CT won't fund Long Island Sound bridge or tunnel, Lamont says, citing high cost: 'Keep talking'
Gov. Ned Lamont talks often about shaving
a few minutes off Metro-North commute times to New York.
But cutting travel with a bridge
or tunnel linking Connecticut and Long Island? Not so much.
In a recent interview, Lamont made clear he won't be
chipping in a dime for the pie-in-the-sky project that never seems to die.
"I can tell you that they've been talking about that
ever since I was a kid in Long Island," said Lamont, 71, who
grew up in Laurel Hollow on the island's North Shore. "So keep
talking."
First floated in 1938, a Sound crossing for vehicle traffic
has continually resurfaced over the years, with plans for bridges,
tunnels or a combination of both at landing points along the
Connecticut shoreline, as well as Rye, N.Y., and other Westchester
communities. High-speed
rail under Long Island Sound has also been looked at.
The latest push comes from Stephen Shapiro,
a Connecticut housing developer who said he dreams of building a
bridge from Bridgeport to the Sunken Meadow State Parkway in Suffolk
County, N.Y.
Supporters
of a crossing say it would reduce travel times, ease highway
congestion and create thousands of jobs. Opponents cite the project's steep
cost – about $50 billion according to a 2017 feasibility study, likely higher
today – and the effects
of loud construction noise on the Sound's fragile ecosystem.
The idea has long attracted some high-profile backers,
particularly in New York, where master builder Robert Moses and former Govs.
Nelson Rockefeller and Andrew
Cuomo have championed various iterations of the project, even as
Connecticut leaders have shown little interest.
Lamont was noncommittal on the idea of a Sound
crossing. He called it an "incredibly complicated and supremely
expensive" and quickly answered 'no' when asked if the state would help
finance it. The state Department of Transportation said in a statement that
neither it nor any of the state's regional planning agencies have included the
project in their long-range plans.
"Over the next few decades, we are committed to
advancing the various projects emerging from our long-range studies and
plans," DOT spokesperson Josh Morgan said.
The statements reflect the prevailing view of the
project: while it's fun to imagine and could offer some benefits, it
remains farfetched and unlikely
to become a reality anytime soon.
Plus, the state faces more pressing financial matters,
including broken-down
labor negotiations, a potential joint bid to buy the Connecticut Sun and a
$3 billion to $5 billion project to replace
the so-called Mixmaster interchange in Waterbury.
If the Sound crossing project somehow moved forward, Lamont
said he'd prefer a tunnel when asked by a reporter. "Don't you like
tunnels more?" he quipped. "Let's see what the Boring Company
can do," he added, jokingly referring to Elon Musk's tunnel
construction firm.
All four of North Haven's elementary schools could be rebuilt, board chair says
NORTH HAVEN — All four of North Haven's current
elementary school buildings may not be around much longer. Board of Education
Chair Ronald Bathrick announced at Thursday's school board meeting that they
could soon be rebuilt.
Following an audit team's assessment into what work needs to
be done to get the district's six school facilities "up to
par," Bathrick said it became evident that financially, the best
course of action is to replace the four elementary school buildings.
"The numbers are huge and that is just to get your
elementary schools in a point where everything's operational," he said
about repairing the buildings. "Doesn't mean it's the best, it doesn't
mean anything other than everything kind of works for now. But parts of Ridge
Road (Elementary School) are 90 years old. Clintonville School is 60 years old.
Green Acres (Elementary School), Montowese (Elementary School), they all have
age to them."
The state's reimbursement rate for new school construction
projects is a major driver for why North Haven officials are leaning toward
building new instead of conducting renovations. According
the Connecticut Department of Administrative Service's updated reimbursement
rates, North Haven's new construction reimbursement rate went up from 27.5%
in 2025 to 31.3% in 2026.
"Your return on investment is much smaller when
you just make a repair. ... It's kind of crazy, but the way the state
gives you money back and forth and the way you qualify for funds, it just seems
to work out that way," Bathrick said.
Following a question by school board secretary Eleni
Diakogeorgiou, Bathrick said students at two of the four schools, Green
Acres Elementary and Clintonville
Elementary, will learn out of other buildings during the construction
of the new schools.
"Because the properties aren't big enough to build on
site while those buildings remain," he said.
Bathrick added that it is likely Ridge
Road Elementary and Montowese Elementary would be built first as those
students can stay in the old building while the new one is under construction.
When the new Ridge Road and Montowese buildings are done, the students will
move into the schools so Green Acres and Clintonville students could move into
the old Ridge Road and Montowese schools while their new buildings are being
built.
"The entire process should take approximately four
years from start to finish," Bathrick said.
It is too early to say when construction could take place as
it will take Bathrick and district officials another four to six months to
prepare a formal rebuild plan. But Bathrick said the plan, once it's ready and
approved, is to get everything done "as soon as we can."
