Following the pattern of Manchester, East Hartford is looking to modernize its downtown with traffic roundabouts, a road diet and new pedestrian amenities. The $38 million overhaul is intended to reduce traffic accidents, make biking and walking safer, and revitalize the stretch of Route 44 through the central retail district. Plans are still fluid, but state officials said last week that they’re looking to nail down a firm design. With the state and federal governments picking up the cost, Mayor Connor Martin sees the project as part of a wider campaign to strengthen the town and its business base. The past year has seen Walmart preparing to operate a 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse on Connecticut Boulevard, he said last week, while the Simon Konover Corp. is pouring the foundation for a 150-unit apartment complex along the Connecticut River. Port Eastside’s partners are progressing toward a winter groundbreaking for work on the $90 million reuse of 111 Founders Plaza into a 19-story upscale apartment complex. “It’s ambitious, but they want to start in January,” Martin said. “Change is hard, but change is necessary. As local residents, we know best how busy, how fast, and how difficult Main Street can be to navigate or cross,” he said when the state Department of Transportation publicly detailed the proposal. “The proposed improvements are designed to make this major corridor safer and more accessible for everyone—whether you’re walking, riding a bike, or driving,” Martin said.

https://www.courant.com/2026/10/22/38-million-complete-street-roundabouts-road-diet-in-planning-for-ct-town-change-is-necessary/

For all the complaints about Connecticut roads, the state’s highways are not quite as bad as their reputation might suggest a new report has found. The Federal Highway Administration’s latest national road report finds that most of Connecticut’s major highways have good or acceptable ride quality. The state’s interstates fare particularly well, with 84% rated good and just 2% rated poor. But there is a striking difference once drivers leave the interstate. When you include major non-interstate highways, just 54% of pavement is rated good and 11% is classified as having poor ride quality, according to the Federal Highway Administration’s “Our Nation’s Highways 2026” report. The figures are based on 2024 pavement data. Within Connecticut, the roads most likely to feel rough are not necessarily the ones carrying the most traffic. The federal data point toward urban and non-interstate roads as the bigger source of rough rides, while the Connecticut Department of Transportation says its own data show the state’s pavement network is facing a more gradual problem: Pavement is getting worse, even though it has not yet reached the point the state considers “poor.”

https://www.ctinsider.com/connecticut/article/ct-road-quality-interstates-highways-22487320.php

Avangrid is advancing work at more than 40 substations and substation facilities across Maine, New York and Connecticut. The projects include everything from major substation rebuilds and equipment replacements to flood mitigation projects, automation upgrades and capacity enhancements. These investments are helping strengthen the electric system, improve service reliability and support growing energy demand. “Substations are the backbone of a reliable electric grid,” Avangrid CEO Jose Antonio Miranda said. “Across our service territories, we are making strategic investments to modernize critical infrastructure, strengthen resilience against increasingly severe weather, improve operational flexibility, and ensure our electric system is prepared to meet the needs of customers for decades to come.” In Connecticut, Avangrid subsidiary United Illuminating (UI) advanced construction on flood protection improvements at the Singer Substation in Bridgeport. It also achieved engineering milestones for flood mitigation efforts at the Grand Avenue-Mill River substation in New Haven and Milvon Substation in Milford. In addition, final closeout activities continued for the Pequonnock Resiliency Project, which relocated and elevated critical infrastructure to reduce coastal flood risk.

https://dailyenergyinsider.com/news/54115-avangrid-invests-in-40-substation-projects-across-maine-new-york-and-connecticut/

As the state Department of Transportation conducts a study of how to potentially make it easier and safer to travel along the Interstate 95 corridor in Bridgeport and Fairfield, the consultant team is open to all ideas – big and small. During a public meeting Wednesday at Black Rock School in Bridgeport, a team of consultants presented a host of concepts from “transformational” ideas like moving portions of I-95 underground to much smaller projects like installing bike lanes and pedestrian refuge islands on roads off the highway. “We really didn’t want to leave any stone unturned when we were developing our concepts,” consultant JJ Samus said during the presentation. “Beyond improving transportation, these ideas could really reconnect communities and strengthen local street networks and potentially create opportunities for economic development. But those improvements don’t always need to be transformational to actually solve a problem or make a difference.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/underground-95-tunnel-ct-studies-090000952.html

NORWALK — Norwalk’s $9 million project to build a new baseball complex at Broad River Park is expected to be finished by fall 2028, officials said. The project will replace the current two baseball fields and will add a third; and includes additional amenities, such as lighting for one of the fields, restrooms, a concession area, playgrounds, pickleball courts and additional parking. “This is a much-awaited project, and we are so excited to finally get it started,” Mayor Barbara Smyth said. Jenn McMurrer, Smyth’s director of communications, said the project could take approximately 12 to 18 months to complete and construction will start between spring and summer 2027. She said officials still need to go out to bid for the project and choose a contractor. McMurrer said the project is being paid for with a mix of state grants and city funds. She said the $9 million is a preliminary estimate and the total cost of the project could change depending on what kind of bids the city receives from potential contractors.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/norwalk-ct-baseball-complex-broad-river-park-22477154.php

