New Milford to rehabilitate 15 ‘worst-performing, high traffic’ roads this year in $3.7M project
NEW MILFORD – The town is moving forward with plans
to rehabilitate 15 roads deemed to be in the “worst condition” at
a cost about $3.7 million, officials said.Skip Ad
“Some of the worst condition roads are the most heavily
traveled roads,” John
Wittmann, chair of the Municipal Roads Committee, at the Town Council’s
March 24 meeting. “And they’ve become a maintenance headache due to the roads’
inability to sustain any lasting repairs.”
Approximately 8 miles of roadway in New Milford will
be rehabilitated this year, using the process of either reclaiming or milling
and paving, Wittman said. In road reclamation, the construction process
uses soil on site as the base of the new roadway surface.
The total amount of additional roadway that will be
rehabilitated with chip sealing or rubberized chip sealing will be determined,
according to Wittmann.
He gave this breakdown of the planned work:
• Drainage and milling and paving work on Candlewood Lake
Road North;
• Reclamation work on Prospect Place, Prospect Place
Extension, Tamarack Road and Country Farm Lane;
• Drainage and reclamation work on Prospect Street, Mill
Street, Mare Lane and Palomino Road;
• Drainage work on Mallet Lane, Elm Street Extension and
Treadwell Avenue;
• Structure replacement and reclamation work on Coopers
Lane; and
• Drainage and reclamation work on Skyview Drive and
Upland Road.
"There's a pretty good menu of roads to be done this
year," Wittmann said.
The work was slated to begin April 1 and was expected to be
finished by Oct. 1, he said.
The planned road rehabilitation work will encompass 6 miles
of roadway as well as 1 mile of roadway that will be completed in cooperation
with Aquarion and 1 mile completed with Public Works' in-house staff, said
Chuck Ballard, who works on the Public Works' engineering team.
The rehabilitation
work planned for 2025 is part of the committee’s “multiyear plan to
address the most worst-performing, high traffic roads first and finish up with
the lesser traffic roads in poor condition,” Wittmann said. Within the last
three years, nearly 30 miles of roadway has been paved while about 26 miles of
roadway has been chip sealed and 6 miles of roadway has been rubberized-chip
sealed, he said.
“Over the since years since its inception, the Municipal
Roads Committee and Public Works have succeeded in rebuilding an unprecedented
number of roads in town,” he said at the meeting.
“No longer will a 15- or 20-year life expectancy road be
left unattended until it needs to be rebuilt again,” Wittmann said. “That’s the
past – that’s not the future.”
Southington recommends closing Flanders and building two new elementary schools
SOUTHINGTON — School officials are recommending building two
new elementary schools and closing Flanders Elementary School to address its
aging facilities and low enrollment there.
The plan was met with mixed reviews at a recent special
meeting where residents and the Board of Education agreed something must be
done with the three elementary schools that haven't been renovated recently,
but some were not on board with taking away one of its “neighborhood
schools.”
“I think our kids do deserve two brand new schools, if it
comes down to that,” resident Ryan Dumont said at the meeting. “Selfishly, I
would not want to see Flanders school closed down as I put four kids through
Flanders who all happen to be walkers. But if we had some idea of what the land
would be used for after I think we would feel more comfortable just as a
neighborhood.”
Under the preferred plan, which is considered "Scenario
D," there would be seven elementary schools. This would include closing
Flanders, making Kelley Elementary School larger, making Walter Derynoski
Elementary School smaller and expanding South End School.
Phase 1 would have a new Kelley with four sections per
grade, expanding South End to have additional classrooms on the lower level and
closing Flanders. Redistricting would happen once phase 1 is complete, probably
in fall 2029 at the earliest.
The total cost for this recommendation would be $173.7
million with an estimated district share of $97.2 million.
The grant application process for a new Kelley and the South
End expansion would be in June with a referendum in the fall. The next phase
would start in 2028 with grant applications and a referendum.
Several factors went into making the decision to close
Flanders including the ability to “right size” the district’s schools with
enrollment, the construction and operational cost, the ability to redistrict to
nearby schools, it's smaller than Kelley and is irregularly shaped with very
little available space to build a new school on property, officials said.
It also has the smallest current projected enrollment out of
the three schools not recently renovated.
The town's other five elementary schools have all been
renovated or replaced with new schools since 2002 with the most recent
happening in 2010 when South End Elementary School was built and Oshana
Elementary School was renovated.
Flanders was built in 1956, Kelley was built in 1966 and
Derynoski was built in 1950, but was last largely renovated in 1992.
