Infrastructure contractors dodged a funding cliff, but another looms on Dec. 11
Congress bought infrastructure contractors more time, but it
didn’t buy them much certainty.
Lawmakers extended federal surface transportation programs
under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act through Dec. 11, averting a
Sept. 30 expiration that had many construction firms on edge. The Continuing
Appropriations and Extensions Act, signed by President Donald Trump on
Sept. 2, enacted the short-term extension.
The funds are key for the construction industry, especially
since infrastructure work remains one of the few reliable
sources of construction activity outside data center projects.
But the roughly 10-week reprieve falls well short of the
multiyear funding certainty contractors hoped for, according to construction
trade associations. Some state transportation departments had already begun
scaling back on bid openings earlier this summer, said Alex Etchen, vice
president of construction advocacy and risk management at the Associated
General Contractors of America.
“One short-term extension, it’s not a long period of time,”
Etchen told Construction Dive. “We heard from some of our chapters that their
state DOTs were pulling back on lettings out of concerns of the IIJA expiring
and having some doubts that Congress was going to be able to get a longer-term
bill done in time.”
The price of the extension
In addition to a delay in lettings, the process where an
agency solicits competitive bids, short-term extensions also can cause agencies
to phase projects into smaller pieces, said Michael Clark, partner at Smith
Currie Oles, an Atlanta-headquartered law firm specializing in construction.
“When that happens, costs increase,” Clark told Construction
Dive. “From a legal perspective, contract clauses that are typically already in
the contract documents, for instance involving contingencies, termination,
suspension, conditional payment and delay or suspension are activated.”
Construction firms make workforce, equipment, bonding and
subcontractor decisions well before a project reaches advertisement, said Josh
Leonard, senior manager of legislative affairs at Associated Builders and
Contractors. With a long-term agreement in place, state agencies have a clearer
funding baseline for programming, and that visibility flows through the entire
construction market, he said.
Keep up with the story. Subscribe to the Construction Dive free daily newsletter
“A multiyear authorization gives state transportation
departments more visibility into federal funding and helps them maintain more
predictable schedules,” Leonard told Construction Dive. “A roughly 10-week
extension preserves the current framework but does not provide the same
planning horizon.”
The extension also doesn’t cover all funding from the IIJA.
The money left behind
The IIJA used a unique funding structure, said Etchen.
Historically, the Highway Trust Fund funds road and bridge work.
Various revenue streams feed into the HTF, including the gas
tax, the diesel tax and the federal excise tax on heavy trucks, he said. For
the last 20 years or so, Congress has done a general fund transfer into the HTF
to ensure they’re meeting the needs of the system. The IIJA kept up those
historic revenue streams, but also included what was called “advance
appropriations,” said Etchen.
Congress, this time around however, did not include those
advance appropriations in the extension, said Clark.
“It’s not a clean extension,” Clark told Construction Dive.
“The deadline moved, but not all of the money moved with it.”
The omission has raised particular concern among precast
producers that supply bridge construction projects, Nick Rhoad, CEO and
president of the National Precast Concrete Association, told Construction Dive.
“Without congressional action, bridge funding will cease
immediately, limiting states’ ability to plan, bid and begin new projects,”
Rhoad said. “They have failed to provide the multiyear certainty states need to
plan and deliver critical transportation projects.”
For example, the $1.2 trillion IIJA included $5.5 billion for the Bridge Formula Program, a federal initiative on bridge rehabilitation, said Rhoad. The absence of additional advance appropriations will affect contractors waiting for states to put new projects out to bid, he said.
“These projects take years to plan and bid, and without
certainty that funding will be available, new work will come to a complete halt
immediately,” Rhoad told Construction Dive. “We need to lock in surface
transportation reauthorization for the long-term, not just extensions.”
The need for a long-term bill
The construction industry is now looking to BUILD America
250, the proposed multiyear surface transportation reauthorization.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee approved the legislation 62 to 2 in May. Still, the House has yet
to vote on it. The Senate, on the other hand, has not released its highway
reauthorization proposal, Leonard said.
Etchen added the House Ways and Means Committee also needs
to provide the tax title for the bill before it moves to the full House floor
for a vote.
Paying for it could be another headwind, said Clark.
BUILD America 250 attempts to address that problem with a
fee on electric and hybrid vehicles, Etchen said. The measure would provide the
first new revenue stream into the HTF in 30 years, he added.
“Ultimately we would have preferred that they get a
long-term bill complete, but we are appreciative that they did pass a
short-term extension to keep that funding going until December 11,” Etchen told
Construction Dive. “We’re hopeful that they can get this wrapped up in the
lame-duck session of Congress.”
Waterbury seeks $25M to fix aging water system after major outages
WATERBURY — City leaders are asking the Board of
Aldermen to approve a $25 million capital appropriation and bond authorization
to improve Waterbury’s water system after water
main breaks in December and July left thousands of residents without water for
days.
Ramon Esponda, who became the city’s new water
superintendent over the summer, said this request is just “a drop in the
bucket” in terms of what Waterbury will need to spend to completely rectify
problems plaguing the water system. But it’s a start, he said.
