CT hospital tears down old parking garage. $100M replacement being reshaped with numerous services.
Kenneth R. Gosselin
An aging hospital parking garage now is being torn down —making way for a replacement that could triple the number of spaces in the next two years — but the hospital said its plans go well beyond a place to park vehicles.
“It isn’t a parking garage, per se,” Keith Grant, Hartford Hospital’s vice president of operations, said. “We’re looking at it as an arrival center. One of the complaints that patients have — and rightfully so — when you come to the hospital for whatever reason — being stressed, knowing what needs to be done — you really want that experience to be better.”
“Currently we’re unable to provide an optimized experience based on the footprint that we have now,” Grant said.
The new structure — estimated to cost $100 million — also
would include restaurants, shops and other services sought by patients and
visitors. Those amenities would be open to the public, adding more options that
are now few in the surrounding neighborhood. Eventually, there also could be a
conference center, Grant said.
The hospital also plans to connect the new structure
directly to the hospital’s Jefferson Building by way of a pedestrian bridge,
Grant said.
The arrival center is part of a massive, master plan by the
hospital’s parent, Hartford
HealthCare, to invest
$1 billion in the next decade in its flagship campus in Hartford.
Although components of the plan are evolving, some could include a cancer care
center, emergency department expansion or a new patient tower.
The hospital said it was too “premature” to comment on other
potential components of the master plan.
The investment is aimed, Hartford HealthCare has said, to
make the hospital a “global destination for health care.”
The 500-plus parking space garage now being demolished, at
the corner of Jefferson and Seymour streets, was formerly used by hospital
employees.
The new structure will be used by both employees and the
public and would be built in two phases. The first phase is expected to break
ground soon after the completion of demolition, expected by the end of March.
About 1,000 parking spaces would be created by mid-2026 and the potential for a
second phase of up to 700 spaces.
Construction of the second phase depends on the hospital
acquiring property at the corner of Jefferson and Washington streets where
there is now a Mobil gas station. Grant said negotiations are ongoing, but
declined further comment.
If the new arrival center were fully constructed — possibly
by mid-2027 — it would stretch the full block along the south side of Jefferson
Street between Seymour and Washington streets.
Grant said the planning for the demolition of the existing
garage has been extensive, minimizing the effects of noise and dust on the
surrounding neighborhood.
The work also is near historic buildings on the north side
of Jefferson.
One of those is the Levi Felt House at 142 Jefferson St.
built circa 1879 for an executive of the Travelers Insurance company. The Queen
Anne-style home — singled out as one of the most notable properties when the
Jefferson-Seymour National Historic District was formed in 1979 — is owned by
the hospital and is being renovated for administrative offices.
Grant said it could be occupied by the end of the year.
Nearby, at the corner of Jefferson and Washington streets, a
deteriorating, 1920s apartment building is slated to be incorporated into an
$80 million medical office building. The facades of the apartment building and
an adjacent structure on Jefferson would be used for the project.
An initial push by the hospital to tear down the apartment
met with resistance from the neighborhood, concerned about the loss of another
building that helped define the area’s architectural history.
Construction on the project could begin in the summer of
2025 and be completed by early 2027. The new medical building is expected to be
used for community-health services such as dialysis, dental and oral
surgery, specialty clinics, a food pharmacy and a diabetes life center. There
also could be access to social workers and an expansion of the rooftop gardens
that exist elsewhere on the hospital campus.
Meanwhile, Connecticut Children’s, which shares a campus
with Hartford Hospital, is nearly two years into construction on a $280 million
addition to its hospital. The addition, expected to be finished by the end of
2025, will be connected by a skywalk to a $47 million parking garage across
Washington Street. The parking garage is now under construction.
Lawmaker in Conn. Proposes Widening I-84 to Reduce Traffic Congestion Between Two Cities
Conn. State Rep. Mitch Bolinsky is no stranger to traffic on
Interstate 84 in his state.
He knows the bottlenecks along the route from his home to
the State Capitol in Hartford, including places where traffic merges in what he
deems a chaotic or unsafe way, leading to frequent accidents. He knows he is
not alone in being frustrated at the situation.
