State lawmakers later this month will act on a request from the local legislative delegation to provide grant funds that would support a series of school infrastructure improvements, including new classroom walls at King Street Primary, air conditioning system upgrades at multiple schools and a partial roof replacement at one building. The funds, if approved, would support 20 proposed projects, which include a $3.5 million project to install walls at King Street Primary, $1.45 million to replace air conditioning systems at multiple schools, a roof section replacement at Ellsworth Avenue School, an elevator replacement at Rogers Park Middle School, among others, according to a list of school district capital project needs that Godfrey shared with Hearst Connecticut Media. Local leaders will not find out whether the funding will be approved until May 8, the last day of session, said Santos, who also serves as the city’s community relations and constituent services advisor.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/education/article/danbury-school-capital-projects-ct-bill-19394110.php

As both AMS Acquisitions and Fuller Development refine their plans, they are approaching the final approval stage, promising a future with more housing options in Wilton. The projects are among a handful of developments proposed or underway in the area that would add hundreds of apartments. At 64 Danbury Road, Fuller Development, LLC, is proposing the construction of 93 apartments near Wilton Corporate Park. The project consists of eight, three-story colonial buildings and a 2,683-square-foot amenity building, along with various recreational facilities. While the developers wait on the commission to approve their waiver, Fuller Development is also anticipating the completion of a peer review of the wetland report. The Planning and Zoning Commission will convene for another public hearing on April 30 to assess whether AMS has addressed the safety concerns raised by the police department and to review progress made by Fuller Development.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/wilton-ct-route-7-apartments-19397532.php

When Route 9, a high-speed freeway, hits the center of Middletown, drivers can suddenly run into two red lights. “We don’t have any others on any freeways in the state,” said Stephen Hall, the state Department of Transportation’s project manager for the project that will remove the signals. “It’s a very surprising situation if you’re not familiar with it either. A lot of crashes, a lot of injuries, and then a lot of congestion as well.” The safety issues with the signals at Washington Street and Hartford Avenue are so bad that there’s a crash on average every other day and an injury every week, Hall said. The solution of removing them will make other improvements to the roads outside of downtown Middletown, including a roundabout at River Road south of downtown and a raised section of highway to allow for a northbound entrance at Hartford Avenue. While the project to remove them won’t begin until 2027 and take four years, there will be a public informational meeting April 30 at Wesleyan University’s Beckham Hall (Fayerweather) at 45 Wyllys Ave. The traffic signal project’s $115 million cost will be paid for with 80% federal funds and 20% state funds.

Traffic signals on congested, accident-prone highway will be gone in a CT city. What you need to know.

The borough was awarded last month a $5.7 million in a Community Investment Fund grant to improve a section of Rubber Avenue. The CIF grant will be used for the Scott Street and Nettleton Avenue area to address stormwater issues and improve the development of the Risdon property, a 12-acre former manufacturing site at 0 Andrew Avenue. The funds will also supplement the borough’s current Rubber Avenue project that is underway. In an effort to upgrade the area, the current Rubber Avenue project calls for a reconstruction of about two-thirds of a mile of Rubber Avenue from the intersection of Melbourne and Hoadley streets to Elm Street. That project will include drainage improvements, new sidewalks, landscaping along the road and a new modern roundabout at the four-way intersection of Rubber Avenue and Meadow and Cherry streets.

https://www.rep-am.com/localnews/2024/04/15/naugatucks-rubber-avenue-project-rolls-on/

There is a need for a sustained commitment to the pandemic-era improvements in public school air quality, the group said during a press conference in the Legislative Office Building, particularly with the inevitable end of federal funding for upgrades to heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in both suburban and urban districts. They called for a 10-year extension of the General Assembly’s School Indoor Air Quality Working Group, including HVAC professionals and state agencies in studying and overseeing the issue that’s contained in pending legislation. The General Assembly adjourns this budget-adjustment short session year at midnight May 8. About 100 out of Connecticut’s 1,500 school buildings have had HVAC upgrades over the last two years, at a cost of about $53 million. Advocates expect more than 100 schools will be included in the next round of grants, expected to soon be announced by the state Department of Administrative Services. Meanwhile, annual building reviews and five-year comprehensive inspections have created baseline information on so-called “sick schools.”

