Zoning commissioners signed off on plans to build a five-story building with 245 apartments, including 30 affordable units, ground-floor retail space and co-working offices for residents at 81 Black Rock Turnpike, tucked between Fairfield Metro Center and the newly opened Elicit Brewing Company location. The zoning approval is a major step forward for the large-scale development, which still faces a state-regulated remediation process to clean up environmental contamination from the old factory at the site. The approval from Fairfield’s Town Plan and Zoning Commission comes more than a year after Fairfield-based developer Post Road Residential introduced its plans in late 2022. The project has since received a $3 million state grant to cover the environmental remediation work — funding that the town and developer are contemplating rejecting due to its legal obligations, which involve more affordability and higher wages during construction.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/fairfield/article/bullard-metro-center-development-black-rock-tpke-18666900.php

Less than a year after the offshore wind industry landed in New London with the delivery of components for the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm, the final pieces of New York’s South Fork Wind slowly made their way by barge up the Thames River on Friday night. The parts, which include 330-foot-long turbine blades, 520-metric-ton nacelles and pieces of towers that when completed will rise 800 feet in height, were headed 35 miles off the coast of Montauk, N.Y., to the 12-turbine wind farm. Aside from a $1 million annual financial boost to the city through a host community agreement and other revenue-sharing benefits, Passero said there is a certain prestige to being the center of attention. “It just raises the profile of New London and helps put us back on the map the way the whaling era put us on the map,” Passero said. As it did for South Fork, State Pier will be the staging and pre-assembly area for Revolution Wind, a wind farm nearly six times the size of South Fork Wind, with 65 turbines situated 15 nautical miles southeast of Point Judith, R.I. Revolution Wind will be the first wind farm to bring renewable power to Connecticut. The joint venture of Ørsted and Eversource will generate 704 megawatts of power — 304 megawatts to Connecticut and 400 to Rhode Island.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240218/last-offshore-wind-turbine-parts-leave-new-london/#

Despite being particularly adept at overcoming daily challenges, contractors often find attracting skilled craft professionals to be a daunting task. Craft training and credentials are a source of pride for their recipients. Every company, regardless of sector, can benefit from increased efficiency and quality of work. The immediate results of craft training have been thoroughly documented in reports such as Construction Industry Craft Training in The United States and Canada and include: decreased turnover, decreased absenteeism and improved safety. Many owners have requirements in their requests for proposals that ensure the companies have workforce development in place. Craft training, along with credentials and certifications, provides an additional level of confidence and is used as proof of a qualified workforce. To bid on some projects, contractors must have a plan in place that demonstrates how they will fulfill those requirements.

https://www.constructiondive.com/spons/3-reasons-why-contractors-need-craft-training-to-stay-competitive/707063/

Rodney Butler, the Mashantucket tribal chairman, also spoke at Thursday’s celebration, noting that Foxwoods’ evolution actually began 37 years ago with the opening of a high-stakes bingo hall that became Foxwoods Resort Casino in 1992. Butler said nearly 200 tribal members are employed at Foxwoods, which he said continues to serve as an economic engine for the region and the state. While Foxwoods changes inside, the largest private construction project currently underway in the state continues to rise outside on land adjacent to the casino: the Great Wolf Lodge at Mashantucket, a $300 million indoor water park resort. Guyot said that project is on track to open in 2025.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240215/foxwoods-turns-32-announces-whats-in-store-for-24/#

The former town landfill is slated for a 5 megawatt solar array which could help generate both energy and income for Groton. If approved, the $4 million project by West Hartford-based solar developer Verogy that was presented to the Town Council on Tuesday would provide Groton with about $200,000 in lease payments or payments in lieu of taxes each year for 20 years and earn Eversource electrical credits through virtual metering to town buildings. The first step in the project, scheduled for discussion in a special meeting on Feb. 27, involves securing council approval of an option agreement with Verogy, which would allow bids to be submitted to the Non-Residential Solar Renewable Energy Solutions program and the Statewide Shared Clean Energy Facility program. The deadlines for these submissions are March 4 and March 14, respectively.

Groton’s Former Landfill Eyed for $4M Solar Project

A West Haven company is making a plea to be considered for hazardous waste-cleanup work after it claims being wrongfully terminated a few years ago during a state investigation into contract steering that has not implicated the firm. AAIS Corp. charges that it is now barred from other state and local work and has become ancillary damage in a wide-ranging state and federal investigation into contracts. Leigh Appleby, communications director for the DAS, said Friday night that AAIS was terminated from the contract “for convenience” but is free to bid on state work and other contracts. The hospital project is one of several that DAS and federal authorities investigated for possible contract steering, including school construction projects supervised by Konstantinos Diamantis, a former member of the state House of Representatives who has since retired and whose employee grievance was dismissed.

https://www.ctinsider.com/politics/article/company-claims-wrongly-fired-ct-hazmat-contract-18655642.php

State officials significantly modified a $225 million United Illuminating transmission line project in Bridgeport and Fairfield on Thursday, upsetting local opponents and considerably delaying the company’s plan. While UI’s proposal called for the removal of aged transmission lines along the Northeast Corridor and to construct new monopoles primarily south of the Metro-North railroad line, the Connecticut Siting Council voted to require the company to instead build its new infrastructure north of the rail line. Gerber, the city of Bridgeport, and the Sasco Creek Neighbors Environmental Trust have asked the utility to bury the lines. UI officials say that the underground option is too costly and is not supported by the Connecticut Department of Transportation. Cost estimates for the underground option differed dramatically between the applicant and opponents. UI estimated it would cost about $1 billion to install the project underground, but the town estimated $200 million for an underground double-circuit configuration. SCNET estimated $182 million.

Siting Council Approves Transmission Lines to Run North of the Metro-North Line

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