The city has agreed to accept $11,500 from the Connecticut Department of Transportation to condemn a small vacant lot in the West End, as part of the planned major realignment of the Routes 72 and 69 intersection. The project has been in the works for years. It will involve widening Route 72, shifting it to […]
“The EOs also show how President Biden will incorporate his priorities into future rulemakings by asking agencies to ‘identify ways the regulatory process can promote public health and safety, economic growth, social welfare, racial justice, environmental stewardship, human dignity, equity and the interests of future generations.’” For transportation projects, “this could mean an increased focus […]
The 30,000 men and women of the Connecticut State Building Trades unions, were shocked and gravely disappointed by the Gov. Ned Lamont’s quotes, “I don’t want to build Killingly” and that the administration could “play some games there,” referring to slowing the permitting process at DEEP. These quotes are deeply hurtful to the hardworking members […]
Not long after Congress enacted a $900 billion relief bill on Dec. 21 — which President Trump signed six days later — Connecticut learned it included nearly $750 million to support education here, and more than $230 million for affordable housing. The linchpin of this new money was $492 million for elementary and secondary schools. […]
The city’s plans to be first in Connecticut to open a school in an office park under a condominium-style agreement has put leaders in a race against an Oct. 1 grant deadline to get blueprints to the state. Missing the state deadline would make Danbury ineligible for an 80 percent reimbursement of the school’s estimated […]
Gov. Ned Lamont stepped in to help secure the deal — called a power purchase agreement, or PPA — between Dominion, Eversource and United Illuminating. The contract calls on the utilities to buy half the plant’s output over the next decade. Dominion had threatened to shutter the 2,100-megawatt Millstone unless the state let it compete […]
iPark Norwalk II LLC filed a special permit application earlier this month for a 244,750-square-foot expansion to its property at 761 Main Ave. The expansion calls for two new buildings to be added to the property: A 164,750-square-foot apartment complex featuring three floors of residential housing over one story of parking, and an 80,000-square-foot, 120-bedroom […]
Under a pair of 2018 Town Council-approved agreements, the town is in line for $5 million in Community Environmental Benefit, or CEBA, money, once the facility is built, along with $120 million in projected tax revenue over the course of 20 years of operation. The two agreements with NTE Energy, which is seeking to build […]
Kosta Diamantis, deputy secretary for the Office of Policy and Management, addressed the Connecticut Port Authority this week and fielded questions about the possibility of costs escalating for the $157 million project, which is being funded through a partnership by the state and joint venture partners Eversource and Ørsted. OPM was tasked by Lamont with […]
The project, which is garnering opposition from nearby residents, is expected to be discussed during a planning and zoning meeting Jan. 25, and would convert vacant land on Farmington Avenue — across the street from Jackson Lab and behind a UConn Health building — into a 146-unit apartment development with 224 parking spaces, including garages. […]
As he plans his two-year budget proposal, the state’s rapidly-depleting fund for transportation infrastructure is a major headache, Gov. Ned Lamont told a business audience on Friday. The state’s Special Transportation Fund is slowly but steadily going broke and could be exhausted by 2024. And updated transit infrastructure remains a key to the state’s future […]
“With the slim majority the Democrats have in the Senate, infrastructure spending is probably going to be one of the less controversial measures and could be implemented,” said Gautam Khanna, senior portfolio manager with Insight Investment. “A $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion package — somewhere in that zone — could get through.” But economists and […]
Looman is now the deputy administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, trades council President Harry Melander said in a press release. She started her new job Wednesday. “Jessica has dedicated her life to the labor movement and has been a pivotal voice in fighting for working families in Minnesota,” Melander […]
State departments of transportation are set to receive funds totaling $9.8 billion as a result of emergency aid from the $900 billion COVID-19 relief measure passed late last year. That number is a part of nearly $10 billion total earmarked for transportation spending, and experts say the funds are much needed. State DOTs can use […]