STRATFORD — Developers planning a $1 billion redevelopment of Stratford’s former Army Engine Plant expect to submit a master plan by December after unveiling the first comprehensive vision for transforming the 77-acre waterfront property into a mixed-use district with housing, parks, shops and public gathering spaces. Point Stratford Renewal presented the concept during a Sept. 28 joint meeting of the Town Council, Traffic Authority, the Planning and Zoning Commissions and the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission for the brownfield at 550 Main St. The project team said it expects to spend the coming months refining the plan through additional public input before filing its development proposal. Once fully built over the next 15 to 20 years, the public-private project is expected to exceed $1 billion in investment, create roughly 500 jobs and eventually generate more than $15 million annually in property tax revenue, said economic development consultant Mike Freimuth.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/stratford-army-engine-plant-redevelopment-1billion-22467377.php

Submarine builder General Dynamics Electric Boat could receive up to $25 million in state funding to support its redevelopment of Crystal Mall in Waterford, CT Insider has learned. The new funding for the Groton-headquartered Electric Boat consists of up to $20 million in tax credits for urban and industrial re-investment from the state Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) and a sales-tax exemption potentially worth $5 million from the state-chartered venture-capital organization Connecticut Innovations, according to officials with those agencies. DECD and Connecticut Innovations disclosed their agreements with Electric Boat in response to inquiries from CT Insider. Electric Boat acquired the languishing mall last year, and it plans to open a company campus there next year. While Electric Boat recently secured federal contracts for 14 new ships that are worth a record-breaking total of about $77 billion, state officials said that the company’s expansion to Waterford also deserves public funding. “We’re growing jobs significantly, and we’re putting a failed commercial property back onto the town’s tax rolls as a really strong, robust asset. That’s good for the local community,” DECD Deputy Commissioner Matthew Pugliese said in an interview. “And then we’re creating that activation. We’re adding thousands of workers into the area that are going to take part in going to restaurants, running errands at lunch and going shopping.”

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/electric-boat-state-funds-redevelop-crystal-mall-22433290.php

Union Station’s massive arched windows and soaring waiting room have greeted generations of travelers arriving in New Haven. Now, more than a century after the current building opened, a transformation is underway. The initiative Union Station Partnership is pursuing renovations to the building alongside a broader plan of development for the surrounding area. As part of the $24.8 million state-funded refurbishment, Union Station will get renovated restrooms and retail spaces, a new central atrium and exterior repairs. City officials see the transit hub as an anchor for New Haven’s growth, while preservation advocates are asking to save some crucial elements of the station. Shared between both visions is Union Station’s role as a gateway to the city. “It’s the front door to New Haven, but it’s also, for New Haven, the front door to the world,” Christopher Wigren, the deputy director of local nonprofit Preservation Connecticut, said in a video interview. Union Station’s current building opened in 1920 after the previous train hall burned in 1918. Architect Cass Gilbert designed the building for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, which wanted its New Haven station to embody the importance of rail travel in the region.

https://yaledailynews.com/articles/with-redevelopment-city-leaders-hope-for-a-more-connected-union-station

East Lyme — The town is moving forward with the Colony Road bridge replacement project after a two-month delay due to rocks found in the work zone. In July, the towns said Public Works Department employees discovered an unexpected amount of rock where the west abutment was supposed to be built. Construction on the $6 million replacement project between 16 and 22 Colony Road, over Latimer Brook, was then paused as the town decided what to do. Construction began in April and was expected to be complete by Nov. 30. The project is fully funded with state and federal grants. On Monday, the Public Works Department posted on Facebook that the town decided to redesign the project and work with and around the rocks rather than drill through the rock which they said would have placed a “serious noise burden” on the surrounding neighborhood. The department said that construction will resume this month but is unsure when it will be complete. Right now, the new bridge is expected to reopen sometime next summer.

https://theday.com/news/928791/rocks-slow-down-east-lyme-bridge-replacement/

Killingly — The Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission again continued its public hearing on a nearly 1.3 million-square-foot Amazon warehouse distribution center to Nov. 2. Several residents, who have opposed the Westcott Road project since it was first submitted several months ago, continued to do so during Monday night’s three-hour hearing. The group has now hired engineer Steven Trinkaus as their expert witness in an effort to gain intervenor status. The commission is expected to grant the status on Nov. 2. If intervention status is granted, intervenors become a party in the proceeding and have a seat at the table when the commission meets with the applicant as opposed to just being part of public comment. Trinkaus raised numerous issues with the project’s engineering in regard to stormwater management, sewage disposal and wetland impacts. Trinkaus claims that the proposed stormwater system will not meet the pollutant load reductions set by the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, which “will adversely affect the water quality in these systems over time.” He also claims that no viable feasible and prudent alternatives have been provided for the development that would reduce the impact on wetlands on the site. Before Trinkaus spoke Monday night, Evan Seeman, an attorney who represents Ryan Companies, the developer, tried to discredit Trinkaus arguments, claiming they are not factual. Seeman told the commission that Trinkaus has been found to be not a credible witness by the Connecticut Superior Court’s land use litigation docket on four occasions over the last two years.

https://theday.com/news/928711/wetlands-hearing-on-massive-amazon-project-in-killingly-grinds-on/