https://www.chron.com/politics/article/ct-legislation-campaign-cleaner-school-air-quality-19392285.php

Players in and observers of U.S. offshore wind energy say the sector is showing encouraging signs of recovery and progress after in the past year producing a series of headlines about investment write-downs, project exits and attempts to secure higher future prices. Lots of work remains to be done to complete those plans but it appears unlikely they’ll face the same buffeting that projects started a few years ago have had to endure. Those developments—which include the Empire Wind 2 plan, whose contract Equinor and bp canceled early this year—faced something of a perfect storm: After developers penciled out business models and secured power purchase contracts before the arrival of COVID-19, supply-chain snarls caused by the pandemic jacked up prices for the materials and equipment they needed and the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate hikes added immensely to their financing costs.

https://www.tdworld.com/renewables/article/55017221/offshore-sector-gathers-second-wind-after-several-setbacks

To extend the lifespan of the pavement on the Merritt Parkway and Interstate 95, the state Department of Transportation is conducting an $18.8 million preservation project on those roadways in Norwalk, Darien and other municipalities. “The Connecticut Department of Transportation is announcing the start of a pavement preservation program to improve the existing wearing surface and extend the life of the pavement on Route 15 and Interstate 95 in Orange, Woodbridge, New Haven, Darien and Norwalk starting on April 8, 2024,” a DOT statement said. The project began on April 8, and will last until December. Tilcon Connecticut Inc. of New Britain was awarded an $18,861,960 contract for the project, which is administered by the Bureau of Engineering and Construction.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/nighttime-i-95-merritt-lane-closures-norwalk-19395604.php

The proposed Uline warehouse in Plainfield was approved by the Plainfield Planning and Zoning Commission at its meeting Tuesday night. This project was approved with conditions that Uline needs to handle before beginning construction. The project calls for the construction of a 1.25 million-square-foot commercial warehouse as well as associated parking and drainage on property located at 143-151 Plainfield Pike Road. Uline is a company that distributes shipping, industrial and packaging materials throughout North America. Plainfield Town Planner Ryan Brais said that Uline would like to begin construction this year and finish in one or two years. He added that the town has not been notified of the construction cost at this point.

https://www.norwichbulletin.com/story/news/local/2024/04/12/uline-warehouse-plainfield-conn-planning-zoning-commission/73290322007/

A controversial plan to create a quarry operation at Mount Decatur has been resubmitted by Gales Ferry Intermodal LLC, this time offering some financial incentives to the town while claiming the operation wouldn’t create “any objectionable impacts either from noise or dust.” The application for a special use permit at the former Dow Chemical plant off Route 12 also claims that local regulations that allow the Planning and Zoning Commission to consider the project’s effects on the character of the immediate neighborhood are superseded by a new state law. Harry B. Heller, the lead attorney for Gales Ferry Intermodal’s parent company Cashman Dredging & Marine Contracting Co. of Quincy, Mass., downplayed the potential for increased truck traffic in the resubmitted application, saying aggregate from the site will be shipped “primarily via barge,” while also playing up the creation of “30 well-paying construction jobs” during the property’s development phase.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240411/quarry-operation-in-gales-ferry-back-on-the-table/

The town’s Planning and Zoning Commission Wednesday approved a proposal by the Raytheon Technologies Group to build a new, five-story, 313,000-square-foot office building on 16.6 acres of the Pratt & Whitney campus off of Silver Lane. In a statement from the company, the official also said the proposal presented Wednesday did not signal that demolition of the OBB was imminent, and indicated it wasn’t even certain that construction would take place. East Hartford Deputy Director of Development Steve Hnatuck said Thursday that no specific timeline was given during Wednesday’s presentation to the commission but representatives for RTX said that they expected a 30-month window for construction when the project is launched. The Pratt & Whitney campus stands at 260 acres, but the company in recent years sold a 300-acre former airfield on which National Development built two warehouses for Lowe’s and Wayfair. The company announced in March that the buildings were approved for occupancy and that hiring would begin soon.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/capitalregion/article/pratt-and-whitney-east-hartford-ct-rtx-19397369.php