From April to December 2023, DOT officials piloted a work zone camera program at three different sites, issuing 24,900 warning citations for speeding. With the threat of a $75 fine for repeat offenses, most drivers complied with speed limits, officials said, resulting in fewer than 750 second-offense violations. The DOT, led by Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto, lobbied lawmakers during the 2024 legislative short session for more money for cameras and other transportation initiatives. That lobbying paid off as the state Legislature approved a bill that, among other things, allocates about $3 million for cameras; increases the number of work zones with cameras from three to 15 sites; mandates warnings and then caps fines at $75 for each offense; automatically fines drivers traveling 85 miles per hour; and lowers the threshold for fines in work zones from 15 mph above the speed limit to 10 miles above the speed limit. Morgan said the expanded program probably won’t start until early 2025 in order to secure vendors and contracts.

DOT Aims to Curb Work Zone Speeding with Expanded Camera Program

The Framingham system consists of a giant underground loop filled with water and antifreeze, similar to the way gas is delivered to several houses in a neighborhood. Water in the loop absorbs heat from underground, which remains at about 55 degrees Fahrenheit all year. Households have their own heat pump units that provide heating and air conditioning, installed by the utility. These take heat from the loop, spike the temperature further, and release that heat as warm air into the homes. For air conditioning, heat is extracted from the home or business and released into the Earth or transported to the next home. Framingham beat out other communities that applied to Eversource to become pilot sites. The city 20 minutes west of Boston is surrounded by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, plus firms like Thermo Fisher Scientific, Pfizer and Novartis. Eric Mauchan said the proximity of so much advanced technology and a state law requiring that greenhouse gas emissions ramp down to zero by 2050 helped make the community receptive. Nikki Bruno, vice president for clean technologies for Eversource, also cited the state’s emissions law as a reason for the pilot. It was also “an opportunity from a decarbonization standpoint,” she said, because Eversource has its own net zero goal.

https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/06/03/climate-solution-massachusetts-framingham-heating-cooling

The Residences at Bowfield Green mixed-use development in downtown Windsor is set to take shape as town officials and members of the development team broke ground on the project Monday. The development by Sachdev Real Estate Development Group and property owner Dr. Mohan Sachdev, priced at more than $20 million, will feature a residential and retail complex on two vacant sites at 109-125 Poquonock Ave., a former car dealership brownfield site that was remediated. Officials have said Bowfield Green with its 7,000 square feet of first-floor retail space and 77 market-rate apartments above, is a key component to transforming the downtown Windsor area into a transit-oriented development. Another mixed-use redevelopment project, the Founder’s Square, is set to go vertical this week, town officials said.

Mixed-use apartment project breaks ground in Windsor

A small Stamford bridge on Mill Road that was closed down last week was in “critical condition,” with “significant cracking” of the pavement and “severe deterioration” of the steel beams underneath, a construction report states. The condition of the bridge, which is on Mill Road just east of the intersection with Old Long Ridge Road resulted in the closure of Mill Road, Stamford police announced May 29 on social media. Traffic will not be allowed to enter the approximately one-mile street at the intersection with Old Long Ridge Road, which means motorists will only be able to access Mill Road by entering through Rock Rimmon Road. The bridge, which was built in 1960 and runs over a small unnamed brook, is about 19 feet wide and is supported by 12-foot steel beams underneath as well as stone abutments on each end.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/stamford-mill-road-bridge-steel-deterioration-19492674.php

The governor’s office and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection on Monday announced the release of a series of grants totaling $10 million to finance the planning, building, expansion, and improvement of 45 multiuse trails located in towns and cities throughout Connecticut. The funding is being provided through the Connecticut Recreational Trails Grant Program. The Connecticut Greenways Council assisted DEEP with the competitive grant selection process. DEEP anticipates most projects to be completed by 2027. $270,346 for Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments for planning, preliminary design and outreach for the Kinneytown section of the Naugatuck River Greenway.

https://www.rep-am.com/localnews/2024/06/03/naugatuck-valley-greenway-among-45-projects-statewide/