Board members also raised concerns at the meeting about
reducing staff and the effect on student services, but superintendent Steven G.
Madancy said Flanders staff would potentially be redistributed to the remaining
schools.
Another resident encouraged the board to think about the
students with special needs who attend Flanders and consider turning it into a
magnet school for children with special needs.
Town Council Chair Paul Chaplinsky Jr. — who was
speaking for himself, not council — said he thought Flanders should stay in the
town's possession and be used for other things, such as storage, for the time
being in case enrollment increases later.
The decision to close Flanders and build a larger Kelley
dates back to an initial proposal in 2022, which was put on hold.
"At the time, there were some concerns that the
Department of Administrative Services Office of School Construction, up at the
state and whether the input we had received regarding eligible reimbursement
costs would hold, given that the executive director at the time had just been
removed from the position and was under federal investigation," Madancy
said.
The district instead decided to go forward with a referendum
for the high school athletic facilities.
No action was taken on the elementary school recommendation
in 2023, as there were concerns about a too large Kelley, jeopardizing the
neighborhood school model, coupled with enrollment projections that didn't
justify closing any schools at that point, Madancy said.
No action was taken in 2024 either, given the town already
had a substantial request
for road projects on that referendum, Madancy said.
The district-wide facility committee returned this year,
incorporating prior concerns, including building elementary schools that were
bigger than desired, keeping a neighborhood model and balancing enrollment. It
also tasked the committee to adhere to Southington's policy that debt service
not exceed 9.5% of the annual town budget, Madancy said.
The recommended plan was selected from five options,
including a status quo one, because it best aligned with enrollment,
capacity and financial considerations, officials said.
Resident Stephen Croy said at the meeting he felt
Scenario C "seemed to have less risk, less redistricting and less
cost" and asked if there was a reason why they did not elaborate on what
the differences were between Scenario C and D.
The main difference between the plans is the exclusion of
the South End project in scenario C, according to the presentation.
“I think the only reason for the sake of tonight's meeting
is because the Facilities Committee had recommended Scenario D and so that's
why we were highlighting that," Madancy said. "They were both
discussed more in depth at the committee level."
Residents can go on the town’s website to see the
presentation and other additional information, as well as, submit a question.
The school board is expected to make a decision about the
plan at its April 10 meeting. The Town Council would need to have a bond
ordinance ready for April 14.
East Hartford fuel cell-maker partners with 3 companies to build 9.6MW facility in Bridgeport
East Hartford-based energy company HyAxiom Inc. has
partnered with three companies to build a 21-unit, 9.6-megawatt fuel cell
project in Bridgeport.
The Charter Oak CHP Project will be a combined heat and
power (CHP) fuel cell that uses thermal loop technology, HyAxiom announced.
The system will use byproduct heat from the fuel cells to
provide heating to local customers.
It will be HyAxiom's largest project in the U.S. and is
meant to address “critical challenges, including grid reliability and
sustainability.”
"This is a model for sustainable power solutions that
can be replicated nationwide," said Dave Alonso, chief commercial officer
at HyAxiom.
The partnership is with: Ridgewood, New Jersey-based Scale
Microgrid Solutions, which designs, builds, finances, owns and operates
distributed energy assets; NuPower LLC, a sustainable energy developer based in
Easton; and C.E. Floyd Co., a general contractor based in Middletown.
HyAxom previously
announced the involvement of Scale Microgrid and NuPower in the project.
Sweeping new tariffs put future construction projects at risk
Owners and developers of commercial construction projects
may hesitate to move forward with new work after President Donald Trump levied
fresh tariffs on more than 180 countries, according to industry sources.
On Wednesday, Trump announced a 10%
baseline tariff for all U.S. trading partners with additional
reciprocal tariffs for select nations, such as another 34% on Chinese imports
and 20% on European Union imports.
Many key construction materials, such as steel, aluminum,
lumber and copper, will be exempted
from these reciprocal tariffs, according to a White House release. But
importers of steel and aluminum have been paying 25%
tariffs on these materials since March 12, while Canadian softwood
lumber importers pay a 14.5%
anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariff, according to the National Association
of Home Builders. That has been putting upward pressure on costs, said Anirban
Basu, chief economist at Associated Builders and Contractors.
“Material prices are likely to rise in the coming months,”
said Basu. “On the nonresidential side, keep an eye on prices for iron and
steel products, as well as aluminum. Notably, domestic steel prices have
already risen significantly.”
Price increases are expected, but they will take time to be
worked into the system. Contractors tend to source products like concrete,
gypsum and other raw materials domestically, so those are less likely to be
impacted, said Tim Jed, supply chain leader at DPR Construction.
