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New Naugatuck apartments become ‘blueprint’ for transit-oriented developments
By next summer, downtown Naugatuck will be transformed, with dozens of new apartments and a new train station. Naugatuck’s downtown redevelopment has drawn the attention of Gov. Ned Lamont, who said it’s an example of the potential Transit Oriented Developments (TODs) hold. “I hear a lot of speeches about transit-oriented development,” Lamont said. “You sort of have to sometimes imagine what it means. You don’t have to imagine when you’re here in Naugatuck. You see what it means.” The new Water Street train station is expected to be completed in the summer. However, the first of three apartment buildings at the Platform at Naugatuck which abuts the train line has been completed and residents recently began moving in. Lamont spoke about the developments’ benefits at a ribbon cutting for the new apartments Monday. “You’ll be able to walk right over to the train station, go to Waterbury, Stamford, or beyond, or people coming in here for work as well,” Lamont said. The Platform at Naugatuck is now accepting applicants. The building was approved for families to move in less than two weeks ago, according to Karmen Cheung with Pennrose, one of the project developers.
Preston to vote on selling piece of former Norwich Hospital land to Mohegans
Preston — Residents will gather at Preston Plains Middle School on Thursday at 7 p.m. to vote on approving the sale of two parcels of land on Route 12 to the Mohegan Tribe. The parcels total approximately 30 acres and have been owned by the town since September 2023. The town acquired the land by foreclosure. According to an Oct. 19 letter from the tribe to the town, the Mohegans will pay the town $200,000 for the land. The tribe plans to use the parcels, which are a small part of the Preston Riverwalk Project. In 2009, the town acquired the abandoned 393-acre Norwich Hospital property along Route 12 and the Thames River from the state. A small portion is located in Norwich. The town then received millions in state funding to clean up the contaminated site. In 2017, the town and tribe agreed that once that was done, Preston would convey the property to the tribe. Almost all of the 56 former hospital buildings have been demolished as part of the cleanup. The transfer to the tribe is expected to occur soon. The project is envisioned by the tribe as a non-gaming destination and calls for outdoor and indoor attractions, hotel and retail space, restaurants, housing, a marina, RV park and more. The land where the Preston Riverwalk Project would be located is of historical significance to the Mohegans, as it is next to Brewster’s Neck Cemetery and land on which early American settler Jonathan Brewster established a trading post hundreds of years ago. This land was granted to Brewster by his friend and trading partner, a Mohegan sachem named Uncas.
$38 million Complete Street, roundabouts, ‘road diet’ in planning for CT town. ‘Change is necessary.’
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.
Connecticut’s highways have a surprising split: Interstates are good, other roads lag
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 invests in 40 substation projects across Maine, New York, and Connecticut
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.
An underground I-95 tunnel? CT studies concepts for Bridgeport, Fairfield corridor
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
$9 million Norwalk baseball complex set for 2028, with new fields and flood-control work
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.
$1B vision is taking shape for Stratford’s 77-acre waterfront site. Here’s what’s planned next
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.
Why Electric Boat could get $25 million from Connecticut to redevelop mall in Waterford
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.”
With redevelopment, city leaders hope for a more connected Union Station
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.
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