A budget signed by Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey this week will allow utilities to raise rates to make up for hundreds of millions of dollars in additional costs to complete a transmission line to bring Canadian hydropower to the New England electricity grid. The head of Central Maine Power Co.’s corporate parent Avangrid has said the cost of the $1 billion project grew to $1.5 billion as litigation delayed construction and inflation caused prices to creep upward. Legislation included in the supplemental budget adopted Monday allows transmission service agreements to be renegotiated and additional costs to be passed along to Massachusetts ratepayers to cover the added costs. The project was envisioned to meet Massachusetts’ clean energy goals, and the cost is fully borne by ratepayers in that state.

https://www.theday.com/state/20231205/massachusetts-budget-approval-allows-utilities-to-recoup-added-cost-of-hydropower-corridor/

Now is the time to ask the state for a big investment in Norwich’s waterfront assets, city officials say, as they lobby for $11.7 million in state grants to make improvements from the harbor up the Yantic River. Hoping to ride the momentum of a new marina owner, city upgrades to the nearby waterfront park and a new Uncas Leap Heritage Park under construction on the Yantic River, city officials will now ask the state for $11.7 million to revitalize the city’s waterfront. The City Council Monday night agreed to submit a grant application seeking $11,715,769 from the state Community Investment Fund, created by Gov. Ned Lamont to assist distressed municipalities across the state with major projects. Brown said Norwich Public Utilities’ construction of a $200 million new sewage treatment plant that will greatly improve water quality and Norwich Harbor aesthetics adds a caveat to the city’s argument that this is the right time for the state to help Norwich with a big investment in its waterfront.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20231205/norwich-seeks-11-7-million-to-revitalize-waterfront/

As East Windsor continues its fight against a proposed solar farm by Verogy, the West Hartford-based developer has its sights set on Glastonbury for its latest project. The proposed Glastonbury Solar One project at 17 Wickham Road would be a 3-megawatt, alternating current (AC) system that would generate enough electricity to power 778 average homes for a year. Verogy co-founder and Director of Development Bryan Fitzgerald said that the project is estimated to cost between $8.5 million and $9 million. The Glastonbury project would offset the equivalent of 3,998 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, equal to the emissions from 449,824 gallons of gasoline consumed, Fitzgerald said. The project, if approved by the Connecticut Siting Council, would begin construction in spring 2024 with completion in the fall, according to the project website. If the project gets completed, according to the website, the remainder of the farmland could be used for other purposes.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/journalinquirer/article/ct-glastonbury-solar-farm-verogy-east-windsor-18531861.php

The 70-year-old auditorium at Veterans Park Elementary School is slated for $775,000 worth of repairs and upgrades as just one of the many projects in the Ridgefield Public Schools proposed $39 million five-year capital improvement plan. At a Board of Education meeting on Nov. 27, Morits presented the RPS capital improvement plan, which includes $19.9 million for renovations of the Ridgefield High School auditorium as well as acoustical improvements in schools, student and staff bathroom renovations and flexible seating arrangements for classrooms in the district’s nine schools. Aside from the high school auditorium, other items in the capital plan with high price tickets include districtwide network infrastructure upgrades and replacements budgeted at $991,000 and a districtwide ventilator replacement program budgeted at $1.5 million.

https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/ridgefield-schools-capital-plan-improvement-millio-18521909.php?src=nthpdesecp

Salvatore closed a deal this week to buy the former Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute graduate campus at 275 Windsor St. for $3.82 million. The building’s property abuts Dunkin’ Park, home to the Double-A Hartford Yard Goats. Earlier this year Salvatore said he planned to build up to 269 apartments on the RPI property, which housed the New York-based university’s graduate programs in Hartford. Now Salvatore is moving full speed ahead on Parcel B, planning to break ground within 60 days to replace the parking lot with a structure housing 237 apartments and a 522-car parking garage, the $120 million first phase of a complex that could eventually house 1,000 units. At the same time, he intends to start demolishing the 1970s-era buildings at the RPI lot within 30 days. The only structure that will be left standing is a 450-spot parking garage, which would be part of any future development at the site. An initial estimate of the cost of the first phase of redeveloping the property was $67 million.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/hartford-ct-rpi-dunkin-park-salvatore-18526720.php