"I experience it every day," Bolinsky said.
"But the most important thing is, I hear [it] from the constituents every
day."
As a result, Bolinsky has proposed a possible solution by
submitting a bill calling for the Connecticut Department of Transportation
(CTDOT) to study building an additional traffic lane, both eastbound and
westbound, along more than 30 mi. of I-84, from Exit 7 in Danbury through Exit
20 in Waterbury.
"The economic future of Connecticut is tied to our
transportation system," he told CT Insider. "If we don't have the
capacity to handle the traffic that's flowing through here, it's going to find
another way."
Though the bill, which has been referred to the
legislature's Transportation Committee, is not likely to pass, Bolinsky said
his primary goal is to "start some conversation" around the primary
question: Would adding a lane to the highway actually reduce traffic?
Research has shown that adding lanes does relieve congestion
in the short-term, as one would expect. Within a few years, though, studies
show that expanded highways typically attract more cars, which leads to
increased traffic once again.
This principle, known as "induced demand," has led
some advocates and policymakers to oppose adding lanes to roads as a way of
mitigating traffic. As they see it, making highways wider costs enormous sums
of money without meaningfully reducing congestion.
"It doesn't work," said Jay Stange, Transport
Hartford coordinator of the Center for Latino Progress. "Inevitably, that
extra capacity draws additional interest in using [the highway] until
eventually that's full and you end up with a 20-lane interstate with 10 lanes
going in either direction."
Stange lamented that I-84 cuts through Connecticut's cities
and expressed hope the state would move away from its reliance on highways as
part of its near- and long-term development plans.
Still, fears over induced demand haven't stopped highway
expansion projects nationwide, from Texas to New England, according to CT
Insider.
Could More Transit-Related Projects Be the Answer?
Bolinsky noted that in his state, I-84 in western Conn. has
been barely upgraded in decades, and it is not sustainable to have just two
lanes in each direction. That contrasts with segments of the freeway east of
Waterbury that have three lanes or more heading to and from Hartford.
"The backups are pretty monumental," he said of
the location.
A spokesperson for CTDOT pointed out that the state recently
completed a $223 million project to upgrade the interchange between I-84 and
Connecticut Highway 8 in Waterbury — an area of exits and ramps known locally
as the "mixmaster" — and is currently exploring options to reduce
congestion in the Danbury area.
Stange argues the best way to alleviate traffic on congested
highways is to build a society less reliant on cars, by such measures as
improving public transit options and building more housing near train stations.
This would additionally provide environmental benefits, he said, such as
reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
"Everybody is now stuck driving in a car, often by
themselves, everywhere they go," Stange said. "And if you try and
change the system by adding extra pavement, it's really a zero-sum game. It's
impossible."
Bolinsky also has proposed other pieces of transit-related
legislation this session, including a bill that would increase the use of
automated traffic enforcement on highways and another that would bar GPS
devices from detouring drivers toward local roads.
CT Insider also reported that the Connecticut Legislature's
Transportation Committee will consider several bills during the current
session, including proposals to fully restore service on the Shore Line East
rail line, reform laws around towing practices and allow high school students
to access public transportation more easily.
Naugatuck Valley officials reject DOT request to delay highway project
WATERBURY — Fed up by years of delay, the board of the
19-town Naugatuck
Valley Council of Governments has sent a message to state
transportation planners, voting to oppose another postponement of an estimated
$35 million project to reconstruct the interchange of Route 63, Route 64 and
Interstate 84 on the Waterbury-Middlebury line.
The unanimous vote Feb. 21 adopted an unusual staff
recommendation to reject a proposal from the state Department of Transportation
to remove the long-planned project from its latest three-year capital plan.
Generally, past requests to amend these transportation improvement plans have
been accommodated. The frustrations over this project's timeline made this
time different.
The DOT proposed to move the interchange reconstruction
project from the current fiscal year's construction list to some future year to
be determined, pushing it out of a current short-term capital plan.
