Paul Cerveny showed up at a Ledyard Planning & Zoning Commission just before Christmas to decry the plans by Gales Ferry Intermodal LLC and to reveal that he lived at the top of one of the highest hills in town, a place shrouded from the rest of the world. Another public hearing is scheduled at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11, at Ledyard Middle School, after which the commission could decide on the required permit. But representatives of Cashman Dredging & Marine said Friday they take seriously their obligation to ensure the health and safety of both their workers and the local community. Alan Perrault and Chase Davis, project coordinators at the Ledyard site, said in a phone interview that these are not the Wild West days of quarrying; every precaution is taken to ensure that the blasting and processing of materials is done in a controlled way, including the use of water to reduce the chance for silica dust to become a problem.

https://www.theday.com/business/20240103/modern-day-mountain-man-decries-plans-for-quarry-in-ledyard/

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be holding a “hybrid public hearing” on what the agency said is an amended proposed plan for further work at a Connecticut Superfund Site. The hearing will be held starting at 7 p.m. on January 10, 2024 and running until all comments are heard, according to the EPA. The superfund site is in Woodstock. The federal agency said it would accept comments on the “preferred remedial alternative” identified for the Linemaster Switch Corp. site. in the proposed plan. No new information will be presented at the hearing, according to the agency. “The Proposed Plan presents EPA’s proposed changes to the current (ongoing) remedy for the site.” “EPA concluded that as long as soil near the dry well was a source of groundwater contamination, VOC concentrations in groundwater posed an unacceptable risk to human health and the environment, given the possible use of the groundwater for drinking water. Cleanup activities included the installation of soil and groundwater treatment systems,” EPA reports in background on the project.

EPA proposes $11.4 million amended cleanup plan for CT Superfund site. What to know.

For the first time in the United States, turbines are sending electricity to the grid from the sites of two large offshore wind farms. The joint owners of the Vineyard Wind project, Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, announced Wednesday the first electricity from one turbine at what will be a 62-turbine wind farm 15 miles (24 kilometers) off the coast of Massachusetts. Danish wind energy developer Ørsted and the utility Eversource announced last month that their first turbine was sending electricity from what will be a 12-turbine wind farm, South Fork Wind, 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Montauk Point, New York. Avangrid CEO Pedro Azagra said 2023 was a historic year for offshore wind with “steel in the water and people at work, and today, we begin a new chapter and welcome 2024 by delivering the first clean offshore wind power to the grid in Massachusetts.” Avangrid is an energy company headquartered in Orange, Connecticut. Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners is a large fund manager and global leader in renewable energy investments.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/two-large-offshore-wind-sites-are-sending-power-18587103.php

Mayor Peter Nystrom highlighted major public and private developments, fueled by millions of dollars in state and federal grants during his annual State of the City address Tuesday but also urged city, school and utility officials to curb spending in the coming budget years. NPU broke ground in November on a five-year, $200 million new sewage treatment plant that is expected to greatly improve water quality in Norwich Harbor and the Thames River, just as new owners of the Marina at American Wharf are making major improvements to that centerpiece on the waterfront, Nystrom said. Nystrom, a Republican, will have to work with a Democratic majority City Council in his final two years as mayor. Nystrom specifically criticized a proposal being considered by the School Building Committee that calls for prearranged labor agreements between construction unions and contractors for work on the first two new schools. He said project labor agreements for the school construction project would negate the added state grant reimbursements Norwich’s state legislators secured in the last General Assembly session.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240102/norwich-mayor-urges-spending-restraints-touts-economic-development-projects/

The city on Dec. 22 posted a request for proposals to prepare for the abatement and demolition of eight homes on six streets located as northerly as Brown Street and as southerly as 3rd Avenue Extension. The other streets with at least one home cited for abatement and demolition are Jones Street, Peck Avenue, Marshall Street and Marion Street. The purpose of the demolition will be to provide extra space for drainage basins and to encourage water flow away from other homes in the area, but Borer said there are certain deed restrictions that the city must navigate as a condition of accepting the federal funds — namely that the city cannot erect fencing and there are restrictions on tending the growth on the property. The RFP details that the purpose of the demolition of the eight single-structure homes came about by offering residents in flood-prone homes federal buyouts so the properties could be used for flood mitigation by encouraging regrowth and open space, disallowing future development.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/west-haven-flooding-demolition-open-space-18584383.php

