Waterbury breaks ground on $35.2 million renovation of Union Station
WATERBURY — State and local officials gathered Wednesday at
the Metro-North platform
on Meadow Street to break ground on a $35.2
million renovation to Union Station.
The renovation includes $7.5 million to transform a
1,600-square-foot former baggage area on the south end of the building into an
indoor waiting room next to the former
Republican-American building.
Construction on the new waiting room, which opens the
station back up to the public after having been closed for decades, will begin
next month.
The upgrade also includes a new platform that with real-time
arrival video displays, security features, and new ticket kiosks. That work
will begin next summer.
"Today's groundbreaking is more than a construction
project, it's really is an important investment in Waterbury's future,"
said Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski. "The Waterbury Branch line is one
of the fast growing in the state connecting our city to Fairfield County and
New York."
Pernerewski added that while the project enhances
opportunities for residents and commuters, the upgrade also fits in the city's
plans for transit-oriented development and revitalizing its downtown. The
federal government will pay 80% of the station's costs with the state assuming
the other 20%.
Metro-North President Justin Vonashek said the state's
investment adds to Metro-North's spending on signaling, and a nearly 50%
increase in service since 2022.
The improvement will improve accessibility and comfort, and
"doubling the platform length will mean faster safer bording for our
customers."
State and local lawmakers shared memories of parents and
grandparents using the rail line to commute back and forth to New York. Return
to rail use increased during and after the pandemic.
“This is an investment in Waterbury’s long-term
growth,” said Gov. Ned Lamont. “For too long, the city’s train station has
lacked the basic amenities riders need. This redevelopment will build on the
Waterbury Branch’s ridership success and help power downtown Waterbury’s
continued revitalization.”
The renovations to Waterbury
Union Station are part of a larger project the state Department of
Transportation is undertaking to upgrade all six train stations along the
28.5-mile Waterbury branch of Metro-North's New Haven Line. Train stations in
Derby-Shelton, Ansonia, Seymour, Beacon Falls and Naugatuck will be modernized
to encourage local plans for economic development and transit-oriented growth,
officials said.
The Waterbury branch line carried 269,352 passengers last
year, up from 257,076 in 2023, according to DOT figures.
Ridership had declined during the COVID-19 pandemic but has
rebounded in recent years. It fell from 243,671 in 2019 to 108,199 in 2020, and
then started climb back to 127,378 in 2021 and 197,392 in 2022.
“This project reopens Union Station to the public for the
first time in decades, restoring access to a historic building while bringing
the station into full ADA compliance,” Connecticut Department of Transportation
Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto said. “With modern amenities, we’re
delivering the kind of 21st-century transit experience riders deserve.”
The redeveloped 350-foot platform will support four-car
boarding with ADA standards and feature ticket vending machines, real-time
train arrival displays, improved lighting, and expanded waiting space for
passengers.
The station’s new indoor waiting room, inside the historic
Union Station building, will include seating, restrooms, security cameras, and
customer information displays, creating a modern and comfortable space for
riders. Both CT DOT and Metro-North will maintain offices on a mezzanine level
above, and a new elevator will connect all three floors of the facility.
During construction, CT DOT will provide substitute bus
service to minimize disruption, with bus operations expected to begin in summer
2026. Construction of the indoor waiting area will start in November 2025,
followed by platform work in early 2026. The new waiting area is expected to
open to the public in fall 2026.
Built in 1909, Waterbury Union Station was designed by famed
New York City architectural firm McKim, Mead & White. The Pape family, who
took ownership of the Republican-American in 1901, bought the building in 1952
and converted it into the newspaper's headquarters.
The former newspaper building is contributing to the city's downtown revitalization. A developer plans to convert the building into a mixed use commercial development with 39 units on the second floor with retail and restaurants on the first floor.
Another residential project is planned for Freight Street
and there are discussions about another residential project across the street.
"Hallelujah," said state Sen. Joan Hartley.
"This is a project that has seen at least three DOT commissioners, and two
governors. This is a pivotal project not just for Waterbury but for the
region."
Meriden reviews $191M projects for Pulaski and Hooker schools; city share estimated at $23M
MERIDEN — City and school officials are reviewing new design
studies for a new Casimir
Pulaski Elementary School and a renovated Thomas Hooker Elementary School,
which would cost the city an estimated $23.27 million after state
reimbursements.