Transportation planners have determined updated traffic volume data is required
for the final design.
Construction near Exit 17 of Interstate 84
The Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments rejected a state
request to delay a project to reconstruct the interchange of Route 63, Route 64
and Interstate 84 on the Middlebury-Waterbury line.
The vote was more of a delaying action and a protest because
it only stops the DOT from immediately pushing back the project, but does
not mean the project will be moving forward any time soon. The vote to reject
primarily registered the frustrations of the member towns and staff of
the Naugatuck Valley Regional Council of Governments, perhaps none more
than long-time Middlebury First Selectman Ed St. John.
"I've been dealing with this project since 1976,"
said St. John, the first selectmen for more than 40 years. "This is one
project that I'm sure is going to outlive me. I have outlived some of the
others, but this one is going to be just the opposite. I'm so frustrated with
this whole thing. It is just kick the can down the road, kick the can down the
road, and it just keeps going on and on and on and on, and it goes
nowhere."
Rick Dunne and Rich Donovan, the executive director and
the transportation planning director for the Naugatuck Valley COG,
explained the rejection of the DOT request will provide additional time to get
more information from DOT on the project's timeline.
"This project has been going on for a very long time
and it has been delayed many times so it may not be a terrible idea to show
that we are frustrated about the ongoing delays and would like to see a real
commitment to when this project would move forward," Donovan said.
The project involves widening sections of Routes 63 and
64, constructing a new roadway to connect Chase Parkway with Route 63 and a
multiuse trail to connect the Middlebury Greenway, widening an I-84 off-ramp to
Chase Parkway, and altering and adding traffic lights. There is also a new
commuter parking lot planned. Its purpose is to address safety and
operational concerns associated with traffic delays and crashes with the
interchange zone.
The estimated construction cost is $35 million, but there is
no confirmed funding, according to the DOT capital plan.
Donovan reported construction was scheduled to start in the
current 2025 fiscal year, but the DOT has determined that updated traffic
volume and turning movement data is required before the project can move to
final design. As a result, the department is proposing to push the project out
of the current three-year capital plan to be included in some future one.
Donovan explained this would be the third time that the
interchange project has been shuffled in and out of a short-term capital plan.
He said while there is no objection to the DOT getting updated traffic volume
and pattern data, the concern is that there is no commitment for when the
project will move forward.
The motion to reject the DOT proposal requested further
collaboration with DOT regarding the project timeline and scope.
"Hopefully, we'll get a response," Dunne said.
Some federal funds are still frozen. Here’s what builders can do
Uncertainty continues to plague infrastructure and climate
projects as federal agencies defy court orders telling them to disburse
funding. Federal contractors are navigating the fallout — including paused and
terminated work — as Trump’s directive to halt federal money continues to be
challenged in court.
President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 “Unleashing American
Energy” order told federal agencies to stop paying out Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act funds. Although
courts halted the directive, federal agencies have continued to implement the
freeze while they review projects for compliance with the new administration’s
agenda.
For example, the Washington
DOT has seen money halted for bridge work and court-mandated culvert
replacement efforts, among other programs, the Washington State Standard
reported.
In a high-profile case, newly appointed Transportation
Secretary Sean Duffy ordered a review
of the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s compliance with the
terms of some of its federal agreements, Mass Transit reported, imperiling $4
billion in federal funding for the project.
A federal judge heard arguments on Feb. 21 about whether
to further
block the Trump administration from freezing trillions of dollars in
federal grants and other spending, in a lawsuit brought by 22 attorneys
general, NPR reported.
Agencies defy orders to dole out funds
Two lawsuits blocked an Office of Management and Budget memo
implementing Trump’s order via temporary restraining order on Jan. 29. However,
federal agencies have continued to implement the freeze, arguing the temporary
restraining order rulings have a limited scope, said Jackie Unger, partner and
Government Contracts Group lead at Washington, D.C.-based law firm
PilieroMazza, during a Feb. 12 webinar.
