Real estate developer Daniel Bertram, a principal with BRT Companies of Danbury, came before the Board of Selectmen earlier this month to explain proposed updates to the project. Construction is proceeding at the 14.7-acre property at the corner of Main (Route 17) and Marlborough streets (Route 66), near the Arrigoni Bridge. New traffic lights at the intersection have been installed by the state Department of Transportation, and are ready for use. The Board of Selectmen tabled the request for a tax abatement for a future meeting. Bertram told the board on March 6 that four EV charging stations will be installed in the underground parking garage at one of the buildings, with a capacity of 125 vehicles.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/brainerd-place-portland-ct-19359308.php

Established in the late 1800s, Drescher’s occupied the building at 21 Leavenworth in various forms until 2021, when the pandemic shuttered many of downtown Waterbury’s restaurants. Now the area is slowly stirring back to life, and the co-owner of Tullamore Public House hopes to help bring business to the entire downtown district. The Tullamore’s opening downtown is just one hopeful sign in the long-beleaguered Brass City, which saw factories that once employed more than 50,000 people at their peak shut down decades ago. The city of about 114,000 was left with dozens of hulking abandoned factories, acres of poisoned land and the third-poorest population in the state.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/waterbury-population-increase-downtown-18885860.php

Connecticut is one of the most heavily dammed states in the country, with about 4,800 spread throughout cities and towns, 84 percent of which are privately owned and many more than a century old. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the state is home to 54 dams per every 100 miles of free-flowing rivers — more than any other state per river mile. The national average is six. Over half of the dams were originally built to supply local water power to mills or to make small ponds. They easily blend into the landscape, largely going unnoticed until catastrophe strikes. Making matters worse, there are no federal or state laws that require owners of high risk or significant hazard dams to disclose who might be in the flood zone should a dam fail, or get clogged and backup.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/aging-dams-connecticut-hidden-flood-hazards-18926438.php

The last pile was driven on March 13, and dredging around the pier wrapped up in February, later than initially anticipated but still in time to accommodate the arrival next month of offshore wind turbine components for Ørsted and Eversource’s next project, Revolution Wind. Hundreds of the piles, which are metal pipes ranging in diameter from 30 to 42 inches, were used to shore up the newly constructed pier. Marlin Peterson, construction manager for AECOM, said there are more than 1,000 of the piles, including the piles to create walls containing the 390,000 cubic yards of fill material used to fill in the 7 acres of water that used to separate two piers. Hammond said contractors are in the final stages of preparing for the arrival of offshore wind turbines associated with Revolution Wind, a 65-turbine offshore wind project to be construction off the coast of Rhode Island by partners Ørsted and Eversource — the first project to deliver power to Connecticut.

https://www.theday.com/article/20240323/state-pier-construction-nears-completion/

A major renovation of Hartford’s XL Center would cost tens of millions of dollars more than an estimate of $107 million, throwing into uncertainty a long-debated makeover of the aging arena and likely forcing another downsizing. Five months ago, the Capital Region Development Authority sought bids for what the already-downsized renovation of the sports and entertainment arena would actually cost. Since then, an analysis by the quasi-public CRDA of the bids — covering the individual components of the project — came in at more than $140 million. That’s not only well above the estimate, but also the state funding and private investment tentatively in place to finance the renovation. Freimuth said the $140 million is clearly a “nonstarter.” But Freimuth said he believes the project could be trimmed down to $125 million, making some deep cuts without sacrificing what is needed to make the venue profitable, critical to securing the private investment. The approach will require a new set of bids, as required under the state’s procurement rules, Freimuth said. A decision would be pushed out until June and it’s not certain, even then, if the project will go forward. If it does, renovations would potentially get underway in the fall. If the next set of bids comes in close to the $125 million, the project still may require additional money, perhaps from the local corporate community.

Renovation of CT sports and entertainment arena skyrockets to $140M. It’s a ‘nonstarter.’

