The Federal Aviation Administration has awarded Tweed New Haven Regional Airport a $2.5 million grant toward the cost of building a new 75,000-square-foot terminal on the East Haven side of the airport, airport officials announced Thursday. The project, currently estimated at $165 million, also includes lengthening the airport’s runway, adding additional parking and building a new entrance off Proto Drive in East Haven. East Haven Mayor Joe Carfora, in his letter announcing East Haven’s appeal of the FAA’s FONSI, strongly suggested that more discussion of the issues associated with expansion and an environmental impact statement are needed. The expansion plan and the FAA’s investment makes “an important step forward” for Tweed which currently has an outdated, undersized terminal that is subject to flooding, the release states.

https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/faa-grant-tweed-new-haven-airport-expansion-18669698.php

The town and the nonprofit Save the Sound have appealed the approval of the Tweed New Haven Airport expansion in federal court on Wednesday, maintaining that an environmental study failed to address “crucial” looming impacts. After reviewing an environmental assessment of the $165 million plan, which includes the extension of a runway and new terminal and parking in East Haven, the FAA issued a “Finding of No Significant Impact” in December, moving the project forward to the permitting phase without additional environmental studies. The federal court can now decide to either dismiss the petitions, affirm the FAA decision or reverse it. In a Wednesday statement to CT Examiner, Jorge Roberts, chief executive officer of Avports — an airport management company which signed a 43-year lease with Tweed — stood by the original study and said the project would be moving forward throughout the appeal process.

East Haven Files Federal Court Appeal Against Tweed Airport Expansion 

A multimillion-dollar project to reduce flooding along the Rooster River is in the middle of a town government tussle over how to allocate federal COVID-19 relief funds before they expire. Town officials said Fairfield has about four more months to commit more than $2.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding for the Rooster River flood mitigation work, but they might need to move the money elsewhere if the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t grant the necessary permits for the project within that time frame. ARPA fund recipients are required to allocate the money by the end of 2024 and spend them by the end of 2026, but Gerber said the town would need to go out to bid, requesting project services, by June or July to have enough time to commit the final costs before the deadline.

https://www.ctpost.com/fairfield/article/rooster-river-flooding-mitigation-allocation-18650902.php

Eversource Energy surged the most in almost four years after announcing plans to exit the offshore-wind and water businesses, moves aimed at refocusing on its core business of delivering electricity and natural gas to customers in the US Northeast. The Springfield, Massachusetts-based company announced Tuesday a deal to sell its 50% stakes in two US offshore-wind projects to Global Infrastructure Partners LP. That follows a January agreement to sell its 50% stake in a third project to its joint venture partner Orsted A/S. Eversource also said it would start the process of seeking a buyer for its Aquarion water-distribution business. Eversource will realize $1.1 billion in cash proceeds for selling the stakes in the South Fork and Revolution projects to GIP, according to a statement Tuesday. The sale is expected to close in mid-2024. That will help offset a $1.95 billion charge the company took in 2023 as the US offshore wind struggled to contend with rising costs that have prompted developers to delay or cancel projects.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/eversource-1-1-billion-deal-220021666.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuY3RjYXBpdG9scmVwb3J0LmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJcyRdVGIKTXgSph03B1GCI1zz4moHDkFx5I5CS_hnZKGEYfzY_ERIAtJQoO4bQs8bm9B_V-foVkdLDriGz_CHt9I9d45SwC86HBizFK7JEbIu5Y7Xhzjm5wIncrNqTrZmRKGpieLF4nkXrf0hzLcoQhfWrwlsys2P2Z8g-WJP8p

Chief Financial Officer John Moreira blamed the Public Utilities Regulatory (PURA) for the company’s cash flow issues, saying the regulatory agency’s new methodology has prevented it from recovering $800 million related to supply costs and arrearages. PURA no longer allows utilities to forecast costs for supply in rate adjustments. However, Eversource expects to recover that $800 million within the next year, or longer, the company said. In the meantime, Nolan said Eversource is working to evaluate market interest in the sale of Aquarion. He declined to put a valuation on the company and also declined to provide a timetable. Bridgeport-based Aquarion serves about 241,000 customers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire — 92% of whom are based in Connecticut. It had net income of $33 million in 2023 and book equity of $1.3 million.