“Agencies continue to freeze funds, they’ve refused to
resume disbursement of appropriated funds and they’ve continued to issue stop
work orders and terminate contracts,” Unger said.
The judge in the Feb. 21 case subsequently said that
the agencies’
actions violated his temporary restraining order and clarified the
scope, NBC reported, explaining that it prohibits all freezes in obligated
funding based on OMB’s memo and Trump’s executive order.
“The clarification may give contractors the ability to
challenge agency actions in response to the executive orders, if they’re seeing
impacts from those,” Unger said.
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The government has appealed the temporary restraining orders
up to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, per Unger, but the courts have so far
rejected requests for an immediate stay, which would have allowed the funding
freeze to go back into effect. As the issue works its way through the legal
system, the precise implications of Trump’s order may not be fully understood
for months.
In the meantime, here are some steps that civil contractors
can take if they are facing orders to stop work.
Dealing with stop work orders
A federal contracting officer can tell contractors via
written order to stop work at any time, typically under the Federal Acquisition
Regulation 52.242-15 clause, for a 90-day window, said Lauren Brier, partner at
PilieroMazza, in the webinar. The officer can extend that period, but they must
have reasonable justification and it has to be agreed upon by both parties, so
contractors can push back.
Contractors are entitled to standby costs, which are
overhead or costs that directly result from the stop work order, but they must
also mitigate the situation by furloughing employees, communicating on lease
costs and demobilization on jobsites, for example.
“Once a stop work order is issued, the contractor has an
immediate duty to mitigate costs,” Brier said. “You can’t just have people
sitting on your payroll for the 90-day period and expect the government to make
that payment.”
The contracting officer is required to make an equitable
adjustment in the delivery schedule and contract price, Brier said. Requests
for equitable adjustment are typically due within 30 days of the lift of the
stoppage and may include items such as attorney’s fees, administrative costs
and internal costs.
However, “there’s no regulatory requirement for the
government to respond, so they can sit on that,” Brier said.
In light of that potential delay, she offered some best practices for dealing
with stop work orders:
Immediately inform your contracting officer of your
intention to file a request for equitable adjustment.
Begin working to mitigate costs and record proof of
mitigation.
Document efforts to implement stop work.
Consider filing a claim in lieu of a request for equitable
adjustment to ensure timely processing of the cost request.
“Another thing that we are suggesting clients do is when
they receive a stop work notice, that they reserve their right to challenge the
high-level directive to stop work,” Brier said. “Because a lot of these courts
are starting to determine these funding freezes as illegal or unlawful,
potentially these stop works that are flowing from these executive orders are
similarly unlawful.”
CT's Great Wolf Lodge at Mashantucket to open ahead of schedule, offering special deal
Great
Wolf Lodge at Mashantucket is opening a few
weeks ahead of schedule on May 9 and is offering a deep discount off a
multiple night visit in 2025 in order to celebrate.
“We are excited to open our doors ahead of schedule and give
families an opportunity to experience the dynamic and immersive experience
offered at our next-generation resort even sooner,” said Henry Tessman, General
Manager of Great Wolf Lodge Mashantucket.
Great Wolf Lodge at Mashantucket was initially slated
to open on May 23, but will now open a few weeks earlier as construction was
ahead of schedule.
To mark the early opening of the 92,000 square-foot water
park early, Great Wolf Lodge is offering customers up to 40% off a
multiple-night stay at Mashantucket for
those who use the promotion code “OPENMAY9” when booking their accommodations.
The code will only be valid for the next week until March 2, and the trip must
be taken between May 9 and Dec. 31, 2025.
In preparation for Connecticut’s first Great Wolf Lodge
opening, the company is hosting hiring
events for the 500 jobs created by the new resort and amusement park.
Great Wolf is holding a job fair between March 13-26 at the Westgate Plaza, 425
W. Main St., in Norwich.
“As we prepare for our grand opening, we’re eager to build
an outstanding team of Pack Members who share our passion for hospitality and
creating unforgettable family experiences,” Tessman said.
