I-95 in East Lyme to close twice a day while construction crews blast rock, officials say
EAST LYME — Traffic on Interstate 95 will be briefly halted
twice a day for several weeks starting Monday as crews working
to realign the highway use explosives to blast away a rock ledge,
officials said.
The daily closures will take place for about five to 10
minutes between 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Monday through Friday on the northbound
and southbound lanes, according to the
state Department of Transportation.
The agency said the blasting is expected to take around six
weeks to complete, but could require up to eight weeks to finish. The
explosives will be used to remove a rock ledge on the northbound side.
“It will take time to blast these rocks and for the safety
of the traveling public, the short closures will need to take place,” officials
said. “We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to your commute.”
The work is part of a
$148 million effort that began in 2023 to improve the“vertical
geometry” of the interstate, replace the bridge over Route 161 and construct
new on and off ramps at Exit 74, which currently have very tight turns.
Officials have said the project, which is scheduled to be
completed in spring 2027, will make the highway safer to travel. Crews
conducted similar blasting work when the project began two years ago.
Officials said drivers are encouraged to remain on the
highway during the brief closures, but said that detour routes will also be
posted on the transportation department’s website once the work begins.
New superintendent, Westhill High construction on tap for Stamford schools in 2026
STAMFORD — The new year will bring a new school leader to
the Stamford
Public Schools as well as the start of construction on a brand
new Westhill
High School.
Here’s a closer look at some of the biggest developments
coming to the local school district in 2026.
New superintendent
The search for a new school district leader to replace
current Superintendent Tamu Lucero is already underway in Stamford. The
beginning of 2026 will involve multiple meetings with stakeholders such as
teachers, schools administrators and parents to gather input on what qualities
they would like to see in the new head of the school district.
Andy George, president of the Board of Education, said
community members will be able to get involved in the search.
“There will be more than one opportunity for people to
provide their input,” George said at a recent meeting of the board.
The Delaware-based consulting firm Zeal Education
Group was
selected to help guide the search.
Lucero, who has held the top position in Stamford Public
Schools since 2019, is planning to leave at the end of June and take
on the role of director of the International School of Kenya, a private school
in Nairobi for students in pre-K to 12th grade.
Candidate interviews are expected to begin in early 2026
with the goal of having a new superintendent in office on July 1.
Westhill High School construction to begin
Shovels will be hitting the ground for the
long-discussed Westhill
High School project, estimated to cost $446 million.
Limited construction work is expected to begin in April,
including the demolition of the campus' vocational-agriculture building. That
work will result in the closure of certain student parking areas.
Work on the new building is expected to begin in June
immediately after graduation. The new Westhill is expected to open in 2029.
Once complete, the high school campus will have 513 parking spaces, up from the
current 475.
Enrollment at the school, the largest in Stamford, is
expected to be 2,458 students in eight years.
The state is
funding 80% of the cost of the Westhill High School project.
Roxbury School construction also to begin
The Westhill project won’t be the only major school
construction project in the school district in 2026. In fact, it won’t even be
the only construction project on its own street.
Roxbury Elementary School, located just a few steps away
from Westhill, will
also see shovels hit the ground in the new year.
Preliminary work is expected to begin in July, with the
construction of geothermal wells at the site and the demolition of portable
structures and four classrooms in the rear of the building. Major construction
will commence in November.
The goal is to open the new Roxbury School in August 2028.
Once open, it will offer instruction to students from kindergarten through
eighth grade. The enrollment will go from 500 to 850 students.
The number of parking spaces on the site will be increased
from the 45 spots currently available to 160.
The project is currently expected to cost $130 million, with
state funding covering $78 million of that amount.
High school schedule
Time will tell if the current high school schedule will
remain a hot button issue for some parents or begin to fade away in 2026.
The current bell schedule in use at all three high schools
has been a source
of frustration and anger for some parents and teachers. Those who
oppose it, who are almost entirely from the Academy of Information Technology
& Engineering, have repeatedly called on the Board of Education to go back
to the previous schedule.
School officials, however, have touted the early results on
the schedule change, pointing to higher rates of attendance, an increase in the
percentage of freshmen on track to obtain the number of credits necessary to
advance to 10th grade and a higher percentage of students passing courses.
