Another big warehouse in the works for Connecticut — this one for Electric Boat submarine parts
General Dynamics Electric Boat has acquired land for a big
new warehouse in eastern Connecticut to support submarine
construction at its Groton shipyard, as the U.S. Navy continues to signal
plans for a major expansion of the fleet.
On Jan. 2, Electric Boat completed the $5.5 million purchase
of a 55-acre commercial property just off Interstate 95 in North
Stonington from a real estate affiliate of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal
Nation, which operates the nearby Foxwoods Resort Casino, according
to town records. Electric Boat plans to build a 480,000-square-foot warehouse
at the 45 Frontage Road property, equating to about eight football fields in
total space.
Electric Boat is currently building the first two submarines
in a new fleet of 12 Columbia-class ballistic nuclear missile subs that the
U.S. Navy wants to replace 14 aging Ohio-class subs as they hit the end of
their extended operating periods. On Monday, the U.S. Navy announced that the
third submarine of the Columbia class will be named the USS Groton, in a nod to
the the city's importance to the Navy via the
Naval Submarine Base New London and the Electric Boat shipyard.
Columbia hull sections are being fabricated at an auxiliary
Electric Boat shipyard in Quonset Point, Rhode Island, then barged to Groton for final
assembly in a new building for Columbia subs on the Thames River.
An Electric Boat spokesperson did not provide any details on
whether the manufacturer considered other locations for the facility, but said
it would be used as additional space and not as a replacement for any other
warehouse space.
“We are limited in space to add significant warehousing in
either our Groton … or Quonset Point, Rhode Island shipyards,"
spokesperson Myra Lee said. “This purchase was an opportunity for EB to
expand its footprint in the region as it positions itself for the Navy’s
continued demand for nuclear submarines.”
The new site is attractive for its easy access to I-95, Lee
said.
Electric Boat has an existing facility a short distance from
the Frontage Road site at 25 Norwich Westerly Road in Stonington, where it
received permission from the town in December to build an auxiliary storage
tent with 36,000 square feet of space on an existing parking lot. Electric Boat
leases a building on the Eagle Park campus there from the Mashantucket Pequot
Tribal Nation, which has an administrative office next door.
"The structure is essentially a weather
enclosure," said Kurt Prochorena, principal engineer for Loureiro
Engineering in Plainville, speaking at a Stonington Planning & Zoning
Commission hearing in December. "It's really meant just to keep rain and
snow off of various items that shall be stored and used at various times."
The Electric Boat purchase was the biggest acquisition of
North Stonington land zoned for commercial use in nearly six years, according
to town records, dating back to the February 2019 transfer of a similar-sized
parcel on nearby Pendleton Hill Road that became the Kingdom of
the Hawk vineyard and event venue.
In 2022, North Stonington's planning and zoning commission
approved the creation of an "economic development frontage overlay"
along Frontage Road, at the request of a self-storage facility developer.
In addition to the Columbia class, Electric Boat builds
Virginia-class attack submarines for the U.S. Navy, and is currently designing
a prototype to replace those subs in the coming decades that the Congressional
Budget Office estimated last week would cost $8.7 billion each on average.
The U.S. Department of Defense continues to float a possible
"large payload" sub for the future, which would be about the same
size as the Columbia subs but tailored for missions the Virginia class performs
today rather than the nuclear deterrence role that drives the Columbia program.
The Columbia subs are roughly two-and-a-half times the size of the Virginia
class in total mass.
Huntington Ingalls Industries has also been adding space to
support nuclear submarine construction at its Newport News Shipbuilding plant
in Virginia, which builds Virginia-class subs and sections of the Columbia
subs, including in December with the acquisition of a metal structures
manufacturer in South Carolina.
CT Dems name housing a priority, including affordable units in towns that are 'resistant to that'
HARTFORD — Democratic lawmakers proclaimed housing one
of their top priorities Monday, though they offered few details on what
specific policies they intend to propose.
"We need to build more affordable housing," Senate
President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, said, "not only in the
urban areas that do have affordable housing now but need more of it, but also,
of course, in the suburban and rural towns that in many cases have been
resistant to that."
The comments came at a rare joint news conference between
Senate and House Democrats, at which they discussed housing and education, which Looney
called "two of the strongest overriding priority issues of the
session."
