Coast Guard museum shell to be bundled up starting Monday
John Penney
New London — Heavy-duty canvas sheeting is scheduled to be
wrapped around the lower floors of the National Coast Guard Museum on Monday as
winter work continues on the $150 million construction project rising from the
city's waterfront.
That heat-trapping shroud, slated to remain in place until
the spring, will allow crews to begin pouring 6-inch concrete floors on the
lower levels of what will eventually become an 89,000-square-foot, six-story
museum, project manager John Metcalf said during a recent tour of the site.
“We’ll wrap the three lower floors before installing
thousands of linear feet of tubing that will be covered in concrete,” Metcalf
said as sheets of melting snow rained down inside the shell of the structure's
bare-metal skeleton.
That plastic tubing will serve as a radiant temperature
control system for the museum, allowing hot and cold water to alternately heat
or cool the floors as needed, said Wes Pulver, president of the National Coast
Guard Museum Association, the group overseeing the project.
“That system will allow for a consistent temperature for our
documents and artifacts, some which date back to the 1700s,” Pulver said.
Metcalf said a fire-protective coating will be sprayed onto
the new concrete.
“The concrete pouring — and its curing — along with the
fire-protection are both temperature-sensitive work, so we need to keep those
lower spaces warm,” he said.
All tubing, floor and fire-proofing work, including on the
upper levels, is expected to be completed by June ahead of installing ducts and
adding exterior walls and windows.
Pulver said the museum is still scheduled to be fully built
by the end of the fall. At that point, the museum will be turned over to the
Coast Guard, which will set a public opening date.
Project Chief Operating Officer Mark Walsh said getting the
steel frame into place last year represented one of the more dramatic and
visible portions of the project.
“Those beams and girders just flew up beginning in August,
but since then, crews have been busy with steel detailing work,” he said.
Museum funding secured, bridge project in limbo
The project is being paid for with a combination of $50
million in direct federal funding and $48 million in private donations. That
left a roughly $48 million cost gap that was closed in December after the
signing of the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act.
That legislation removed
a decades-long legal barrier that prevented the U.S. Coast Guard from helping
fund the museum project. Pulver said the Coast Guard has already signed
contracts related to the remaining work, though the exact amount of funding it
was committing to was not yet finalized.
The museum, on the city’s waterfront behind Union Station,
will feature 38,168 square feet of exhibit space divided into three decks and
five wings showing off various aspects of the branch’s lifesaving, enforcement
and environmental missions.
The glass-encased building will include a rotating gallery,
innovation lab and STEM center, as well as an HH-60J Jayhawk helicopter
suspended in its atrium. The 295-foot barque Eagle, the Coast Guard Academy’s
training ship, will be homeported at City Pier, near the museum.
Local officials are counting on the museum to serve as a
major attraction that will draw up to 300,000 visitors annually.
A separate project, the construction of a 600-foot,
glass-encased pedestrian
bridge linking the museum to the nearby Water Street parking garage, is
still in limbo.
The State Bond Commission in 2018 earmarked $19.5 million
for construction of the span, with $500,000 in state funds being previously
approved for planning and design work.
But the sole bid for the project received in October came in
higher than expected, forcing the association and state officials to consider
cost-saving and schedule adjustments.
Pulver last week said state officials are still discussing
next steps on the bridge project.
Eversource unveils $26.5B capital plan, boosting infrastructure spending
Eversource
Energy announced a $26.5 billion five-year capital investment plan
Thursday, marking a major increase in infrastructure spending as the utility
navigates regulatory changes and grid modernization demands across its New
England service territory.
The plan for 2026 through 2030 represents a $2.3 billion
increase over the company’s previous $24.2 billion forecast, with the
additional spending primarily directed toward electric and natural gas
distribution infrastructure, according to the company’s fourth-quarter earnings
report.
Compared to Eversource’s earlier plan for 2025 through 2029,
the new forecast adds $1.5 billion in investment. Both projections exclude any
capital spending related to Aquarion Water Co., the utility’s water subsidiary
currently subject
to regulatory proceedings over a proposed $2.4 billion sale.
Eversource didn’t break down where those investments would
be targeted. The
Hartford and Boston-based utility operates in Connecticut,
Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Eversource had previously threatened
to reduce its capital spending in Connecticut due to the uncertain
regulatory environment under former Public Utilities Regulatory Authority Chair
Marissa Gillett.
“These investments enable Eversource to continue to provide
customers with safe and reliable service, support load growth and clean energy
objectives for the Eversource territory,” the company said in its earnings
release.