The district now has three projects under consideration as
part of its long-term facilities plan: building a new Pulaski
School at 1 King Place, renovating the existing Thomas Hooker building and
repurposing the current Pulaski site.
Board of Education President Robert Kosienski said the
projects present an opportunity for the district — especially with a brand-new
Pulaski School and a “renovate-as-new” Thomas Hooker. He said the designs
will feature larger classrooms, more natural light and improved aesthetics that
would benefit both students and the surrounding downtown area near Cook
Avenue.
The report outlining the proposed projects has been sent to
Mayor Kevin Scarpati, City Manager Brian Daniels and City Council
leadership for review.
If the city and state approve the plans, the district can
move forward with detailed design work. If the project remains on schedule,
construction is projected to be completed by fall 2031.
At Pulaski, the new building would total 102,460 square
feet, up from 58,562 square feet in the original facility. There would be
94,434 square feet of walkable space.
Thomas Hooker would expand from 43,719 to 53,420 square
feet, with 49,242 square feet of usable space.
Projected enrollment at Thomas Hooker would rise from 340 to
389 students, while Pulaski would grow from 594 to 746 students. In the Pulaski
attendance zone, there are about 686 kindergartners through fifth-grade
students, though roughly 27% currently attend other Meriden elementary schools.
About 30 to 40 students enrolled at Pulaski live outside its zone, according to
Michael Grove, assistant superintendent at Meriden Public Schools.
Building new Casimir Pulaski School would cost almost $130
million
All current Pulaski students would attend the new building
once it is complete, as 1 King Place falls within the school’s existing
attendance zone.
The total cost for a new Pulaski Elementary School is
estimated at $129.27 million, with the state expected to reimburse $116.8
million. The city would fund $16.06 million, which would cover the demolition
of the old Meriden-Wallingford Hospital.
“The recommendation is to knock down and take away the whole
building,” Grove said. “That is a full knockdown of everything in remediation
of the whole property and then build a new school and playgrounds.”
According to Grove, roughly 90% of remediation has been
completed at 1 King Place, though some additional work is needed before
demolition.
Renovating Thomas Hooker School 'as new' would cost almost
$62 million
Renovations at Thomas Hooker are estimated to cost $61.96
million, with the state covering 90.36% and the city contributing $7.21
million. The project would add a new gymnasium, create a separate cafeteria,
and build a new pre-kindergarten wing.
Both schools are expected to include early childhood
services. Pulaski would house the STARS special education program, and both
schools would have pre-kindergarten classrooms.
State reimbursement rates differ slightly — 75.36% for
renovations and 74.53% for new construction — but Pulaski could qualify for an
additional 15% if it houses early childhood or special education programs,
bringing its potential reimbursement rate to 87.58%.
Here's how Hartford is planning to redesign several of its major roadways, including Main Street
HARTFORD — Several projects are underway, or in the planning
stages, to modernize and improve the safety of major roadways in Hartford.
Among them is the continued effort to overhaul Farmington
Avenue, building on work that started last year near the border of West Hartford and
Prospect Avenue. Right now, the city is working on improving the stretch of the
roadway from Whitney Street to Dennis Street.
Owen Deutsch, the city's acting planning director, said the
goal is to make the roadway safer for everyone, including pedestrians.
"It’s like you’ll see with a lot of these streetscape
projects — new bus shelters, better lighting, a better pedestrian experience
and changes to make the roadway safer," Deutsch said.
Curb extensions have been put into place, he said, which
both shortens the crossing distance for pedestrians and narrows the roadway,
encouraging drivers to slow down.
Deutsch said the city is also implementing
quick-build projects — which are cheaper and sometimes installed on a
trial basis — to make the roadway safer.
"With quick build projects, we always try to get
community input before, during and after on those," Deutsch said.
"There’s a balance that’s needed between safety and the overall appearance
of the neighborhood and the pride people take in the appearance. But it’s a
need everywhere."
Similar enhancements are also coming to a portion of Main
Street, Deutsch said, from Westland Street to the Windsor town line. Work will
start on a smaller stretch of roadway up to Tower Avenue. Like on Farmington
Avenue, Deutsch thinks the redesign will make the area safer.