Located next to Foxwoods Resort Casino, Great
Wolf Lodge aims to provide a family-friendly experience in an area known mostly
for its adult amusements. The $300 million development includes more than 500
hotel rooms and is expected to generate 500,000 visitors a year.
The water in the park pools is kept at 84 degrees year-round
and will feature 13 slides, including one that is unique to Connecticut: the
Peacock Plunge. There is also a lazy river and wave pool for those who enjoy
getting wet. Several dry activities are being offered, as well, in the
Adventure Park. Those include a high ropes course, zip line, and the Great Wolf
Lodge’s brand-exclusive Magi Quest game.
There will be several Great Wolf-branded restaurants
available along with outside vendors, including Dunkin'. Build-a-Bear will
also have a location in the resort with Great Wolf Lodge character animals to
build.
BROOKFIELD — Whenever it rains, students can't play softball or baseball on
the Brookfield High School fields for several days after because of excessive
flooding, officials say. 0:06
That could change, however, with help from a state grant the
town has just applied for, which, if approved, would go towards a multi-million
dollar project to improve field drainage.
The project, which is estimated to cost between $4.2 to $4.5
million, will involve installing new grass as well as artificial turf on both
the baseball and softball fields.
At the Feb. 3 Board of Selectmen meeting, when the project
was first presented, Greg Dembowski, Brookfield's community development
specialist, said while presenting the project that whenever it
rains, water "just puddles and sits there ... and the town cancels
the games."
The project would also resolve the "critical
shortage" of field availability in town, Dembowski wrote in the grant
application to the state, portions of which he shared with Hearst Connecticut
Media.
The town now has one 90-foot baseball field, he said, which
does not have lights.
"This three-phased project will increase this 90-foot
field's availability across the board and allow the town to increase usage by a
very large margin for playing baseball and softball, and will add an entirely
new field for soccer, lacrosse, (and) flag football," he wrote.
The project would also involve adding lighting, turf, grass,
fencing, dugouts, irrigation, drainage, benches and bleachers.
Brookfield High won the 2023 Class L state baseball
championship, its first title in the sport. The Brookfield High softball team
won the 2000 Class M state championship.
The town applied for the grant through the state’s Small
Town Economic Assistance Program, for $775,00, which would pay for the
first phase of the project.
If the state approves the grant, the town offered to fund 30
percent, or $230,000, and the state would pay for the remaining $545,000.
The grant award will be announced April 3 on the state Office of Policy and Management website. If
the town is awarded the grant, the first phase would involve putting up
poles and lights, and would be completed in September. The entire project would
be complete in 2027.
'Immediate' impact
“The STEAP grant is a very competitive grant. (116) towns
are eligible to apply for up to $1 million. The STEAP grant process encourages
but does not require matching funds from the towns,” Brookfield First Selectman
Steve Dunn told Hearst Connecticut Media.
"The town has a good track record being
awarded STEAP grants," Dembowski said. "We have received six of
them over the past eight years.
"Staff, leaders of various municipal boards, youth
group presidents and the high school athletic director put in a lot of effort
to get us to the point where we have developed a vision for the Brookfield High
School sports complex," he said.
The only time play would be disrupted during the project's
construction is during phase 2, when the turf field is put in. During the time,
the town may have to play on fields in other towns, Dembowski said.
The impact of the project would be “immediate” by extending
playing time into the evening hours since 56 light fixtures would be installed,
Dembowski said on the application.
He said lighting would allow hundreds of additional hours of
field usage, increase security and safety for athletes and spectators, as well
as help reduce players' injury.
He said the community would benefit by generating
revenue from additional field rentals and attracting players and their families
from the region to tournaments.
Dunn said the town has funding for the project from
the Candlewood
Lake Elementary School project and its Capital Projects Fund that was
included in the town's budget for fields.
"We lost two fields when we did the CLES project and as
part of that project, $820,000 was set aside in the CLES budget to take the
portables down at Whisconier School and address the needs for playing
fields," he said.
Dunn said if the town doesn’t get awarded the STEAP grant,
it would look at other options and choose those that make the most sense for
meeting the needs of its players and residents.