City officials have been planning to build a new police station for at least 25 years, but even one of the idea’s biggest supporters said it probably won’t happen anytime soon because “the price is shocking.” Updating the Police Commission on the situation during a Nov. 14 meeting, police Chief Keith Mello said the new station would cost $81 million. He revised his estimate to $77.5 million in a follow-up email on Tuesday. Either way, it’s funding that Mello doesn’t see going toward a new station in the foreseeable future. Mello’s $77.5 million estimate comes from a construction contractor that the city selected in 2018 to provide the original design development estimate. Additional design costs are possible. The drawings date to 2018. The city will probably continue to fit out the existing building.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/milford-police-chief-new-police-station-cost-18516138.php

After months of supply shortage issues, the final pieces needed to finish the new pedestrian bridge at the Merritt 7 train station are expected to arrive, according to the Connecticut Department of Transportation. CTDOT is aiming for a mid-December opening for the new train station, with two weeks budgeted for the contractors to finish the work on the pedestrian bridge, he said. The bridge structure has been up since the summer; however, large sections of the glass are missing, which could cause safety issues in inclement weather, Morgan said. “There’s a lot of glass still missing from the bridge zone,” he added. Final pieces for the bridge’s elevators are also missing. Supply chain issues have affected other projects for CTDOT, including a parking garage in Stamford, on a project-by-project basis, Morgan said.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/merritt-7-pedestrian-bridge-train-station-metro-no-18522197.php

By the time the Springside Middletown complex off Newfield Street is complete, developer Bob Dale hopes, it will contain 486 apartments, which Mayor Ben Florsheim says makes it one of the biggest construction projects of its type in the state. Construction of the complex began about eight and a half months ago, Dale said. He said he hopes to have apartments ready to occupy by about Memorial Day, with completion of the first 240-apartment phase of the construction project by mid-2025. After that, he said, he hopes to secure financing for the second 246-apartment phase of the project. The city is supporting the project through tax incentives. Among the things it is receiving in return, Florsheim said, are “a strong commitment to local hiring” and to use of minority contractors.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/middletown/article/middletown-springside-apartments-bob-dale-18532940.php

Six months into construction of phase two of his massive Perkins Farm development, local developer Dave Lattizori is preparing to begin lining up tenants. Harbor Heights II, which broke ground in June on 123 luxury apartments, including 32 fourth-floor penthouse apartments, will begin pre-leasing early next year for the planned September opening of the new four-story apartment complex. The first phase of the project, valued at $85 million, contains a 50,000-square foot Hartford Health Care medical building that opened in January 2020, as well as 121 luxury apartments known as Harbor Heights and 50 townhouses. It generates $1 million a year in tax revenue for the Town of Stonington and created 100 permanent jobs.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20231203/second-phase-of-luxury-apartments-being-built-at-perkins-farm-in-mystic/

The city is applying for an $8 million state Department of Economic and Community Development Community Investment Fund grant that Mayor Michael Passero said would cover the remaining costs of an anticipated $25 million plan to expand and overhaul transportation options in the city. Passero said the federal Department of Transportation Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant awarded to the city in June will pay for the bulk of several downtown transit-related infrastructure improvements. That federal funding will help add 400 parking spaces to the five-story, 910-space Water Street garage; create a new on-site transit hub; pay for a restoration project at the Union Station and Cross Sound Ferry’s new high speed ferry terminal; and support the building of a $20 million pedestrian bridge to connect the National Coast Guard Museum to the parking garage.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20231204/new-london-seeking-8-million-state-grant-to-complete-funding-for-downtown-transit-improvements/