"There are similar enhancements — median islands, new
lighting, trees, bus shelters, limited bike lanes," Deutsch said.
"The sidewalks have a lot of interruptions by driveways, so there are
concrete blocks and other structures adjacent to the sidewalk design to protect
pedestrians from the cars going in and out of these driveways of
businesses."
The city is also eyeing installing roundabouts on New
Britain Avenue, which
would accompany a road diet as well — the process of reducing the
number of travel lanes. A road diet is also planned on Asylum Avenue in 2026.
Deutsch said they're also thinking beyond streets when it
comes to transportation planning, noting that they have plans to build upon an
existing trail network, with one goal being to connect to various trials in
Windsor, Newington and West Hartford, with plans to link up the city's South
Branch trail with the
town's Trout Brook Trail.
Most of these projects, Deutsch added, depend on grant
funding — which can sometimes delay or change construction schedules. But he
says the city likes to always have something ongoing and another project ready
to move onto.
"With the scale of these projects, grant funding is
always necessary," he said. "The timing of a lot of it depends on the
grant funding cycles. The point is to always have something in progress so you
have a cycle where you have planning, design and construction. As soon as you
have a construction project completed, you have another one queued up to start
after that."
How do you move a river? Waterbury Mixmaster overhaul could do just that
Sometimes a highway construction project doesn’t go with the
flow.
After a years-long study, the state Department of
Transportation has narrowed
down the possible design options for a long-term overhaul of the
congested, crash-prone interchange of Interstate 84 and Route 8 in Waterbury
known as the Mixmaster.
Both alternatives, the Modern Crossover Interchange and the
Naugatuck River Shift, would involve unstacking a series of highway
bridges, reducing the number of ramps and opening access to the river, among
other changes, said Jonathan Dean from DOT’s Bureau of Engineering and
Construction.
A key difference between the two options, which will now go
through the environmental review process, is that one calls for the Naugatuck
River to be moved eastward to create space for Route 8 to be unstacked and
reconstructed on the river’s west bank.
It wouldn’t be the first adjustment of the river: DOT
officials said it was moved when the Mixmaster was first built in the
1960s.
How do you move a river, brook or stream? It involves
building a new channel and redirecting the existing watercourse to the new one,
officials said. Kevin Carifa, the director of DOT’s Office of
Environmental Planning, said it is more common than some may think.
“It is typical for a transportation project to relocate a
watercourse,” he said.
Carifa had a recent example on hand: The realignment of
sections of the Mad River and Beaver Pond Brook as part of a project several
years ago to widen
and straighten out a stretch of I-84 in Waterbury, not far from the
Mixmaster.
“We put this river system into some really crazy
configurations,” Carifa said. “That had to be done with a lot of hydraulic
review.”
Carifa acknowledged that the Naugatuck River Shift would be
a much larger project, and DOT won’t be able to say whether it is the best
option until it is vetted through the National Environmental Policy Act
process, which is expected to take two to four years. Exactly how the river
could be moved has yet to be determined.
Either the Naugatuck River Shift or Modern Crossover
Interchange would cost an estimated $3 billion to $5 billion, in 2022 dollars.
Dean said the river shift would be the “slightly more expensive” option.
Actual construction work to rebuild the interchange’s core
isn’t expected to begin for at least a decade.
During the environmental permitting process, DOT has to show
federal and state regulators how it will mitigate impacts to a natural resource
like a watercourse, Carifa said.
For the I-84 widening project in Waterbury, crews used
sandbag cofferdams — or barriers — to isolate construction areas and prevent
pollution, he said. DOT also worked with the Department of Energy and
Environmental Protection to install features for fish, including “root wads.”
“They’re literally a tree trunk that we cut, we salvage from
construction, and we place them in the river system,” Carifa said. “And
essentially what they do is they create habitat for the fish that can kind of
go underneath, to have shading and have an area of refuge, to take breaks as
they’re meandering up the streams or downstream.”
For another project — the replacement of a bridge
over Strongs Brook in East Haddam — brook trout were physically moved
from the brook.