‘Cash coming in the door’: Eversource says potential sale of Aquarion would help alleviate cash flow issues

Residents are opposing a solar project as trees are being removed and open fields are transformed into an access road and clearings for more than 51,000 panels. The project, which is owned by Silicon Ranch and sits on 212 acres in Litchfield and Torrington, was approved in September 2021 by the Connecticut Siting Council. Tree-clearing and other activities began on the site in early November 2023, and blasting began at the end of January. Silicon Ranch made its proposal to the town of Litchfield in 2020 to install more than 50,000 solar panels, called photovoltaic modules. The power generated from the site will be sold to Eversource and United Illuminating, according to documentation from the Connecticut Siting Council, provided by the Torrington land use office.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/controversial-solar-farm-starts-construction-18644593.php

Post Road Residential is angry that, by accepting a brownfield remediation grant from DECD, they are required to ensure the construction workers hired to perform work on their development project would earn not less than our state’s prevailing wage. They’re apparently also upset by having to ensure a certain number of housing units are set aside as affordable. In 2017, the bipartisan budget expanded prevailing wage protections for workers employed on projects funded with economic development monies. It passed with strong support from both sides of the aisle in both chambers. This was a commonsense initiative — if a private company is seeking public assistance dollars for development, then they’re going to in turn pay our state’s workforce a livable wage. Rather than echoing this developer’s gripes, the Town of Fairfield, and frankly DECD too, should instead stick to its principles. Fine, don’t take our money. There are plenty of other developers who will.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/opinion/article/opinion-don-t-let-developers-widen-ct-wealth-gap-18664685.php

Wage theft is a pervasive problem facing workers throughout the US. According to a 2014 report by the Economic Policy Institute, workers lose over $50bn a year to wage theft from employers. Wage theft includes tactics from stiffing workers on pay, failing to properly pay workers for overtime, minimum wage violations, misclassification of employees as independent contractors, and not providing workers with mandated break times. IUPAT is currently assisting workers in holding another local construction company accountable for wage theft and retaliating against workers, Spectrum Construction. IUPAT has launched several campaigns aimed at organizing workers in the construction industry to not only unionize, but to push back against a trend of wage theft and misclassification that union organizers argue has been worsening in the construction industry, especially toward immigrant workers.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/it-has-really-gotten-out-of-hand-wage-theft-rampant-in-us-construction/ar-BB1igi32?ocid=socialshare&pc=HCTS&cvid=acc956e394b2473189022f7f628df459&ei=128

Construction of the Constitution Boulevard West extension will continue in earnest come spring, with the first phase of development expected to be completed by the fall, according to city officials. Mike Kanios, the city’s public works director, said work on the site, which began about a year ago, has slowed of late mainly due to delays in receiving permitting from the Department of Transportation. The city received $5 million from the state to complete Phase One of the project, which is already underway. Kanios said the goal is to have Phase One done by the fall but added that some Phase Two work will likely be done during this time too. Kanios said he expects the entire project to be completed by spring of 2025.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/shelton-s-constitution-blvd-extension-work-18625953.php

Members of the Stamford Zoning Board were set to vote on a special permit for a proposed 471-unit downtown apartment complex on Clinton Avenue Tuesday night — until the request was withdrawn at the last minute. The withdrawal happened during a discussion about affordable housing units for the project. New York developer Carmel Partners preferred to contribute roughly $13 million to the city’s affordable housing trust fund as opposed to offering 49 of the units in the development at a below-market rate. A letter dated Jan. 29 from attorney Jason Klein, writing on behalf of the developer, stated that Carmel preferred to make the multi-million dollar payment due in part to the perceived risk of on-site below-market units holding up certificates of occupancy or leasing.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/stamford-affordable-housing-clinton-street-18656262.php?src=sthpdesecp