A vision for the aging Community Center laid out by a team of specialists in architecture, landscape design and community engagement has given the Board of Selectmen a lot to consider as it weighs what the community wants against how much taxpayers can afford to pay. Consultant Brian Cleveland, of Brian Cleveland Architects, on Wednesday presented the feasibility study he was hired to produce with $38,000 in federal pandemic relief funding. Three options, costing an estimated $8.3 million to $17.5 million, represent what he described as “varying degrees of expansion or renovation” to the building built almost 35 years ago on Society Road. The lowest-priced option would reconfigure the layout of the building and update the grounds. The middle option, coming in at $11.1 million, would add a second floor over the library. The most expensive option would include everything in the first two options, plus the construction of a freestanding field house with interior basketball courts and an exterior climbing wall.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240321/small-medium-large-options-for-east-lyme-community-center-upgrades-run-the-gamut/#

For so many townspeople, the 1928-era building at Farmington High School is a landmark, a structure whose walls safeguard the memories of generations of residents. And in an April 2023 referendum, voters decided the fate of the nearly 100-year-old building, with an overwhelming consensus to save and renovate it. Now, what was once classrooms for generations of youth is being transformed into Farmington’s brand new Town Hall, a multimillion dollar project currently underway and on track for completion in fall 2025. And when the rest of the existing high school is demolished this summer for the new Farmington High School, which will be adjacent to it, renovation will take place on the 1928 building. Although the total project cost is $16 million, Farmington taxpayers will be responsible for about $9 million of the cost, offset by the use of $7 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds, according to town officials. The 1928 building renovation already has Plan and Zoning approval and is currently in the last phase of design, and the 1928 Building Committee anticipates putting this project out to bid later this spring, according to town officials.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/farmingtonvalley/article/farmington-new-town-hall-1928-building-19307582.php

The redevelopment of the now-demolished Bowles Park apartments in Hartford’s Blue Hills neighborhood will enter its fourth stage with the help of $5 million in state funding. At the site of the old Bowles Park, a 410-unit state housing complex, sits Willow Creek, a mixed-income housing facility with several community amenities. The most recent round of the Community Investment Fund grant money will help develop 50 additional affordable rental units as well as infrastructure improvements. CIF plans to provide $875 million to eligible municipalities and nonprofits within them by 2030. The eligible municipalities are “historically underserved.” The Hartford Housing Authority owns the land occupied by the first 135 units and several acres of the site remain vacant for additional phases of construction. The developer for the project is Overlook Development and the property is managed by Imagineers.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/capitalregion/article/hartford-ct-willow-creek-state-funding-19353069.php

With almost $79 billion earmarked for highway, safety and transit programs, the budget also adds $9.5 billion to support the resilience, safety and sustainability of the nation’s transportation network via the bipartisan infrastructure law. Enacted in late 2021, IIJA is the Biden administration’s outline for “building a better America,” according to the Federal Transit Administration. Capital investment grant program resources would total $4 billion for transit construction. That adds $2.4 billion in FY 2025 appropriations to the $1.6 billion earmarked in IIJA spending. Grants totaling $8.4 billion would go to improving airport facilities including runways, taxiways and terminals. The budget achieves “meaningful deficit reduction through measures that cut wasteful spending and ask the wealthy to pay their fair share,” said Buttigieg.

https://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/presidents-proposed-fy2025-budget-boosts-iija-transportation-construction-programs/64253

Legislation in Connecticut, the capital of the American insurance industry and home to several of its largest carriers, could make insurers pay for that contradiction. If passed, the bill, which just cleared a committee vote in the state Senate, would move toward imposing a fee for any fossil fuel projects companies insure in-state. That revenue would go into a public resilience fund that could underwrite sea walls and urban flood protection measures. The surcharge would apply only to fossil fuel projects these companies insure in Connecticut, avoiding that constitutional challenge.
The assessment would apply not only to new pipelines and fuel terminals, which require ample insurance to attract lenders and investors, but to current coverage for existing infrastructure as well. This means anyone covering the state’s dozens of oil- and gas-fueled power plants would be contributing to the resilience fund.

Connecticut wants to penalize insurers for backing fossil fuel projects