“Before the contractor started work, (DEEP) came out and
they did this technique called electrofishing,” Carifa said. “They shock the
fish — it’s safe, it doesn’t kill the fish or anything like that. But basically
what they do is they shock the fish and they collect (them) and they ... move
those fish out of the way so they’re not impacted by the construction.”
“The success story afterwards is that the site is definitely
seeing some migration of the native brook trout back into the stream,” he
added.
The East Haddam project also involved a bypass pump system
that took water from an area upstream of the construction site and discharged
it downstream.
Carifa said DOT will specify during the design process which
materials a contractor will use when reconstructing a watercourse: Rounded
stones, for example, may be preferred over crushed rocks because they look more
natural.
The goal is to not just recreate a stream but add
improvements, Carifa said. Invasive vegetation could be replaced with native
plants. An old dam could be removed to allow more fish passage upstream.
Boulders could be placed in a stream to help create pools for fish or shelves
could be built into the riverbank to provide shade.
“When it comes to relocating a river, we need to prove to
the agencies that we’re going to make a betterment,” Carifa said.
Shelton close to $4M in state funds to remediate Canal Street site for apartment plan
SHELTON — Focus is turning to the latest Canal Street
redevelopment project.
Shelton Economic
Development Corp. President Sheila O’Malley said the city is hoping to be
awarded roughly $4 million in state
grant money to remediate 235 Canal St., former home to Apex Tool &
Cutter Co.
“We are pretty confident we will secure this funding,” said
O’Malley. “Getting this money will help to move this project along more
quickly.”
The money will be used to remediate the property, which is
owned by the Watts estate but under contract to developer John Guedes of
Primrose Companies.
While no plans have yet been filed for the site, O’Malley
said Guedes is preparing plans for a 100-unit apartment complex with a
two-level parking garage dubbed The Riverbank. O’Malley said this project will
require some $25 million in private investment.
“Mayor (Mark) Lauretti deserves a lot of credit for
recognizing the city needs to step in and help with properties like this one
that would be difficult to develop otherwise,” O’Malley said.
This is Guedes’ latest development along Canal Street. He
said the combined total of units built, units under construction and the
soon-to-be filed new building brings his total to 697.
Guedes’ projects are The Birmingham, 145 Canal St. (113
units); Avalon, 185 Canal St. (250); River Breeze, 223 Canal St. (68); Canal
Bridge Lofts, 6 River Side (48); Riverside Center, 7 River Side (6); Park
Royal, 135 Canal St. (92); Chromium Commons, 113 Canal St. West (30); and Apex
Tool site, 235 Canal St. (100).
“We've spent 30 years getting to this point,” Lauretti said.
“We have taken an area of the city that was void of any tax income and created
a windfall. At some point, people need to acknowledge and credit
success.”
Adding the units built by others since Guedes created and
initiated the Canal Street redevelopment plan, new units now exceed
1,000.
In value, Guedes said the units average out at $250,000 per
unit. That relates to $250,000,000 in value.
“Aside from the transformation of the downtown, this has
also added to the city’s tax revenues,” Guedes said.
At present, Guedes has two projects underway across the
street from each other along Canal Street: Riverview Park Royal, a five-story
structure that would house 92 apartments and 11,000 square feet of retail at
113 to 123 Canal St., and Chromium Commons, a four-story structure with
first-floor commercial space and 30 apartments on the top floors, at 113 Canal
St., former site of the Chromium Process manufacturing building.
These two projects presently under construction are close to
$40 million.
If the city obtains the $4 million in state funds, this
would be the latest grant for the Canal Street area.
Two years ago, the city received $1.1 million to be used for
reconstruction of Canal and Wooster streets; the engineering, design and
construction costs for reopening
the Wooster Street railroad crossing; and design and construction of the
final phase of the Housatonic Riverwalk, from 235 Canal St. to the Shelton
Canal Locks.
The work on Canal Street includes reconstruction of the
roadway — including new sidewalks, ramps, lighting and brick pavers — from 235
Canal St. North along the road to the Shelton canal locks.
Wooster Street reconstruction would include the same
improvements from Canal Street to Howe Avenue.
The city is also setting aside funds for engineering, design
and construction of the Wooster Street railroad crossing, which has been closed
for the past several years. All work on the reopening of the crossing would be
done by the railroad company and paid for by the city.