Cracks about 60 feet long on Interstate 95 north between exits 74 and 75 closed the right lane Thursday afternoon for several hours while crews investigated the integrity of the road and worked to resolve the problem. The fissures were due to settling caused by the failure of a temporary retaining wall designed to support the highway as part of a four-year, $148 million reconstruction project, according to resident engineer Bob Obey of the GM2 project management firm. The closure was announced at 1:06 p.m. by the state Department of Transportation. The highway was reopened around 5:35 p.m. The retaining wall is being installed by contractor Manafort Brothers of Plainville to allow for the expansion of the bridge over Route 161. The soil nail wall design involves nails drilled into the earth with grout reinforcements.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240425/big-cracks-close-one-lane-of-i-95-in-east-lyme/

The vacant Regal Cinemas building may stay that way for some time after developers shelved plans to redevelop the site at one of the town’s busiest intersections. CP Branford LLC withdrew its application at the Planning and Zoning Commission’s April 18 meeting. Developers were seeking to have the parcel rezoned as a Planned Development District (PDD) that would allow the multifamily development and self-storage facility not currently permitted in the Local Business (BL) District. A commercial building, allowed in the BL zone, was to have housed the coffee shop and urgent care medical center. CP Branford LLC submitted four separate applications for the site with three different architects for each portion of the project: the theater, which would be remodeled as the self-storage facility, the new apartment complex and one commercial building for a medical office and drive-thru coffee shop.

https://www.nhregister.com/shoreline/article/regal-cinemas-branford-development-plans-withdrawn-19420586.php

The former Cartus Corp. building would be used solely as a high school and not for grades 6-8, if the Board of Education adopts school officials’ new plan for the building. The building that formerly housed the Cartus Corp. is slated to open in the 2025-26 school year, three years after city voters approved a $208 million education bonding package that included a $164 million plan for the school. Now, under the plan outlined by interim schools Superintendent Kara Casimiro Wednesday night, the building could serve 1,400 high school students instead. It would still house the district’s central administration. Casimiro cited the immediate need to reduce Danbury High School’s severe overcrowding. At the same time, the city’s middle school enrollment has remained high, but has been manageable, Casimiro said.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/danbury-school-leaders-revise-career-academy-plans-19422303.php

Reggaeton star Bad Bunny not only brought 14,000 fans and a financial windfall to Hartford’s XL Center early this month — he also brought 33 trucks of gear. Those trucks had to navigate Asylum Street and the XL Center’s out-of-date loading docks, highlighting the need for a $100-million-plus upgrade of the arena’s infrastructure so it can keep drawing top shows, the facility’s manager said on Thursday. An XL upgrade is especially urgent as UConn seeks state funding for a planned $100 million renovation of Gampel Pavilion on its Storrs campus that could divert games from Hartford. State officials are also working to expand the funding for a comprehensive revamp of the XL Center after the first round of bids for the project came in far above the initial $100 million budget. The current funding allocated for the project can’t accommodate some of the needed improvements, Freimuth said. The new plan for the XL renovations is scheduled to go out for bid on May 1, with bids coming in by the end of June.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/xl-center-hartford-renovations-improvements-19423350.php

While Norwich Public Utilities General Manager Chris LaRose is glad to receive any money from the government, he was ecstatic that it it’s enough to complete a large project in the city. Norwich Public Utilities announced Monday it will receive $10.9 million from the federal government to replace aging natural gas lines. Last year, NPU received over $10 million. The federal money means NPU customers aren’t paying for the work in their rates, Community Outreach Manager Chris Riley said. The money is from the Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructure Safety and Modernization grant program of The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Work on the gas main replacements is expected to start in the fall, and continue into 2028, according to a press release from NPU.

https://www.norwichbulletin.com/story/news/local/2024/04/23/norwich-public-utilities-federal-grant-replacing-cast-iron-natural-gas-pipes/73416939007/