"We're hip deep in the thing and trying to really work
it out the best we can to see what works best for the town, the future and the
education of our students moving forward," he said. "And that's
really the thing that is pressing this whole issue. We don't think that we can
accommodate the educational needs of our students moving forward over the next
six years. I'm not talking about tomorrow, I'm talking about as we look forward
five and six years from now, it's going to be a struggle."
CT moving ahead with $52.5M expansion of EV charging network after Trump initially blocked funds
The Trump
administration in February paused the distribution of funds to states
through the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program, but
reopened the funding program in August in the face of legal challenges and
political pressure.
The decision in August to relaunch the
NEVI program caught some observers by surprise. A judge had ordered federal
officials to release funds to certain states that had sued but not to others,
and the administration could still have appealed that ruling.
The bipartisan Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act that was enacted in 2021 allocated $52.5
million in NEVI funds to Connecticut over five years to upgrade existing
fast-charging direct current infrastructure and construct new DC charging
stations.
The state has committed just $1.4 million of that federal
funding, according to the state Department of Transportation.
For the moment, Gov. Ned
Lamont said his administration is proceeding on the assumption that
the state will receive all $52.5 million in pledged NEVI funds.
"I can't tell you what tomorrow will bring. It's pretty
erratic coming out of the White House," he said.
The Lamont administration in June 2024 announced that
nine applicants had been selected for conditional grant awards totaling $5.4
million. Seven months later, the Trump administration paused the NEVI program.
The state DOT announced the Federal Highway Administration
approved a required annual update to the state's NEVI plan five days before the
federal government partially shut down on Oct. 1. With the approval, DOT
officials said the department will continue moving forward with grant awards to
help expand the state’s electric vehicle charging network. The shutdown has not
affected those plans.
At this time, there are 193 high-speed DC charging stations,
with 738 ports in Connecticut and another 1,286 charging stations powered by
alternate current with 3,746 ports, according to U.S.
Energy Department figures.
AC charging stations can charge a battery-powered electric
vehicle (BEV) to 80% from empty in 4 to 10 hours, and a plug-in hybrid electric
vehicle (PHEV) in 1 to 2 hours, according to the U.S. Department of
Transportation. DC charging equipment can charge a BEV to 80 percent in 20
minutes to 1 hour. Most PHEVs currently on the market do not work with
fast chargers.
Electric
vehicles represent slightly more than 2.3% of the more than 2.5
million light-duty vehicles registered in Connecticut, according to state
figures. As of July 1, there were nearly 67,660 registered electric vehicles in
Connecticut, according to state officials. Total active registrations have
increased nearly 29 times from 2,344 on July 1, 2014.
The announcement of the FHWA's approval of
Connecticut's revised NEVI plan came six weeks after the Trump administration
lifted its pause on the $5 billion NEVI initiative in August. That followed a
court challenge from 16 states and the District of Columbia.
Connecticut was not one of the states that sued, but it is
currently one of 27 states with an approved NEVI plan, according to the EV States Clearinghouse.
When the Trump administration directed states to stop
spending NEVI money in February, it reported 84% of the approved funds had not
yet been committed. When the funding pause was lifted in August, U.S.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement that
the administration opposed subsidizing green energy, but would respect the
congressional spending directive requiring the federal government to support
charging stations.
The NEVI Program pays private, public, and nonprofit
entities that will build, own, maintain, and operate charging infrastructure up
to 80% of eligible costs. While DOT distributes Connecticut's share of the
federal funding, it will not own or operate any NEVI-funded electric vehicle
chargers. The department said it received more than 80 expressions of interest
in NEVI funding.
All NEVI stations must have at least four charging ports
with a minimum power level of 150 kilowatts. These charging stations will be
open to the public 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
The first phase of the state's buildout targets the
designated "Alternative Fuel Corridors" of interstates 91, 95, 84 and
395, as well as state Route 7. There can be no more than 50 miles distance
between fast-charging stations along AFCs and stations must be located within 1
mile of an AFC exit ramp where feasible.
DOT spokesperson Josh Morgan said the state is now
finalizing the $5.4 million in grant agreements for the nine charging stations
selected last year, including one site each in Meriden, Hartford, Willington,
Waterbury and Putnam, and two each in Plainfield and New Milford.
The individual grant awards range from $489,327 for a
location at 50 Providence Pike in Putnam off I-395 to $629,555 for a location
at 1101 East Main St. in Meriden, according to DOT. The release of the NEVI
funds is contingent upon the execution of a contract between each recipient and
the state.
According to the latest state plan, approximately $25
million in NEVI funds will be spent on the design and construction of this
first phase. The remaining $24 million be allocated under the community
charging phase. The remaining balance will go towards on-premise signage.
