City officials insist ground will be broken this year in the South End on a new Bassick High School, despite advice from one state agency to hold off until the completion of a massive flood mitigation project in that same neighborhood. Resilient Bridgeport is a $52 million, federally-funded, state-implemented effort to fortify the South End from flooding during major storms with various infrastructure improvements, including a pumping station, a storm water park, and roadway upgrades. Planning is being overseen by Shante Hanks, a Bridgeport political activist hired in 2019 as Connecticut’s deputy housing commissioner. The project is scheduled to begin in 2022 and be completed by late summer 2023. Resilient Bridgeport has been in the works for several years and was a direct response to 2011’s Tropical Storm Irene and 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, which swamped the South End, a mixture of lower-income housing, old industrial sites and two major draws — Seaside Park and the University of Bridgeport. Whether or not the money would be in jeopardy was unclear. A representative with the state Department of Administrative Services, which oversees school construction and funding, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
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