Eversource reported fourth-quarter earnings of $421.3
million, or $1.12 per share, up from $72.5 million, or 20 cents per share in
the year-ago period, beating analyst expectations. Revenue for the quarter rose
13.4% to $3.37 billion from $2.97 billion in the year-ago period.
For the full year 2025, Eversource reported earnings of
$1.69 billion, or $4.56 per share, compared with $811.7 million, or $2.27 per
share, in 2024.
The company set 2026 earnings guidance between $4.80 and
$4.95 per share and projected long-term earnings growth of 5% to 7% annually
through 2030.
To support its capital plan, the utility expects to raise
$800 million to $1.1 billion in equity over the 2026 to 2030 period. The
company said the equity raise “is not impacted by the status of the potential
sale of Aquarion.”
The increased infrastructure spending comes as
Eversource navigates
leadership changes at the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority.
Eversource Chairman Joe Nolan said in the earnings release
that the company made “significant progress in achieving constructive
regulatory outcomes by working collaboratively with our regulators during a
time of extensive change at the state and federal levels.”
Eversource serves approximately 4.6 million electric,
natural gas and water customers, making it New England’s largest energy
delivery system.
CTDOT Route 8 bridge project to begin. It will close a local road to through traffic for 2 months
The state Department
of Transportation says it is metallizing bridges in northwest
Connecticut.
The upcoming work will include the bridge that carries Route
8 over Hill Street in Torrington, according
to the DOT.
The work is scheduled to begin on Friday, February 20 and be
completed on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, according to the DOT.
As a result, Hill Street will be closed to through traffic
starting February 20 and through Wednesday, April 22, according to the DOT.
All traffic will be detoured to Laurel Hill Road and there
will be traffic control signing patterns to guide motorists through the work
zone, according to the DOT.
“Motorists should be aware that modifications or extensions
to this schedule may become necessary due to weather delays or other unforeseen
conditions” and are “advised to maintain a safe speed when driving in this
area, according to the DOT.
The agency noted, records
show, that the “purpose and need of the project is to protect the
steel members and preserve the condition of these bridges, thus extending their
useful service lives and keeping them in a state of good repair.”
There also will be “minor utility impacts anticipated,
involving temporary lowering and/or burial of communication facilities at a few
sites,” according to DOT records about the full project.
A meeting on the project was held in 2024 and, in response
to a question, Mike Jacovino, of the engineering firm Close, Jensen and Miller,
P.C., said that, because of the age of bridges in the program, the
specifications “call for lead testing and there are additional procedures in
place for that. The enclosures are required so as to not release anything into
the environment. There are also construction and coating inspectors on site
that make sure the project is following the book.”
And, in response to a question about steel repairs and
bridge safety, Jacovino responded that the “proposed repairs are routine in
nature and are being performed in part as a preparation for painting. He
ensured the attendees that there were currently no unsafe conditions on these
bridges.”
This project included metallizing bridges along the Route 8
corridor between Torrington and Colebrook, and includes Torrington, Winchester
and Colebrook, the DOT record shows.
According to the DOT the project was awarded to Allied
Painting Inc. for $15.8 million in December 2024. It is scheduled to be
completed Nov. 30, 2027 and is administered by the Bureau of Engineering and
Construction, Office
of Construction, District 4 in Thomaston.
Central CT town targeted for two major projects. One would add 200+ apartments with amenities.
A central Connecticut town faces two significant development
initiatives over the next month
In Cromwell, a
Middletown excavating company is looking to establish a rock-crushing operation
and a New York-based developer is asking to revise the plan for a 267-unit
apartment complex on the former
Crowne Plaza site.
Gallitto Construction is requesting a permit to allow stone
crushing at 150 Sebethe Drive, an industrial property in a relatively remote
section of town where it already trucks in large quantities of rock. It would
use a 41-foot long mobile crusher along with an excavator.
Residents will get to hear details and then speak about the
proposal at a Planning and Zoning Commission hearing Tuesday evening.
The company wants to be allowed to use a commercial crusher
to process the rock on site, but says it wouldn’t be done frequently.
“The amount of materials and truck traffic for a daily basis
would vary due to the materials availability. My estimation of trucked in
materials to make a pile may take up to one to two months for crushing,
therefore I am not looking to crush on an everyday basis,” the company said in
a Jan. 11 letter to town officials.
“Crushing would vary on the availability of supply and
demand,” it said, estimating that crushing could take about a week each time.
The company said it envisions a similar operation to what
Newington-based Paramount construction and General Construction run.