The community charging phase will expand the network of
fast-charging stations beyond the five AFCs. It will prioritize areas in the
state with few existing fast-charging opportunities, according to the state
plan. There will be a focus on existing retail locations with onsite amenities
that provide safe environments and access to restrooms, and priority will be
given where the charging station operator is also the site host.
Morgan said the DOT has no timetable for the community
charging phase at this time. Assuming federal funds are available, the state
plan anticipates requests for proposals will be issued following federal
certification that Connecticut's AFCs are fully built out.
Connecticut corruption trial on school construction heads into its second week
The federal felony trial of Connecticut’s former top school
construction official Konstantinos “Kosta” Diamantis, heads into its
second week on Tuesday with a cross-examination of a Hartford
construction consultant.
Shortly after 9 a.m., defense lawyer Norman Pattis is
scheduled to begin questioning John Butkus of Arcadis, an international design
firm and a longtime construction manager for the city of Hartford in a joint
venture with O&G Industries. Pattis
may focus on a March 2020 bid for work on Bulkeley High School by the firm
Construction Advocacy Professionals (CAP) that was originally $2.3 million, but
over that following weekend, after the proposals were opened, was reduced to
under $1.8 million.
Earlier in the trail, CAP's owner Antonietta Roy
testified that she paid Diamantis about $4,500, including checks and cash
handed to Diamantis through an open window of his car on a Hartford street.
When Diamantis
was fired in October of 2021, Roy an alleged co-conspirator who has pleaded
guilty in connection with the case, terminated Diamantis's daughter Anastasia
from a part-time, $45-per-hour office job.
The prosecution this week is expected to call Salvatore
Monarca, the owner of a Middlebury masonry company called Acranom - Monarca
spelled backwards - that won school building contracts worth millions of
dollars.
Monarca's appearance in U.S. District Court here would
follow the earlier testimony of Acranom's former vice president John Duffy, who
detailed tens of thousands of dollars in payments to Diamantis, who allegedly
help the company obtain contracts and assisted in settling a two-year-long
dispute over the masonry company's performance for earlier work at Weaver High
School with the city of Hartford for $300,000. Both Monarca and Duffy have
also pleaded guilty in connection with the case.
Other people on the witness list for Assistant U.S.
Attorneys Jonathan Francis and David Novick include Frank Dellaripa, a Hartford
building official, and Michelle Dixon, a manager at the state Office of School
Construction Grant Review (OSCGR), which Diamantis headed from 2018 until
he was fired by Gov. Ned Lamont. The governor was put on a witness list by
Pattis in early October. Last week, Pattis
issued a subpoena for Lamont to testify on October 21.
The prosecution is expected to finish by mid-week, followed
by the presentation of Pattis's case for Diamantis, a 69-year-old
lawyer and former seven-term member of the state House of
Representatives who faces 20 years in prison on the charges. The list of
defense witnesses includes Luke Bronin, the former mayor of Hartford; Stavros
Mellekas, a retired colonel with the Connecticut State Police; Leslie
Torres-Rodriguez, the former superintendent of Hartford public schools; Robert Celmer,
professor emeritus of engineering at the University of Hartford; as well as
other architects and consultants.
Prosecutors allege that between 2018 and 2021, as director
of OSCGR, Diamantis influenced the hiring of Acranom and CAP for projects in
Hartford and Tolland.
Evidence and testimony during the first week of the trial
indicated that Monarca, the masonry contractor, was reluctant to give some
payments to Diamantis until a $300,000 settlement with Hartford was reached in
March of 2020. Monarca also initially balked at paying Diamantis until a
contract was awarded Acranom for the rebuilding of the Birch Grove Primary
School.
Diamantis had formerly been married to Duffy's sister.
Chains of texts and emails between Duffy and Diamantis referred to each
other as "uncle," with Monarca often included. The charges allege
that Diamantis solicited and took money in exchange for assigning Acranom
work for two stages of construction at Weaver High School, then at Birch
Grover, which had a crumbling foundation that Diamantis approved for emergency
rebuilding, then influenced the hiring of both CAP and Acranom. When payments
were slow, Diamantis allegedly threatened the companies.
Diamantis has denied the charges. On Thursday, Pattis said
Diamantis would be the first witness for the defense on Wednesday or Thursday,
depending on how the case was proceeding in U.S. District Court Judge Stefan
Underhill's fourth-floor courtroom.
Pattis, who usually speaks with reporters outside the
courthouse for a few minutes after each day’s testimony, declines to comment on
what transpires in the courtroom. Last week, after a prolonged
cross-examination of Duffy, Pattis said “I thought I was extremely polite
and gentle,” Pattis said. At one point, after a reporter reminded that Pattis
had used the term “liar, liar pants on fire” to Duffy in front of the jury, he
smiled wryly and remarked “Did I say that?”