're excited and we're going to keep moving this
as quickly as we can and hopefully come in under budget and ahead of schedule,”
Wazorko said.
Danbury High School West takes shape on hilltop as it prepares to welcome students in fall 2025
DANBURY — City leaders say the Danbury
High School West building is on track to open for the 2025-26 school
year and finally offer students and staff a reprieve
from overcrowding in the state's, and New England's, largest
high school building.
The building’s
second phase of construction is underway, City Engineer Antonio
Iadarola said in his latest report on the project. This phase includes “all
work to fit out the building space for new classrooms, offices and construction
of the new gymnasium addition,” Iadarola said in the report.
Meanwhile, progress continues to be made throughout the
building on “framing, electric, mechanical, plumbing, sheetrock and blockwork,”
Iadarola said.
If the current construction timeline holds, the building
will open three years after city voters approved the funding for it. The
building represented $164 million out of a total $204 million education bond
package.
Construction Services Superintendent Thomas Hughes
elaborated on Iadarola’s update in a separate report, saying electrical work,
security work, metal stud framing are all ongoing in the structure. Work on the
ductwork for the building’s heating, ventilation and air cooling system is also
continuing, along with outdoor paving and sidewalk work.
All of that work is transforming the former
home of Cartus Corp. on a hilltop on Apple Ridge Road into a new large
high school campus.
This past spring, leaders redesigned the school’s plans,
including its name. The building will still house 1,400 students. But they will
all be high school students, as middle
school grades were scrapped from the plans.
The building’s name also changed: it was previously named
Danbury Career Academy and now will be known as Danbury High School West.
The building will also house the Board of Education
offices.
The program was revised in response to the need to
immediately reduce severe overcrowding in the current Danbury High School on
Clapboard Ridge Road. Meanwhile, educators say that high student enrollment in
city’s middle schools has been more manageable.
The revision to Danbury High School West also allows
educators to expand the career pathway offerings under the new academies model
at the high school that educators will be launching. The building will house
three instead of two pathways, according to leaders.