The EPA announced Tuesday that it had taken action against WestFair Painting Corp., requiring the Bethel-based CertaPro franchise to come into compliance with the RRP Rule, which aims to protect the public from lead-based paint hazards associated with renovation, repair and painting activities. As a result of EPA’s action, the company will pay a penalty of $13,122. The rule requires workers to be certified and trained in the use of lead-safe work practices and requires renovation, repair and painting firms to be EPA-certified, according to the EPA’s website. The EPA also alleged that WestFair hired subcontractors that were not EPA-certified firms or contractors certified in lead-safe work practices under the RRP Rule, and that the violations occurred in at least five renovation jobs — including one at a property that was child-occupied.

https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/bethel-westfair-painting-epa-lead-violations-19420006.php

A report commissioned by the city in 2018 recommended relocating the HARTransit Pulse Point station now on Kennedy Avenue to a new location closer to the Metro-North Railroad station at 1 Patriot Drive. The proposed bus station could be built across the tracks from the train station along what is now an unused 5-acre commercial lot on Pahquioque Avenue, according to the study on transit-oriented development. The next phase of the project will be the design and traffic engineering studies related to relocating the bus station, the administration said. O’Brien described the proposed Danbury Transit Center as “a good thing for our downtown, our community, for people are wanting to walk and use public transit.” Riders could include visitors from other communities, such as Norwalk, who are attending a Hat Tricks hockey game, for example, or area residents who are looking to ride the Metro-North Railroad train.

https://www.newstimes.com/local/article/danbury-receives-federal-funding-design-transit-19408751.php

Hartford planning officials this week will discuss plans to authorize a pedestrian bridge over Washington Street that would connect a new tower wing of the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center with a new parking garage. During a meeting scheduled for Tuesday at 6 p.m., the city Planning & Zoning Commission and Inland Wetlands Commissions will review a resolution referred by the city’s Court of Common Council that would grant air rights and a sidewalk easement for the elevated walkway. Last year, Connecticut Children’s broke ground on a $280 million expansion that will reshape its Washington Street campus and include a new 195,000-square-foot, eight-story patient tower. The existing Hartford facility has about 321,000 square feet with 187 beds. The new tower will be anchored to the existing building.

Hartford P&Z to discuss pedestrian bridge for new CT Children’s tower

A segment of the $1.2 trillion 2021 federal infrastructure law seemed written with Norwich in mind: replace century-old natural gas pipelines in financially distressed communities with city-owned gas companies. Norwich Public Utilities natural gas division will receive $10.9 million this year, added to the $10 million received last year, through the program, federal officials announced Monday. The two grants totaling nearly $21 million will replace 9 miles of aging cast iron natural gas pipes that run beneath city streets. The two grants will allow NPU to condense what had been a 25-year long-term plan to replace the decaying lines into a five-year schedule starting this fall, NPU General Manager Chris LaRose said. The grants will cover nearly all the estimated project cost of $21.5 million, sparing local natural gas ratepayers the expense, LaRose said.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240422/norwich-public-utilities-receives-10-9-million-grant-to-replace-aging-gas-lines/#

For more than 50 years, Route 11 has earned the nicknames of “Route 5 ½” and “highway to nowhere” due to its notoriety of being an unfinished highway. While construction for building the highway began in the ’60s, plans to finish the highway have started and stalled on numerous occasions. Currently operational, Route 11 measures approximately seven miles in length and has two major junctions — Route 82 in Salem and Route 2 in Colchester. It is unlikely that the project will move forward and the Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT) will “focus resources in other areas,” said Samaia Hernandez, a spokesperson from the DOT. First opening in 1972, the highway was constructed between Route 2 in Colchester and Route 82 in Salem with future plans for expansion to Interstate 95 and Interstate 395 in Waterford. Plans for a renumbering of Route 11 were announced in 2023 by the DOT, marking the most recent work related to the highway. This renumbering is set to take place in 2028.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/connecticut-highway-to-nowhere-route-11-colchester-19405942.php