Northford Road’s closure has been extended until May 30, 2024, due to the replacement of the Northford Road Bridge. Wallingford police say the closure begins 600 feet from the intersection of Tyler Mill Road and Northford Road. Traffic will continue to be detoured as Northford Road Bridge over the Muddy River is replaced. The Town Council greenlit the $2 million bridge reconstruction project in March, with an initial expected completion date of late November. Town Hall initially allocated $1 million for bridge repairs eight years ago and moved to increase funding in March by an additional $1,030,000, raising the final price tag to $2,030,000.

https://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/Wallingford/Wallingford-News/Northford-Road-to-remain-closed-through-Spring-2024.html

Hyde has said the project is more complicated because Anamet is a large brownfield site. When the city put out its first request for proposals last year, it had yet to complete the environmental study at the site, he noted. Significant unknowns about the property at the time may have deterred some developers from applying, Hyde said. Since last year, however, the city has spent $1.5 million to demolish three buildings, abate the High Bay building, map the underground utilities and conduct additional sampling of the site to fully understand the extent of the contaminants, Hyde said. The Anamet site is owned by 698 South Main St. Inc., which was set up to hold the property. To date, $9.5 million has been received for work toward its rehabilitation, most of which has been spent, Hyde said. It will cost another estimated $5 million to clean up and remediate the site.

https://www.rep-am.com/localnews/2023/12/06/waterbury-hopes-to-spur-interest-in-former-anamet-factory-site/

Community leaders, politicians and developers with New York-based real estate firm Shelbourne Global Solutions came together Tuesday morning to celebrate the pending launch of a 155-unit apartment redevelopment of the former Fuller Brush complex in Hartford’s North End. Shelbourne representatives said the first phases of redevelopment — creation of apartments and amenity spaces — will begin within days and take about 18 months to complete. Shelbourne recently finalized financing for the $42.1 million residential phase of the Fuller Brush redevelopment, which includes $22 million in private loans; $8.5 million in city and state loans; $6 million in developer equity; $4.5 million in state historic credits; and a $1.1 million federal grant, according to Michael Freimuth, executive director of the Capital Region Development Authority.

From prosperity to hardship and back again: Hartford celebrates start of 155-unit apartment redevelopment of Fuller Brush complex

Online auto-parts company FCP Euro will be moving into a new 160,000-square-foot headquarters on the land formerly occupied by Subway as part of a $20 million project to reuse the site now that the sandwich chain has moved its headquarters to Shelton. The Planning and Zoning Board cleared the way for the move with a 9-1 vote to approve a zoning change and 8-2 in favor of a special permit for the project that includes construction of a warehouse to replace the former main Subway headquarters building at 325 Sub Way. Scinto has said the project would improve the pond and wetlands water quality with the addition of runoff filtration.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/fcp-euro-subway-milford-zoning-18529031.php

The Common Council on Monday unanimously approved the $355,000 survey, which will be done by the Kleinfelder engineering firm of Rocky Hill. A state grant will pay 75 percent of that cost while the city will borrow 25 percent, or $88,750, from the state Department of Public Health’s drinking water revolving fund, according to the council’s resolution. The city has a major leg up on the project. It has information on about 80 percent of the service lines in town, and none of them contain lead, said Joseph S. Fazzino, the director of the Water and Sewer Department. The council’s resolution says the city already has preliminary state approval for the $4.5 million construction phase of the project.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/middletown-water-service-pipes-lead-survey-18537353.php

Electrek has reported that the Northeast Corridor will receive a $16.4 billion cash injection to go towards long-overdue upgrades along its routes, with the aim of maintaining passenger volumes and even encouraging more people to travel via train. Funding will be taken from the $66 billion earmarked under President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and will be used to upgrade tunnel systems, replace bridges, and improve tracks, signals, and network safety, according to the U.S. DOT. The Northeast Corridor is a 457-mile stretch between Boston, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., and it runs through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. In the Department of Transportation’s statement, it notes, “the area the NEC spans accounts for 24 million jobs and 20% of the national GDP.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/biden-administration-puts-16-billion-toward-project-americans-have-wanted-for-years-we-are-finally-delivering-the-generational-investments/ar-AA1l0bNU?ocid=entnewsntp&cvid=a136292d65e648eb911af0ce3e7084c1&ei=90

In March, First Selectman Rob Brule signed a host fee agreement with data center developer NE Edge, which wants to construct two two-story data buildings and a switchyard at Millstone. It would receive power directly from the plant and pay the town $231 million over the 30-year life of the agreement. At Monday’s Representative Town Meeting, Town Attorney Nick Kepple raised another potential benefit for the town beside the $231 million payment ― that the data center might be a way of extending Dominion’s operation of the Millstone Power Station. Dominion petitioned in July for a declaratory ruling from the Connecticut Siting Council to sever three parcels from Millstone’s property to be used for the data center. In September, the siting council voted, in spite of numerous requests from concerned citizens, not to hold a public hearing on the petition, and to set a deadline for a decision on the boundary request for Jan. 24, 2024.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20231206/is-data-center-key-to-extending-millstones-future-in-waterford/#

The renewed onshoring push is already stretching procurement timelines for many materials across the board, namely microchips, HVAC equipment, electrical switchgear and fabricated millwork. Chip factories, battery plants and even data centers all require more and larger steel conduit than typical nonresidential construction, such as office buildings or hospitality facilities, said Dale Crawford, executive director of the Steel Tube Institute, a Chicago-based organization that brings together key producers in the steel industry. Spending on manufacturing construction projects, the largest nonresidential building segment, reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $206.85 billion in October, a 71.2% increase from October 2022. Prices for steel mill products, such as large structural sections, heavy plate, strip, wire rod, bars and pipe, dropped 2.5% in October, and remain down close to 10% over the past 12 months, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. However, despite much-needed cooling over the past year, steel mill products are still 62.1% more expensive than in February 2020.

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/megaprojects-demand-steel/701533/

The EPA proposed new restrictions Thursday that would require the replacement of virtually all lead water pipes across the U.S., according to a White House press release. Under the proposal, utilities must replace lead pipes entirely over the next decade at a pace of 10% each year, and must create inventories of all their lead pipes. The agency will accept public comments on the proposal for 60 days and will finalize the rule sometime next year. The plan would affect about 9 million pipes across the country, and could cost $20 billion to $30 billion, according to The New York Times. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act designates $15 billion to help utilities pay for the upgrades along with $11.7 billion in general-purpose funding through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund that can be used for lead pipe replacement, according to the release.

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/epa-lead-pipe-replacement/701583/

Last week, some leaders acknowledged during an extraordinary press conference that advocates of the regulations had badly misread the depth of opposition, or at least the doubts. House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, admonished those who demeaned or dismissed the opposition. “I think there is a real recognition that maybe we missed the mark in ensuring that people feel comfortable with this,” said Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford, co-chair of the Transportation Committee. “A few things pop out at me. The first one is Connecticut has to be be very clear what this is,” Ritter said. “The greatest misconception that is out there is that in 2035 you cannot buy a gas-powered vehicle. That’s not accurate.” The regulations that failed would have allowed plug-in hybrids, which are powered by both electric motors and gasoline engines, to be part of the new-car mix still allowed in 2035. Gas-powered cars also still could be sold in the used-car market.

A ban on new gas-only car sales in CT? For legislators, it’s tricky