“The system needs a lot of work,” he said. “There’s a lot of
issues that need to be addressed. It’s my problem now and I’ll fix it as best
as I can.”
A key piece of this ask, he said, is replacing three
“major” valves that contributed
to residents in parts of the city losing water during those water main
breaks.
“These valves are broken,” Esponda said. “If I have a break
in these lines, I’m stuck. I can't get water to certain places. If these valves
are in place, I’m able to change the direction of water, isolate breaks and
keep larger portions of the city with water.”
Esponda also wants to enhance lines used by the fire
department in emergencies.
“We have a lot of lines that are very limited in their
capacity,” he said. “They require a lot of cleaning and lining. We’re planning
to do probably nine miles of cleaning and lining, over multiple years, phase by
phase, to get it done.”
He also wants to replace fire hydrants that he said aren’t
up to standards, a process that also would include surveying the city’s
hydrants, of which there are around 5,000.
Esponda said another $8 million project would replace a
water tank that currently has a hole in it, limiting its effectiveness.
“There’s a ton of work to be done here,” Esponda said. “I
want to put the plans in place and put the projects in order. It’s about making
tomorrow better.”
The Board of Aldermen held a public hearing on the bonding,
but delayed a vote on it. Only one resident spoke during the public hearing.
“We cannot have half the city out of water every three
months,” said resident Paul Kondash. “We’ve known for 40 years that these water
pipes and the water supply system of our city was not getting any younger.”
Earlier this year, the Board of Aldermen approved a hike of
the water usage rate from $2.65 to $3.50 per centum cubic feet. The board also
approved a service charge rate for large commercial uses, increasing it from
$12 to $120.
The city has also targeted another $32 million towards
repairs, including new high service pumps and mixers at the water treatment
plant, new lining on Thomaston Avenue pipes and installing new pumps in parts
of the city.
Plans for Unilever’s New Haven innovation center detail $34.7M in state infrastructure support
Plans for Unilever’s
$270 million innovation center in New Haven call for a nearly
253,000-square-foot building and $34.7 million in state funding for public
infrastructure, including tunnels and plazas connecting the site to neighboring
developments.
The City Plan Commission is scheduled to review the project
and hold a related public hearing Sept. 29.
The four-story laboratory and office building would rise at
2 Church St., on a roughly 1.8-acre site between 101 College St. and the Church
Street Bridge. It would be the third development in Downtown Crossing, an
effort to reconnect New Haven’s Hill neighborhood and medical district with
downtown on land once occupied by the Route 34 highway corridor.
The city currently owns the site, which would be sold to WE
2 Church Street LLC, a company controlled by Massachusetts-based Winstanley
Enterprises. Winstanley would develop the building, adding to the two major
life sciences properties it built at 100 and 101 College St.
Unilever would be the building’s primary tenant. The consumer
goods company said in May that it planned to occupy about 100,000 square feet
on two floors and expected roughly 300 employees to work at the center. The
facility would replace Unilever’s longtime research and development operation
in Trumbull.
The plans put the entire building at 252,892 square feet,
including its lower level, parking garage and mechanical space. For zoning
purposes, its floor area would be 177,022 square feet.
The building also would be designed to accommodate a quantum
science organization, potentially QuantumCT, according to the site plan
narrative. The filing does not identify a committed occupant for that space.
The development is part
of New Haven’s Quantum and Life Sciences Innovation Cluster, which was awarded
$50.5 million in state support in 2025 through Connecticut’s Innovation
Clusters Program. The state said the funding would support infrastructure,
research facilities and other projects intended to grow the city’s life
sciences and quantum technology industries.
According to the site plan narrative, the $34.7 million
infrastructure grant would help pay for service tunnels linking the building to
the existing tunnel network beneath 101 and 100 College St. It also would
support sidewalks, stormwater systems, improvements to surrounding streets and
two public plazas.
The larger plaza, at 13,089 square feet, would adjoin the
existing plaza at 101 College St. Together, the spaces are intended to provide
a pedestrian connection between the Hill neighborhood and downtown. Plans show
seating, bicycle parking, space for events and a spot for a food truck.
The building would have a 35-space underground garage. Under
a proposed agreement with the New Haven Parking Authority, up to 400 parking
permits would be available at the Temple Medical Garage for building workers
and guests.
New Haven’s Board of Alders approved a land disposition
agreement for the project Sept. 8. Unilever said in May that it expected the
center to open in spring 2029.
CT residents are taking on a $100M project. It’s a fight against a town’s biggest taxpayer.
Opponents
of AI data centers in Trumbull initially cheered when the town passed a
moratorium earlier this month, but they’ve now gone into fundraising mode to
try to block an existing center that wants to expand operations.
At the same time, First
Selectwoman Vicki Tesoro has been assuring residents that the change
wouldn’t create the massive power and water usage associated with modern jumbo data
centers. Instead, it would generate additional revenue from Trumbull’s
biggest taxpayer, officials said.
“I told the applicant directly: no increase in electrical
draw beyond existing site capacity, no increase in noise, no increase in water
use, no expansion of the building’s footprint. They have agreed to all four,” Tesoro
told the town in a recent memo.