It has been a year since the owner of the former Bristol Myers Squib property on Research Parkway in Wallingford got approval for a 440,000 square foot warehouse and 10,000 square feet of office space, but it doesn’t appear that construction of the facility is going to start anytime soon. A Framingham, Mass.-based company, Calare Properties, owns both properties created by the subdivision.
Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Jim Seichter, as well as Town Planner Kevin Pagini, said that officials with Calare have indicated they want to sell the day care center. But both men said Calare officials haven’t divulged who they are building the warehouse for or indicated when the facility might be built. Plans approved by the PZC in December 2022 for the warehouse include 105 loading docks, 96 tractor-trailer parking spaces and 530 regular parking spaces.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/former-bristol-myers-property-remains-undeveloped-18566129.php

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for Norwalk’s long-awaited new Merritt 7 train station will officially welcome commuters to the completed project within the next week, a Connecticut Department of Transportation spokesperson said. Work crews completed construction between Christmas and New Year’s Eve for the project that the state approved funding for in 2017 — although part of the new station has been open to commuters since June, said Josh Morgan, CTDOT communications manager. Now that the construction work is finished, Morgan said the station needs final inspections. The Merritt 7 train station, which is on the Danbury branch of Metro-North’s New Haven Line, offers direct access to New York’s Grand Central Terminal. The project was initially slated for completion in fall 2022 but supply chain, underground utility and drainage system issues delayed the work.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/norwalk-merritt-7-train-station-metro-north-18585247.php

Two large construction projects in the Norwalk Public Schools were ready for public use in 2023, and there are plans to begin work on two new projects in the New Year. Cranbury Elementary School welcomed the inaugural classes at its new campus this past fall, with athletic facilities due to be completed this coming year. The new driveway and parking lot at Silvermine Dual Language Magnet School, a much smaller endeavor, were completed in August before the school year began. The groundbreaking ceremonies for the new Norwalk High School and South Norwalk School — that neighborhood’s first elementary school in over 40 years — will be held in 2024. The biggest construction project coming around the bend in the Norwalk Public Schools is the new Norwalk High School, which is slated for a February groundbreaking. The next project slated for groundbreaking is the South Norwalk School — a $76 million elementary school that will be the neighborhood’s first in 40 years.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/education/article/norwalk-schools-construction-break-ground-projects-18578194.php

State transportation officials have quietly ramped up work on a nearly $500 million project overhauling one of central Connecticut’s most congested and headache-inducing highway corridors. On Thursday, the state Department of Transportation opened bidding for the second of three construction phases on the Meriden interchange formed by the merger of three highways — Interstates 91 and 691, as well as state Route 15 — that collectively carry around 260,000 vehicles every day. Work began earlier this year on the initial, $85 million phase of the project to repair bridges, add one lane of traffic to I-91 north and make related road improvements, according to DOT spokesman Josh Morgan. The final two — and largest — phases of the project, however, will begin early next year and work is scheduled to last until 2029. Both of those phases will focus on restructuring the northbound and southbound interchanges between I-91 and the other highways. In October, the State Bond Commission agreed to borrow $31.7 million toward the second, northbound phase of the project, which is also slated to receive $220 million in federal funding.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/connecticut/article/ct-meriden-interstate-91-691-route-15-interchange-18553771.php

The once-troubled State Pier project in New London is on track to show a $1 million dollar profit over its first year in operation, a departure from its rocky start when construction costs ballooned to more than three times the original estimate. After four years of construction, the massive but long-neglected state pier on the state’s only natural deep water harbor has been reconfigured as one of the nation’s premier, heavy lift cargo terminals and is now the principal supply site for billions of dollars of offshore wind energy construction south of Block Island. The Connecticut Port Authority, which owns the pier, said its outside auditors projected the $1.1 million operating profit for the fiscal year ending June 30. “The surplus is the result of new revenue sources flowing consistently and secure for the next decade,” said David Kooris, who was appointed authority chairman after a disastrous start that resulted in overruns that tripled the cost of the reconstruction project from the original $93 million estimate.

CT Port Authority’s New London pier, once mired in cost overruns, projects profit as wind energy hub