Gov. Ned Lamont, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, state Attorney General William Tong and Secretary of the State Denise Merrill told reporters that Biden’s inauguration puts on-track the next $1.9-trillion aid plan, including up to $400 billion for state and local governments. Connecticut is well positioned to fare well under the Biden […]
he city received a $600,000 grant to help build an off-road multi-use trail with the goal of connecting Downtown New Britain and CTFastrak to Plainville in the near future. Gov. Ned Lamont announced late last week the state is awarding $5 million in funding to 10 towns and cities across the state under a competitive […]
The concrete smashing, which has been the subject of complaints from both sides of the river in the last week, is part of the $53 million replacement of the Rochambeau Bridge which began this summer. Workers began the new year stripping the deck of the westbound bridge, while traffic is routed in both directions to […]
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced a $306 billion spending plan as part of his 2021 infrastructure agenda. In what Cuomo called “the largest, most ambitious plan put forward by any state in the nation,” the initiative will focus on a $51 billion transit-oriented redevelopment of Manhattan’s Midtown West area and the continued modernization […]
Gov. Ned Lamont on Tuesday said the words out loud more straightforward than he ever has: “I don’t want to build Killingly.” And while he’s hinted that he’s not thrilled with the prospect of the Killingly power plant, he’s never been quite that blunt. His comments were made to more than 300 environmental advocates attending […]
The maximum federal penalty for serious and other-than-serious violations is now $13,653 per violation, up from $13,494. The maximum penalty for willful or repeated violations is now $136,532 per violation, up from $134,937. Since 2017, OSHA has adjusted the fines according to the Cost of Living Index every year. If an establishment fails to make […]
Eversource Gas is scheduled to start installation of a gas line on Tuesday, Jan. 19, in the Forestville neighborhood that includes Fair Street, Grove Avenue, Buckley Avenue, Garden Street, Vernon Street and Pleasant Avenue. “The purpose of the work is to upgrade the existing gas line,” said Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu. The hours of construction will […]
BLT plans to formally open its 435-unit building on Feb. 1, but it has been leasing units for much of January. Escape is the latest puzzle piece in the ever-expanding Harbor Point development, which has steadily grown over BLT’s tenure in Stamford. The pandemic strengthened the market for single-family homes in Stamford, something that is […]
His time in Connecticut while a college student has merited scant mention from biographers and historians, but King himself said he forged strong memories of his summer job working on a tobacco farm in Simsbury. King was among a group of young Black men recruited to work in the tobacco fields around Simsbury during the […]
KBE Building Corporation, the general contractor in charge of the construction project at 291 Federal Road was given a stop work order on Dec. 23 when issues arose over one of its subcontractors, according to Department of Labor spokesperson Juliet Manalan. According to Manalan, subcontractor Wall to Wall Drywall — a drywall company based in […]
The city this month issued a request for redevelopment proposals for the vacant Arrowhead Building at 1355 Main St. and three vacant adjacent land parcels that together act as the tip of the arrowhead-shaped Salvin Block, which is bordered by Chapel, High, Pleasant and Main streets. RMS Cos. broke ground last fall on the first […]
Now Connecticut is left with a $2.8 billion bill, a cash-starved Special Transportation Fund headed toward insolvency, and a construction industry poised to shrink even as the state struggles with unprecedented unemployment. “Once we get out to the next several years, nothing is [fully] funded,” said Nate Brown, vice president of the Connecticut State Building […]
Gov. Ned Lamont said Tuesday — a day when the state’s COVID-19 test positivity rate hit 10.72%, the highest in a while — that he thinks he will ask the legislature to extend his emergency authority, currently set to expire Feb. 9. “If I just get another two-plus months, I think sometime in April we’ll […]
The town is now finalizing a tax agreement with a developer looking to build an $11.1 million hotel at 712 Cedar St. Town Councilors voted unanimously Tuesday night to offer Gold Coast Premier Properties a 40% tax abatement for 10 years, contingent on the developer’s plan to build a 122-room extended-stay hotel on the site, […]
A new report says collective bargaining agreements help create “robust” middle-class careers and make significant contributions to local economies. The report, released this week, was produced by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The study also found that apprenticeship programs paid by […]