But opponents are still concerned that vastly expanding
operations at the existing 80 Merritt Blvd. data center would jeopardize the
immediate neighborhood and possibly other parts of town.
Congress moves to shield consumers from AI data center power
bills
After officials agreed to a two-year moratorium against new
data centers, the resident who had been promoting an online petition to get
more information about them announced it is time to switch gears.
“While we should celebrate that our efforts thus far
resulted in a two-year moratorium on new AI data centers, we are disappointed
that the moratorium was passed without an amendment that would address the many
concerns we have about 80 Merritt Blvd., which is unaffected by the
moratorium,” Sarah Beck wrote
in an update to her initial change.org petition.
“We will continue to fight to make sure the public heath,
environment, utilities, and costs related to the AI data center currently under
construction at 80 Merritt Blvd. are not ignored,” she wrote.
Opponents must now petition the Planning and Zoning
Commission to amend its regulations by defining the term “data center” and by
allowing a moratorium that would also encompass the 80 Merritt expansion, she
wrote.
“This proposal requires a $520 fee. We asked the town for a
waiver on this, but it was not granted. Therefore, we are asking for the
community to pitch in $5 each,” according to her petition update.
The owners of 80 Merritt this month have been giving tours
of the facility to explain what they’re doing.
The three-building campus has been a data center serving
financial institutions for decades, but would undergo an extensive
modernization.
AI data centers use far more power and water than older,
traditional ones, and opponents in Trumbull are concerned about that
possibility along with the risk of noisier operations.
Shinsuke Tanaka, a UConn assistant professor of agricultural
and resource economics in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural
Resources and an expert on health and environmental economics, has said data
centers can contribute to increased air pollution.
“The biggest issue is that data centers use a lot of
energy,” Tanaka has said. “Currently, fossil fuels are still used as a major
energy source, and they emit pollution as electricity is generated.”
“Air pollution has a huge impact on human health,” he has
said. “There are a lot of studies on this topic. The data centers are just
increasing and expanding and the trajectory is skyrocketing, and the concern
about air pollution is not just local, but it’s regional.”
A new property owner, Aphorio Carter, intends to lease the
modernized center to Norwalk-based 365 Data Centers. Tesoro has said the plan
would be lucrative for the town, because Aphorio will put more than $100
million into the project.
“This will mean real, reliable revenue for our community,”
Tesoro said. “This is expected to generate significant annual property tax
revenue for the town, and that revenue will continue to grow over time. No
local tax abatement or local incentive package is being requested by Aphorio
Carter.”
The campus was most recently assessed at $81 million.
Digital Realty sold it to AC Trumbull LLC, a unit of Aphorio Carter, two
years ago. With retail values declining, the campus recently overtook the
Trumbull Mall as the town’s top taxpayers.
Opponents contend that too many discussions about the
modernization have been done in private, with details reaching the public after
decisions have been made.
They noted that one the property’s three buildings was
demolished this summer with no apparent public discussion by selectmen.
Developer unveils final 214-unit phase of Bloomfield town center apartment project
Developer Paul Butler has unveiled plans for the final
214-unit phase of his Bloomfield town center apartment development, which will
include about $4 million in public improvements.
Butler presented the plans to the Town Plan and Zoning
Commission Thursday night.
He said he expects to file a formal site plan application in
late winter and aims to begin construction in the spring.
The project site is at the corner of Bloomfield Avenue and
Gabb Road. Butler said the building would be set back from the intersection to
create a small park. The building would appear to be three stories tall at the
corner, with the first floor below grade because of the site’s elevation.
The design would incorporate stone and wood elements, Butler
said.
Much of his presentation focused on improvements beyond the
project’s property lines.
He said the town has asked him to build a raised crosswalk
on Gabb Road at a cost of about $250,000. The crosswalk would be part of a
broader traffic-calming project for which Butler said the state awarded
Bloomfield $913,000.
Butler also said Eversource has agreed, after three and a
half years of negotiations, to a 200-year lease that would allow him to build a
public dog park and public parking on a utility-owned parcel across Bloomfield
Avenue.
Butler said the owner of the apartment building would be
responsible for maintaining the dog park under a contract with the town. Also,
he said 20 of the parking spaces on the parcel would be set aside for
Bloomfield residents, in addition to the parking required for the apartments.
To help make the project work financially, Butler said he is
seeking a tax agreement from the Town Council. He is working with Goman &
York, the town’s economic development consultant, on the financing.
Butler told the commission he plans to include workforce
housing or pay a fee instead. His current plans designate about 12% of the
units as workforce housing.
Planning and Zoning Director Jon Colman said town staff
supports the proposal, citing Butler’s willingness to fund the Gabb Road
improvements and public amenities.
Butler has been developing the town center in phases under a
master plan that called for 407 apartments along Bloomfield and Jerome avenues
and Jerome Way.
The first phase, Heirloom Flats, is a 215-unit complex that
leased up within a year and sold for $61 million in early 2019. A $9 million,
42-unit building on Bloomfield Avenue followed, and the third phase called for
129 market-rate apartments on Jerome Avenue.
Butler first proposed
the fourth phase in 2020.