Lawmakers cited an array of stats underlining Connecticut's
housing crisis: The state is short an estimated
86,000 units, its vacancy rate is among the lowest in
the country, housing prices continue
to rise, and the average tenants pay
nearly a third of their income on rent.
"We know that the lack of housing is holding our
economy back," said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk. "We
know that too many people are spending too much money every month on their rent
or their mortgage because house prices are so high."
Leaders in both chambers have introduced legislation aimed
broadly at increasing housing options but have yet to fill in details of what
exactly the bills will do. Pressed for specifics Monday, they emphasized that
the session has just begun and said they've been meeting with housing advocates
to decide where to focus.
House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, said
Democrats will likely return to some of the proposals
they've considered in the past, including zoning
reform and protections
against evictions.
"We don't have the exact details of what's going to be
in the bill, but I think it'll be a mix of trying to encourage more building as
well as rental protections," Rojas said.
Rojas also mentioned Connecticut's rising
homelessness, arguing that homelessness occurs "when we've really,
truly failed."
Sen. Martha Marx, a New London Democrat entering her first
term as Housing Committee co-chair, said her focus is on creating more
"workforce housing" for teachers, nurses and other young
professionals to move into.
"My husband was a young engineer, and we lived in
apartments, but then you start a family and you want to live in a house,"
Marx said. "You just want to have that backyard with a picket fence."
Marx said she also supports the construction of multi-family
housing and apartment buildings but that single-family homes may appeal to a
greater number of communities.
"I just don't see why every single municipality in the
state of Connecticut wouldn't want a nice subdivision with a bunch of ranches
and capes where really, super nice Little Little coach-people around going to
live," she said.
In recent years, top Democrats have pushed bills that would
encourage or require towns to zone for more types of housing before ultimately
compromising on more modest proposals.
Rojas, one of the legislature's top advocates of new
construction, said he'd like to see more multi-family housing but that
"we're also not expecting people to add thousands and thousands of units
into their communities."
Connecticut Republicans have typically opposed housing
policies that would create new requirements for towns and cities, arguing
instead for "local control" of housing decisions.
In a statement Monday, Rep. Tony Scott, a Republican
representing Easton, Monroe and Trumbull, criticized Democrats for attempting
to bring back "concepts that failed in previous years."
"This is just more of the same — a one size fits all
mandate from the state regardless of local ability, need or wants," said
Scott, the top Republican on the Housing Committee. "Local control of
zoning maintains the character of our municipalities that draw people to our
state and keeps them here."
Instead of zoning reform, Scott said the state should
incentivize construction, allocate more money to homelessness services and
address "bad actors" in the rental market.
At the news conference Monday, Democratic lawmakers also
discussed priorities around education, including proposals to increase funding
for special education statewide.
Sen. Doug McCrory, D-Hartford, said it was appropriate to
combine housing and education into one news conference because the two issues
are inherently connected.
"You can determine what kind of education you're going
to get based on where you live, on your zip code," McCory
said. "When are we going to do something about it?"
The last money train out of D.C. under Biden has $11.6M for CT
Some of the last federal transportation dollars to be
distributed by the administration of President Joe Biden are going to
Connecticut to expand rail service in the corridor from New Haven to Hartford
and Springfield.
State and federal officials announced the $11.6 million in
funding Monday at Union Station in Hartford, one of the stops on the CTrail Hartford
Line service that launched in 2018 and has grown to 750,000 annual
passenger trips.
The federal grant will be matched by about $13.4 million in
state funding.
In the final round of awards before Biden is succeeded next
week by Donald J. Trump, Connecticut was one of six states to win discretionary
“restoration and enhancement” grants intended to improve passenger rail
service.
“He’s only got six more days in office, but ‘Amtrak Joe
Biden’ has made an enormous difference for infrastructure and rail across this
country, in particular this state,” Gov. Ned Lamont said.
As a U.S. senator, Biden was a commuter on Amtrak.
One of the busiest commuter lines in the U.S. is
Metro-North, which connects Fairfield County to New York City. Maintenance
backlogs and outdated bridges have forced lower speeds on rails used by
Metro-North and Amtrak.