Developer Carter Winstanley has spent the last 22 years working to build up a life science hub in New Haven. Two decades later, 300 George is at capacity, and two subsequent Winstanley bioscience buildings — 25 Science Park and 100 College St., home of Alexion Pharmaceuticals — are also full. This spring, he plans to […]
America’s infrastructure gap has reached to $5.6 trillion, according to the trade group American Society of Civil Engineers. The group said that the gap is a problem that, unaddressed, could lead to the loss of 3 million jobs over two decades. The group in its annual report card outlined how much infrastructure investment is falling […]
Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday that he will propose “revenue-raising ideas’’ for transportation in February to help the state’s long-troubled special transportation fund. After the high-profile failure last year of controversial highway tolls, Lamont says the state still needs to provide money to balance the Special Transportation Fund. The projected deficit for the transportation fund […]
That previous cost break-down led to for bonding $16.1 million to address roof, window and other long-standing issues at the former school, while also paying for modifications to allow a portion of the building to be used for recreation programming. Calorio said to accommodate the public at the school, new security doors would need to […]
The pandemic-induced recession has left Connecticut legislators with one of their tightest credit card limits in recent history — less than one-seventh their 2020 level. “I supported the ‘debt diet’ during the beginning of the Lamont administration,” said Rep. Sean Scanlon, D-Guilford, new House chairman of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee. “I thought that […]
On a webinar covering the results of the survey last week, which canvassed 1,300 construction firms in November and December, contractors lamented the difficulty of finding new projects and the challenges of keeping the ones they already have on track due to COVID-19 mitigation and productivity losses. “2021 looks to be a difficult year for […]
With seventh- and eighth-graders a part of the new Torrington Middle/High School, more traffic will be coming and going on Major Besse Drive once the $159.8 million building opens for the 2024-25 school year. The project’s building committee is looking to eradicate that problem by opening Daley Drive as a permanent access road to the […]
Connecticut’s solar energy sector is entering its next phase, marked by ever-larger projects and greater scrutiny by regulators and farming advocates on the long-term impact ground-mounted panel arrays have on the state’s limited stock of agricultural land. One upstart solar developer working to become a player in that evolving landscape is Hartford-based Verogy, and the […]
Should the city of New London continue to expect state funding through the Payment in Lieu of Taxes, or PILOT, program now that State Pier is property of the Connecticut Port Authority? Is the port authority board addressing the concerns of small ports like Norwich? Has the port authority analyzed projected job losses versus gains […]
As it contends with slashed levels of airline service, Bradley International Airport has cut costs in a number of areas in response to its declining revenues. The financial strain will not dissipate in 2021, but airport officials are hopeful that the adjustments will safeguard the Windsor Locks hub’s finances and persuade airlines to make long-term […]
The term “construction” appears 636 times in the $908 billion pandemic relief package and $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump at the end of December. In other words, while the relief package was less than half the size of the initial $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and […]
Businesses including restaurants were shut down in March and still are coping with Gov. Ned Lamont’s executive orders intended to prevent the spread of COVID-19. When the shutdown began, Carbone and Economic Development Director Rista Malanca developed forums for residents and businesses to ask questions, and when the orders were eased somewhat, allowing most businesses […]
President-elect Joe Biden has picked Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, a former top union leader, to serve as his Labor secretary, according to four sources, ending a selection process that split the labor movement and stoked diversity concerns among Democrats. Biden was widely expected to choose a Labor Department head who enjoyed the support of unions, […]
Mayor David V. Merchant plans to begin the new year by kicking off a long-awaited road reconstruction project on North Harwinton Avenue. Merchant said the town was able to secure $3 million in Local Capital Improvement grant funding from the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governors for the total reconstruction of North Harwinton Avenue. Another road […]