The State Bond Commission is expected at its meeting Friday to approve nearly $6 million to the borough of Naugatuck to support the revitalization of the Rubber Avenue corridor. In late April, state legislators representing Naugatuck and Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess celebrated the approval of a $5,754,493 grant for the project through Community Investment Fund 2030, a state grant program established in 2022 to support economic development in historically underserved communities across Connecticut. The Bond Commission vote Friday will make the funding available. It is part of a larger bonding allocation of $74.7 million to finance 27 projects that Community Investment Fund 2030 Board approved in March. Naugatuck will use the CIF grant to address storm water issues in the areas of Scott Street and Nettleton Avenue and improve the development of the Risdon property, a 12-acre former manufacturing site at 0 Andrew Ave. The funds will also supplement the borough’s current Rubber Avenue project that is underway.

https://www.rep-am.com/localnews/2024/06/03/naugatucks-rubber-avenue-project-likely-bonded/

As workers began clearing trees this week to make room for a rehabilitation hospital on one of the last construction sites in the village-size neighborhood known as the Reserve, the city of Danbury gave a parking break to the inpatient facility to prevent “a field of empty asphalt.” During a public hearing Tuesday, Lichtenauer referred to a thickly wooded 34-acre property north of the 1.3-million-square-foot office building known as the Summit and south of two dense condominium developments in the heart of the Reserve. The city’s Zoning Commission gave its unanimous approval for Encompass Heath to provide half the patient parking spaces required in its 2021 approval, after agreeing with the hospital’s reasoning that patients undergoing medical rehabilitation don’t have the same parking needs as outpatients.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/danbury-oks-parking-break-rehab-site-trees-19484739.php

For the second straight year, the NPU Sewer Division has received approval for a $15.5 million short-term line of credit from the NPU Electric Division to help cover costs of the ongoing work to build a new sewage treatment plant on Hollyhock Island near Norwich Harbor. The Board of Public Utilities Commissioners, which doubles as the Sewer Authority and oversees all NPU operations, approved the loan agreement Tuesday. The loan money will be paid back with the same interest rate that the Electric Division cash reserves earn on money kept in its M&T Bank account, currently 5%. The new line of credit will be available to the Sewer Division beginning July 1 and must be paid back in full by June 30, 2025. NPU General Manager Chris LaRose said the loan is necessary as bills must be paid to contractors working on the massive project sooner than reimbursement it receives for the work from the state through the Clean Water Fund. The project has been approved for a $67.6 million Clean Water Fund grant.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240601/norwich-public-utilities-sewage-treatment-project-to-receive-loan-from-electric-division/#

City officials sent a strong message to the state Department of Transportation Thursday, asking them to halt their $143 million plan to remove two traffic lights on Route 9, spurred on by significant issues raised by people opposed to the latest design. Council President Gene Nocera has acknowledged that local legislators have no authority over decisions made by the DOT. Morgan said Friday that there have been dozens of meetings over the last decade on improving safety in Middletown, and that the public supports the traffic lights removal. A crash occurs at the traffic lights, both north and south, nearly every other day, with an injury occuring about ever week, he said. The DOT presented a proposal to remove the lights in 2016, Morgan said, after hearing from the public. Based on feedback, the project was revised, and re-presented in 2018, he added. Following that, the DOT investigated additional alternatives, which led to the present project.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/middletown-leaders-ask-dot-suspend-plans-route-9-19488446.php

Connecticut officials will meet this week to consider approval of more than $856 million for projects that range from complex and costly bridge replacements to installing toilets at state parks. The decision of whether to fund those capital improvements is up to the State Bond Commission, a 10-member body chaired by Gov. Ned Lamont. The commission will hold its final meeting of the current fiscal year on June 7. An agenda for the meeting released on Friday included more than $519 million in general obligation bond allocations, as well as nearly $337 in special tax obligation bonds that are mostly used to cover transportation projects such as highway construction and mass transit, according to Office of Policy and Management spokesman Chris Collibee. While the commission gets the final word on whether to authorize each of the bonds, the investments themselves were authorized last year as part of a two-year, $7.5 billion bonding package approved by state lawmakers, as well as previous year’s bond packages.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/connecticut/article/ct-bond-commission-agenda-transportation-projects-19488525.php