Gallitto requested a permit allowing operations Mondays to
Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., but town zoning officials are considering
tightening that significantly.
“We want to create proposed conditions of approval that
protect the neighbors,” said Andrew Armstrong, director of planning and
development.
Armstrong has recommended limiting the company to four
one-week periods a year for crushing, and requiring it to meet with
commissioners after the first year to evaluate any concerns. He also wants
Gallitto to provide an annual report listing operating times and the amount of
material crushed.
Zoning Enforcement Officer Bruce Driska this week
recommended limiting the schedule to weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and
requiring Gallitto to notify his office in writing each time it plans to
conduct crushing operations.
“The typical concerns from such an operation would be noise,
dust and the management of the material piles to prevent migration of
sediments,” Town Engineer Jon Harriman wrote last week. “The noise is covered
by town ordinance, and the equipment listed appears to include a means of
wetting the operation to reduce dust. The commission may wish to explore the
material management plan with the applicant.”
In March, commissioners will hear Alpine Residential’s plan
for redeveloping the long-abandoned hotel property at 100 Berlin Road.
Once a thriving Crowne Plaza, the hotel was downgraded to a
Radisson and then a Red Lion before closing abruptly in early 2020 when the
state suspended its tax permit. Lexington Partners bought the site with plans
for a large-scale apartment complex, but progress stalled and last fall it
agreed to sell the property to Alpine.
Alpine has already gotten a special permit for a 267-unit
apartment complex on the property, but it will now go to a March 3 hearing for
approval to construct mixed-use housing.
The company wants to build a one-story, 13,000-square-foot
retail building and two five-story apartment buildings between 112,000 square
feet and 120,000 square feet. The complex would have a pool and
12,000-square-foot courtyard, along with a total of about 4,900 square feet of
indoor amenity space.
“This area is lined with an associated 2,200 square-foot
stand-alone amenity building that is intended to be the central arrival point
for visitors and future residents,” according to its plan.
Town officials have been upbeat about getting the property
back into productive use, and are particularly eager to see the vandalized and
water-damaged old building demolished. Urban explorers for years have
been breaking into the
wrecked hotel to take social
media videos of the mess.
Snow and cold scrambled CT’s power grid. Here’s how it stayed up
As more than a foot of snow fell on parts of Connecticut in
the early hours of Jan. 25, a massive shift was taking place within power
plants across New England.
Oil-fired “peaker” power plants, left to idle for much of the year,
were turned on as the need for power surged and the region’s fleet of gas-fired
plants was unable to keep up with demand. At other dual-fuel plants, gas
turbines were switched to run off stockpiles of oil, which is dirtier and
typically more expensive to burn than gas.
Peak demand hovered around 19,000 megawatts for 10 straight
days from late January into February. Matt Kakley, a spokesperson for the
regional grid operator ISO New England, said it was the first time in nearly a
decade the region saw such a stretch of high wintertime demand.
During that time, the region relied heavily on oil to
produce electricity — a phenomenon that is not unusual for the occasional New
England cold snap. But data shows that oil reliance lasted far longer than
normal.
Frigid temperatures also prevented snow from melting off of
solar panels, further scrambling the mix of resources needed to power the grid.
“I think what was kind of atypical is how long it went on,”
Kakley said. “That level of long-duration cold snap we probably haven’t seen in
New England since 2017-2018. And so what we’ve kind of been saying is that this
is the most stressed the system’s been since then, so almost a decade.”
Others said that the sheer scale of the weather system —
which at its peak stretched across 2,000 miles — made an impact unprecedented
in recent memory.
“This has been the most logistically strained situation to
get the right supplies to power plants that I have seen in my career,” said Dan
Dolan, the president of the New England Power Generators Association. Dolan has
worked in the industry for two decades.
Low temperatures pummeled the energy grid — in more ways
than one
Throughout most of the year, New England relies heavily on
natural gas brought in by pipelines to fuel its power
generation. Whenever temperatures drop below freezing, however, the
availability of that gas becomes constrained as it is burned in furnaces to
keep homes and other buildings warm.
As a result, gas prices increase, making it less economical
as a fuel source for power plants. That’s when the demand for oil kicks in.
Dolan said one of the unique challenges from this period of
cold is that it affected power plants all along the Eastern Seaboard, not just
in New York and New England.