In February, a survey will be put out to gather feedback on
the schedule from teachers, counselors, students and parents. The data is
expected to be presented to the Board of Education in March.
The new schedule, known
as the “flexible” schedule, offers most classes in one semester of time.
That means that the majority of classes meet every school day for one half of
the school year. In the model, a typical student would take up to four classes
per semester.
That’s a change from the A/B
block schedule that was introduced at Stamford High and Westhill High
in 2022. AITE had used the A/B schedule for years prior to this school
year. In that structure, students took up to four classes one day, the “A” day,
followed by up to four classes the next day, the “B” day, for the entire school
year. That meant that students could have as many as eight classes at any one
time.
Lori Rhodes, associate superintendent for high school, said
the district will be getting a lot of input related to the schedule change.
“This is the first time that we will be actually surveying
this large of a group and this constituents this way around a bell schedule,”
she said, at a recent Board of Education meeting.
Naugatuck wants to turn an abandoned factory site into a massive industrial park
Christian Metzger
NAUGATUCK — On the banks of the Naugatuck River,
a vast parcel of land sits overgrown with trees and
strewn with rubble. Little remains of what was once the beating heart of the
town’s industry: the factory for the Uniroyal Chemical Company, a
sprawling 86-acre complex that once prospered by producing both chemicals and
rubber-based products.
No evidence remains of it now, beyond heaps of old concrete
and retaining walls.
Yet the land may again become the heart of Naugatuck’s
industry, as Mayor Warren “Pete” Hess has an ambitious plan to turn the disused
property into a vast industrial park.
Hess said the property was primed for large-scale
development opportunities with the revitalization of the rail network, which is
ongoing and would see freight moved onto the line for the first time since
roughly the 1950s. He said the project could meet a growing demand in the
region.
“Everyone wants to get the trucks off the road. So now we’re
going back to freight rail,” Hess said.
With the property’s access to rail and relative proximity to
major east coast cities like New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Atlantic City,
Hess said manufacturers were taking an intense interest in restoring the rail
line to transport material to Naugatuck and then across the entire New
England area.
Within the next six to eight years, Hess said, the town
would work to develop the site to include warehouses, propane storage, a lumber
yard, storage for earthen materials, and more.
Hess said the project was the culmination of 10 years of
work since he came into office. The goal, he said, is to see a full
revitalization of the town’s industrial center, which has been paired with
other recent developments in Naugatuck’s downtown center, such as the
widening and restoration of Church Street, the construction
of housing units, and a new train station connection.
“We’re not trying to rush the development of the sites
because there’s a lot of money involved in every deal, and we want to make the
best deals we can,” Hess said.
With direct access to an electric substation, the rail line,
and Route 8, he said it was the perfect site for prospective companies to
distribute product across the state and beyond.
“We’re going to create a large warehouse for regular
and cold storage that any company in the region can use to either have goods
brought in or to send things out by freight rail,” Hess added.
The warehouse would be one of the largest structures on the
lot, Hess said, and according to documents from the town, would create an
estimated 30 new jobs.
It will be constructed as part of the second phase of the
development, with the first phase being largely completed.
There are two tiers to the property spread across roughly 13
parcels of varying sizes that divide the 86-acre lot. Some are located on the
northern, elevated portion closer to the power station, while the lower portion
has direct access to the rail that runs directly through the property.
Two tenants currently occupy the upper portion of the
property — which is the most developed as part of the first phase of the
project — lumber company International Building Supply and Laxness Corp,
a successor to Uniroyal that sold the remainder of the land to the town to be
developed for the industrial park. International Building Supply began moving
in last year, and opened a retail location on the site in late October.
By building relationships with city leaders in Ansonia and
Waterbury, which Hess said also could stand to benefit from the redevelopment of the rail line, there
could be a renewed network of industry along the river. If more industry
utilized the redeveloping railroad, he said, that would incentivize more trains
to bring cargo through, which would bring more revenue and jobs.
“It’s good for Naugatuck and Waterbury to have other towns
on the freight rail line because that will incentivize (Genesee & Wyoming
Inc.) to send more trains more quickly,” Hess said. “And it’s good for the
Valley. … We love the Valley. This project is not about Naugatuck; it’s
really about central Connecticut.”