“We are a rail state, probably more than any other state in
the country, and we continue to rely on passenger rail to make our economy
move,” said Garrett Eucalitto, the state commissioner of transportation.
Since Trump’s victory in November, the Biden administration
has accelerated efforts to distribute grant money from the $1.2 trillion
bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in November 2021.
“We’re entering a period of uncharted waters, as they say,
total uncertainty,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat.
Elon Musk, one of the overseers of what has been dubbed the
Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has set cutting $2 trillion in
annual spending as a goal, though he recently lowered expectations to perhaps
half that.
“The only place to slash funding is for transportation and
education and health care and other vital sources of support for the state,”
Blumenthal said.
Eucalitto struck a more optimistic tone, at least regarding
transportation funding that comes to the states by a mix of formulaic and
discretionary programs.
“I think, generally, there’s a sense that infrastructure is
traditionally non partisan,” he said. “The way that infrastructure bill is
drafted by the Senate and the House, a lot of it is already in place and
pre-appropriated, as advanced appropriations is called. So they have to do an
act of Congress to undo that.”
State Sen. Tony Hwang of Fairfield, the ranking Republican
on the Transportation Committee, was the only Republican elected official to
attend the announcement.
“I want to emphasize that for us in the state General
Assembly, transportation is truly a bipartisan effort, and I see that also in
the federal government, because the infrastructure bill was truly a bipartisan
one,” Hwang said.
U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-5th District, said the state’s
delegation, which is all Democratic, will continue to make the case to the new
administration about the importance of transportation investment
Connecticut, which originally anticipated getting about $6
billion through the bipartisan infrastructure law, has been awarded $9.6
billion in funding across 300 programs throughout state government, said Mark
Boughton, the commissioner of revenue services.
The bigger ticket items are transportation projects to
replace century-old bridges used by Amtrak and Metro North, including the major
span that carries Amtrak over the Connecticut River between Old Saybrook and
Old Lyme.
In addition to the Hartford Line grant, officials also said
the state was getting funds for safety and other projects.
—$2.4 million for preliminary engineering plans to
consolidate at-grade crossings on the Metro-North Danbury branch in Norwalk and
Danbury.
— $2 million to study options and prepare initial plans to
better connect the North End of Hartford to the rest of the city by lowering
and covering I-84 and the rail line.
— $2 million to study the removal of physical barriers and
the restoration of connectivity across I-91 in New Haven, from Fair Haven to
the Long Wharf district
— $400,000 to study the feasibility of eliminating the
Toelles Road grade crossing in Wallingford on the Hartford Line and replacing
it with a bridge carrying the road over the rail tracks and Route 5.
More than $16M in rail improvements will mean more trains in the New Haven-to-Springfield corridor
HARTFORD — With a backdrop of the historic Union Station,
where daily rail service on the Hartford line will become more frequent between
New Haven and Springfield, state officials led by Gov. Ned Lamont on Monday
announced more than $16 million in some of the last federal grants from the
Biden administration's Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law before Donald Trump becomes president next week.
Lamont was joined by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, U.S.
Rep. Jahana Hayes, Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam, and state
Transportation Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto, as well as state lawmakers to
announce that the infrastructure grants in recent years have topped $7.4
billion in transit projects alone.
Grants announced Monday include $11.6 million to increase
weekday round-trip service to and from Union Station in downtown Hartford,
including more stops in a renovated Windsor Locks station and $2.4 million to
study street-level train crossings along the Danbury Branch line that links
Norwalk to Danbury.
"It's going to continue to grow the competitiveness of
this region," said Arulampalam, noting that for decades the primarily
minority residents of Hartford's North End neighborhoods have been
disconnected. "It's so important to the future of this city. This state
will be more competitive in the long run because of it."
"As we have increased service on the Danbury Branch
line, we want to make sure that those are the safest crossings possible, to
avoid any crashes from happening there," Eucalitto said, adding that
another crossing being addressed is Wallingford's intersection
of Route 5 and Tolles Road, which federal authorities said is one of
the most-hazardous.
Eucalitto said the added trains will make it easier for
commuters to plan, particularly on the Hartford line, which had record
ridership in 2024. "We are a rail state, probably more than any other
state in the country and we continue to rely on passenger rail to make our
economy move," he said.