The Greater New Britain Chamber of Commerce will be hosting a webinar Friday featuring the New Britain, Berlin and Plainville directors of economic development. They will discuss current projects that are underway and expected to begin this year. The directors will also review activity that occurred in 2020. New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart will also […]
With many important pieces of legislation facing lawmakers this year, the fate of the Senate will have a major impact on construction-related issues, industry advocates say. Another crucial legislative issue for contractors this year is a potential federal infrastructure package. While passing a comprehensive infrastructure spending bill has been cast as a bipartisan measure that […]
“I don’t want our state to be defined by a COVID crisis — instead I want this year to be the year we changed the narrative of Connecticut; let this be the year of Connecticut’s Comeback,” Lamont said in a prerecorded speech that began airing just after 12:50 p.m. The traditional in-person speech in the […]
Veteran U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the new, powerful House Appropriations Committee chairwoman, promised Monday that once President-elect Joe Biden takes office, he will support major investments that should help Connecticut and the region. “I think in addition to transportation, you’re looking at broadband, airports, water projects, et cetera,” she said. “It is roads and bridges […]
Nuvance Health’s move to the burgeoning Summit building is a sign the west side development could flourish and drive growth throughout the city, despite the struggling economy. “It’s really great for the city because it takes this black eye that’s been sitting here for so long,” he said. “To be able to bring it back […]
A hearing intended to outline a $100 million makeover of downtown Hartford’s aging XL Center has been pushed back, after the owner of the atrium and storefront space outside the arena asked for a meeting with the Capital Region Development Authority, which is overseeing the project. The virtual hearing had been scheduled for Tuesday, but […]
A California-based commercial and multifamily developer has jumped coasts with a recent $1.1 million real estate deal in Wallingford. Michael Tevis, president of Menlo Park’s Intrinsic Ventures, purchased 135 N. Plains Industrial Road — a 21,000-square-foot office and light manufacturing building that sits on 2.4 acres — on Dec. 3, according to property records. The […]
Marquee issues like the budget, gambling expansion, a public option for health insurance and the legalization of marijuana will remain off stage as Gov. Ned Lamont and lawmakers mark the start of a session unlike any other. The Senate plans to convene at 10 a.m. on blacktop on the south side of the Capitol, seated […]
It was nearly a year ago that New London Mayor Michael Passero had expressed cautious optimism that the city was in line to reap some of the benefits of the planned overhaul of its port. After months of negotiations, The Connecticut Port Authority had agreed to a $157 million harbor redevelopment plan that would remake […]
But now with a major overhaul scheduled to begin in the spring of 2022, drivers can expect delays and occasional extended closures on a much more regular basis. Instead of the typical 8-minute wait, closings will sometimes last for up to 63 hours as the span is rehabilitated and a new pedestrian walkway is installed […]
Following concerned and critical comments from several residents of Boulder Court and Hancock Drive at a special meeting of the Groton Planning & Zoning Commission on Tuesday night, developer Jeff Respler laid out his latest vision for Mystic River Bluffs, a luxury 931-unit, mixed-use development at the Mystic Education Center property, site of the former […]
G.E. has yet to install one of these machines in ocean water. As a relative newcomer to the offshore wind business, the company faces questions about how quickly and efficiently it can scale up production to build and install hundreds of the turbines. G.E. has yet to install one of these machines in ocean water. […]
With some luck, $18 million and buy-in from new industries, the now-defunct Ansonia Copper and Brass site could spark a renaissance for the entire Valley. That’s the optimistic view that local officials have in their sights, helped out by a new 200-page plan that predicts the 116-acre complex could become a manufacturing center again with […]
Developers are closing in on final permits to build a natural gas plant in Killingly, prompting environmentalists to ratchet up their criticism of Gov. Ned Lamont’s environmental policies and urge a halt to the project. The Sierra Club, which is fighting the Killingly plant, said the governor “continues to tout his commitment to fighting the […]
Lamont’s budget staff in the Office of Policy and Management recently reported that the state’s Special Transportation Fund (STF) will end the fiscal year on June 30 with only about $108 million, down from $320 million on July 1, 2019 and just a fraction of the hundreds of millions needed to fund the major infrastructure […]