“However, even if products are domestically produced,
tariffs could affect domestic pricing or lead times,” said Jed. “Ultimately,
what matters is, where are we buying from and where are those materials being
imported from, but that’s not an easy piece of information to get to.”
Future spending at risk
Nonresidential materials prices jumped at a 9%
annualized rate through the first two months of 2025 as builders
rushed to gather materials. Overall construction inputs now sit 41% higher than
February 2020, according to ABC.
That jump in costs mixed with uncertainty on how markets
will react to the new trade policy will likely start to slow construction
investment activity, said Jeannine Cataldi, associate director of global
construction at S&P Global Market Intelligence. That will have an impact on
nonresidential construction, specifically privately funded projects.
“Most construction activity will show these effects in a lagged fashion, as projects already started will largely continue,” said Cataldi. “It is future spending that is most at risk.”
Nonresidential construction spending hit $1.26 trillion in
February, the highest
level on record, according to an ABC analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data
released Tuesday. However, public construction projects largely accounted for
that momentum, and even that may begin to fade, said Cataldi.
“Infrastructure will be impacted if funding is recalled —
this is on hold currently — if rising material prices affect budgets, and the
labor force is constrained by immigration policies,” said Cataldi.
Labor issues
Along with prices, economists are keeping an eye on the
hiring rate. If reciprocal tariffs contribute to construction layoffs and if
businesses are not expanding their staffing levels, it will be difficult for
the economy to maintain growth, said Basu.
So even though contractors have escaped additional tariffs
on steel, aluminum and copper, labor issues brought on by Trump’s policies
could put a dent in activity, said Michael Guckes, chief economist at
Cincinnati-based ConstructConnect.
“We remain very concerned about the construction labor
market,” said Guckes. “With the very real possibility of a contraction in labor
due to heightened unauthorized worker deportations, we could see the biggest
cost concern for the industry in 2025 come not from materials but from labor.”
How the market moves following what Trump calls his
Liberation Day tariffs should provide a strong indication of how businesses
will approach the new trade environment, said Basu.
For data center and manufacturing contractors, for instance,
activity will remain elevated regardless of tariff rates, said Basu.
Construction firms can also expect substantial additional spending on highway
and rail projects, and possibly broadband internet buildout in poorly connected
areas, said Ken Simonson, chief economist at the Associated General Contractors
of America.
Still, tariffs pose multiple threats to overall construction
activity, including these sectors with strong momentum, said Simonson. Basu
added prices for copper, a key material in data center construction, have
jumped significantly to start 2025.
“Copper prices have taken off recently, they’ve exploded to
the upside,” Basu said during an ABC economic outlook webinar on April 2. “Data
centers use a ton of copper. There are some issues emerging because of these
tariffs.”
Cancellations ahead?
The Trump administration is using tariffs as a tool to level
the playing field with key trading partners, said Basu. He says while
economists often view tariffs as bad news, a strategic move to push other
countries to lower their own trade barriers could be beneficial — if it works.
“This might be a mechanism by which to really lower tariffs
against U.S. exports,” said Basu. “If that’s the end game here, to use these
reciprocal tariffs to do that, to chisel away and hammer away at tariffs
against our exports, as an economist, I of course love that.”
Trump said on Wednesday that companies can avoid tariffs by
making their products in the U.S. Although there may be some examples of firms
opening or expanding manufacturing facilities in the U.S. as a result of
tariffs, these are likely to be outweighed by the value of projects that are
canceled, said Simonson.
Tariffs are costly for contractors that have committed to a
project at a fixed
or guaranteed maximum price contract and have not locked in the price
of materials. If contractors raise prices to account for tariffs, some owners
may cancel, defer or scale back upcoming projects, said Simonson.
“But the biggest threat is from producers and logistics
firms that face higher costs or lose export sales as foreign governments and
consumers raise tariffs and nontariff barriers or boycott U.S. products,” said
Simonson. “These companies and their workers will reduce spending, including
for construction.”
The suddenness of the implementation, with the tariffs going
into effect immediately, could cause whiplash for certain economic actors, said
Basu. He said there’s usually a buffer between when a policy is announced and
when it takes effect.
“Think long and hard about cashflow, and do not hold on to
unnecessary cost centers for too long,” said Basu. “Put another way,
contractors should focus on retaining cash.”
Jed added there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Simply
buying products and materials now to lock in the best price may not be the
right strategy.
“We let our teams work with the tools that we’ve built
internally to look strategically on a project-by-project basis of what makes
the most sense,” said Jed. “Don’t overreact.”