"We know that riders are choosing trains more often
because of their efficiency," and also because they can get other things
done while riding and get out of traffic, said state Sen. Christine Cohen,
D-Guilford, co-chairwoman of the legislative Transportation Committee. "We
want to make sure people feel more connected to their workplaces, their
communities and we're getting them there in a safer, more-accessible
manner."
"We fought very hard for these improvements,"
Hayes said during a noontime press conference. The congresswoman said her
constituents in both Danbury and Meriden will see improvements through the
infrastructure awards. In particular, Hayes pointed to the fatal
June 2023 crash at the Commerce Street train crossing in Norwalk.
"Today we're delivering dollars," said Blumenthal,
noting that his planned afternoon flight to Washington being delayed
underscored the value of rail transit. "This investment in Connecticut is
possible and important because of local leadership. The feds are delivering the
dollars, but local and state leadership are providing the impetus and the
direction for how that money is used. That money is going to be a force
multiplier. It's going to bind communities closer together, reconnect neighborhoods,
connect people and do it in a way with transportation that is safer,
more-reliable, quicker and longer-lasting."
"The infrastructure bill was truly a bipartisan
one," said state Rep. Tony Hwang of Fairfield, a ranking Republican
on the legislative Transportation Committee.
Mark Boughton, the state commissioner of Revenue Services
who has been designated by Lamont as a transportation czar, said that when the
federal infrastructure law was first enacted, the state estimated about $6
billion in federal support. As Biden leaves next week, Connecticut has received
$9.6 billion in support in a variety of areas, including public health, he
said. Under Eucalitto, 200 state bridges have been replaced under the program.
"He's only got six more days in office, but 'AMTRAK'
Joe Biden has made an enormous difference for infrastructure and rail across
this country and in particular in this state," Lamont said. "The rail
service between Boston and New Haven and New York is getting speeded up
dramatically thanks to his good works. This is a rail state. It's going to be
transformative for the state over the next 10 years. By 2035 you're going to
see an enormous difference."
Solar Farm may be headed to Torrington
SLOAN BREWSTER
TORRINGTON – The Land Use Department has received a letter
from Lodestar Energy stating its intent to submit an application for a
3-megawatt solar farm on West Hill Road to the Connecticut Siting Council this
month.
The Planning and Zoning Commission will briefly discuss the
matter at its meeting Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. but will likely not get too deeply
into the topic as there is no application yet, City Planner Jeremy Leifert
said. He expects the solar farm will come up for a more lengthy discussion on
Feb. 12.
Leifert said the correspondence, which came from the Avon
company’s attorney, noted it intends to put the application before the council
on or before Jan. 20 and included a basic description of the ground mounted
solar arrays planned for the 41-acre property.
Kurt Johnson, who lives on West Hill Road beside the
property, said neighbors have not yet received notification of the proposal.
Johnson and his neighbors have been waiting for Lodestar to
submit the application since last summer, when they spoke to surveyors on the
property and learned of the plans for the solar farm.
Johnson said he has been watching the property for years,
hoping the state would purchase and preserve it as it’s close to West Hill
Pond, abuts property owned by the Metropolitan Water District and is near Boy
Scouts of America Camp Sequassen, in New Hartford.
In October, Mayor Elinor C. Carbone and New Hartford First
Selectman Daniel V. Jerram said they received packets of information with maps
detailing Lodestar’s proposal. Though the solar array would be in Torrington
only, officials from both municipalities were informed because it would be
within 2,500 feet of the New Hartford line.
According to the letter, 19.6 acres of trees would be
cleared for the solar array.
Carbone has stated the three solar farms in varying stages
in Torrington are plenty for the city.
In August, in a letter opposing a solar farm proposed for a
54-acre lot on Lover’s Lane, she said as much.
“I’m always a little concerned about a distressed
municipality like the city of Torrington being overly burdened with these types
of infrastructure,” she has said. “If we have one that’s already approved for
the landfill and two others that are completed, a fourth and fifth feel overly
burdensome, particularly in a rural area like this one.”
Save for a minor site plan approval, most of the other
matters on the PZC’s agenda are scheduling public hearings for the two meetings
next month, Leifert said.