As plants exhausted their supplies of oil to keep up with
grid demand, they had to compete against other facilities in states like
Maryland and North Carolina for fresh deliveries of oil via barge, trucks and
tanker ships, Dolan said. Power plants in Connecticut typically utilize two
types of oil: lighter, distillate oil is used by new dual-fuel plants, while
older peaker plants tend to rely on heavier, tar-like oil also known as “bunker
fuel.”
“It has actually taken an extra level of logistics
scheduling, trying to order and set units up to be able to hit multiple
facilities at once,” Dolan said.
The spot market price for wholesale electricity in
Connecticut skyrocketed multiple times during the winter storm, driven up by
high demand and the compilation of constraints facing the grid. For example, on
Jan. 24, the marginal price of electricity during one five-minute interval
reached a peak of $872 a megawatt hour, more than five-and-a-half times the
monthly average of $155. (Supply rates in electric bills are typically
established through longer-term contracts for electricity, so customers are
insulated from such price spikes).
Data from ISO New England shows that the situation was
compounded by the low functionality of solar panels. Extremely low temperatures
curbed snow melt and stunted solar energy generation for days following the
storm.
Mike Trahan, the executive director of Connecticut Solar
& Storage Association, said such situations do pose a challenge for the
industry, even though they are rare.
“Snow followed by cold can be problematic, especially for
rooftop systems that sit flat on the roof. Those are the last ones to shed snow
and reach their full efficiency,” Trahan said. “I think it’s accurate to say
that this most recent cold snap was uncommon, and we probably haven’t had this
kind of weather, based on what I read, in a decade.”
ISO New England measures the production of larger solar
arrays that distribute power directly onto the grid. However, most rooftop
solar panels operate behind-the-meter, meaning their output is not recording in
generation data. Instead, ISO New England uses its own estimates to determine
how much the demand for power off the grid is being replaced by
behind-the-meter solar.
“The cold weather will drive natural gas prices high, and so
that will make oil more economical. At the same time, demand on the system is
higher because we’re not seeing as much as we did a week before from solar
panels, because they’re covered in snow,” Kakley said. “We can see very cold
weather without any snow, and that’s not going to impact the solar panels very
much. But this was kind of a two-fer, so to speak.”
Not all renewable and clean-energy sources suffered as much
as solar during the storm and subsequent cold weather. Nuclear performed at a
near-constant output, meeting about one-quarter of the region’s demand.
Wind power also helped to pick up some of the slack from
slumping solar production, reaching a peak of 29,854 megawatt hours of
electricity on Jan. 30 — nearly nine times the amount produced by grid-scale
solar. While ISO New England does not distinguish between offshore and onshore
turbines in its wind data, Dolan said that Vineyard Wind — the partially-completed wind farm off the coast of
Martha’s Vineyard — performed well during and after the storm.
“The anecdotal [evidence] is that it did, across the three
weeks, produce a lot of energy,” Dolan said.
The amount of wind power could have been even greater if a
second project, Revolution Wind, had come partially online before the storm.
That project is expected to begin producing power in the next several weeks,
according to developer Ørsted, after facing several delays due to stop-work
orders from the Trump administration.
Planning ahead
The complications paired with the storm bring up multiple
questions, as well possible solutions for dealing with similar winter weather
events in the future.
For solar, Trahan said the impact from snow usually
dissipates once it melts in a few days. Building more battery facilities to
store that power for times of need would help the grid withstand temporary
losses in solar production. He also said that would help to eliminate the need
to burn oil during the coldest days of the year.
“The use of those peakers is concerning for those people who
live around or live downwind of peakers, myself included, and that’s certainly
that’s a health concern,” Trahan said. “If we’re looking for ways to avoid the
use of those peakers … one of the ways to do that is to increase the use and
the deployment of storage.”
Kakley said that ISO New England conducts rolling
21-day-ahead forecasts of weather and fuel supplies to ensure that generators
have the resources necessary to keep their plants running.
“When you see this period of cold weather, if you get
adequate replenishment of oil, you can kind of keep running the system that way
for a long time,” Kakley said. “But where is that going to go? Are you going to
use the oil faster than it can be replaced?
Dolan said there is “no silver bullet.” He said every little
bit of extra energy generation helps, including renewables and new imports of hydroelectricity from Canada.
While he pointed out the problems that came with the extreme
weather, Dolan also mentioned the resilience of the system through the
high-demand days.
“Yes, there are tremendous emissions consequences.
Certainly, prices have been way more volatile than is normal, but we have not
seen a single major reliability issue on the system in some of the most severe
weather that we’ve had in about a decade,” Dolan said. “I think that’s a
testament to the extraordinary work and coordination occurring.”