Revolution Wind, an offshore wind project to provide electricity to Connecticut and Rhode island and one of the relatively few in the northeast to emerge intact from a flurry of economic setbacks, has received final, government approval to begin construction. It will be the first utility scale offshore wind farm serving the two states and is on track to be the second in the northeast. The project is designed to deliver 400 megawatts of electricity to Rhode Island another 304 to Connecticut, powering the equivalent of 350,000 homes and helping both states meet their aggressive carbon reduction goals. The final approval by the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is a rare, recent win for the capital intensive offshore wind industry, which has been nearly sunk over the last two years by a combination of inflation, rising interest rates and supply chain failures.

Power for CT homes: First offshore wind farm wins final approval

A six-month delay in breaking ground for the city’s new community center has so far increased the cost of the project by nearly $230,000. City officials are not ruling out heading to court to determine who’ll ultimately foot that bill. Construction of the planned 58,000-square-foot facility on the Fort Trumbull peninsula began in July, six months after the original start date. City officials said the delay was largely due to waiting for a state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection flood management certificate and a storm water and wastewater discharge permit. Project site subcontractor Giordano is requesting $29,433 for new labor, material, tool and equipment costs related to upcoming foundation excavation work.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20231117/new-london-community-center-construction-delay-will-cost-230k/

A plan to create 12 development lots in the 384-acre, newly named Occum Industrial Center will be reviewed by the city planning commission, starting with a public hearing Tuesday. The Commission on the City Plan will open the public hearing at 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall on the proposed 12-lot commercial subdivision on the land owned by the Norwich Community Development Corp. and proposed for a second business park. NCDC’s plan to build an access road into the property from Route 97 near Interstate 395’s Exit 18 ramp was approved last year by the Inland Wetlands, Watercourses and Conservation Commission. The wetlands commission will review modifications to the road plan at its meeting at 7 p.m. Dec. 7 at the planning office, 23 Union St. The access road plan also is under permit review by state and federal transportation agencies.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20231118/twelve-development-lots-proposed-for-new-norwich-business-park/

Property owners would lose the right to develop parts of their own land if a United Illuminating project moves forward in Fairfield. UI has so far resisted demands from local elected officials, neighbors and business to alter its plan to minimize the potential impacts of a proposed project that would hang transmission lines from monopoles standing as tall as 145 feet high by 2029 along the Metro-North railroad corridor. The company plans to secure rights to 19.25 acres of private property along the corridor through permanent easements, where UI would launch construction zones, build the monopoles and restrict structural modifications by the owner, according to a copy of a UI easement contract. The state body has scheduled another hearing for Nov. 28, and is due to deliver a final decision by March 17.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/fairfield/article/ui-hearing-fairfield-transmission-lines-monopoles-18498165.php

Vicki Mancini, assistant library media specialist at the high school, joined a group that included Mario Longobucco and Ed Arum, co-chairmen of the building committee, for a tour of the $179 million project. “It’s much more than I expected,” Mancini said as she stood, amazed, in front of what will be a panoramic view of the middle-high school campus. “It’s going to be just beautiful.” Voters approved the project in November 2020. At that time, the middle-high school plan cost $159.6 million; in 2022, the building committee held a second referendum to add $20 million to the plan, citing increased materials and construction costs. Torrington is being reimbursed for 85 percent of the total cost, leaving about $27 million to be paid by taxpayers. The work is continuing at a healthy pace, Pracuta said and attributed the steady progress to a mild winter in 2022, which allowed the work to continue through the winter into the spring with little snow to hamper the construction crews. The project is slightly ahead of schedule: but there’s still a lot of work to do.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/torrington-high-school-building-project-18488868.php

The iQuilt Partnership, a nonprofit promoting a more walkable city, envisions a complete makeover of the bridge, which dates to the late 1970s, with a ramp winding its way from the intersection of Market and Pleasant streets to the bridge. There would be a similar ramp in Riverside Park. The proposal, known as RiverLink, is one of dozens of lower-priced projects included in the Greater Hartford Mobility Study, a three-year examination by the Connecticut Department of Transportation of the region’s transportation system. The big-ticket projects in the mobility study capture a lot of attention. They include relocating the I-84/1-91 interchange, a notorious bottleneck, and the lowering of the I-84 viaduct and I-91 along the Connecticut River. The lowering of the two interstates seek to reconnect neighborhoods and restore more access to Hartford’s riverfront, projects that have been talked about for years.

CT highway projects grab limelight. These 10 could come sooner, ‘so people see some progress.’

Gov. Ned Lamont, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and local officials from across Connecticut gathered in Hartford on Friday to highlight the array of new infrastructure projects that are currently underway in the state and to discuss what other changes residents are likely to see in the next decade and beyond. But amid the calls to boost Connecticut’s transportation and energy infrastructure, officials focused their discussions on one aspect of infrastructure growth: housing. Even with all of the federal funding arriving in Connecticut and other states, Murphy argued that Congress needed to do even more to improve the country’s energy, water and transportation infrastructure. But the most prominent topic of discussion was housing — a vital but politically fraught issue at the moment.

CT officials lay out current, future infrastructure projects at summit

The prominent hill that Route 12 traverses, towering over and looking down the sweep of the Thames River, is such a crucial geographic feature that one of the great heroes of the U.S. Navy, Stephen Decatur, built a fort at the top of it during the War of 1812, when his ships were trapped by a British blockade of the river. Fort Decatur, at an elevation of 256 feet, gave the commodore the ability to see the enemy approaching from land and sea. And now, some neighbors will tell you, Mount Decatur itself is under attack, with a proposal by its new owners, who bought the hill as part of the former Dow Chemical plant property, to blast apart some 40 acres of the hillside and remove and sell off the material. A review of the application from the property owners, an affiliate of Cashman Dredging & Marine Contracting of Quincy, Mass., is scheduled to begin with a public hearing scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, in a hybrid format from the Town Council Chambers.

https://www.theday.com/local-columns/20231115/opinion-company-wants-to-blast-away-much-of-ledyards-historic-mount-decatur/

Flush with billions of dollars in Congressionally-approved infrastructure funds, state and federal officials on Thursday released their 15-year vision for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor that includes promises of increased service, quicker trains and new rail connections. The 457-mile link between Washington, D.C. and Boston — representing the nation’s busiest rail corridor — runs straight through Connecticut, where it also shares tracks with commuter trains operated by Metro-North and CT Rail. It also incudes Acela, the nation’s only high-speed rail service. Each of those services stands to benefit from proposed upgrades included within the Northeast Corridor Commission’s Connect 2037 plan — which also comes with an estimated price tag of $135 billion. The influx of federal funding, however, has allowed officials to begin chipping away at their “wish list” of neglected projects along the corridor, according to Mitch Warren, the executive director of the Northeast Corridor Commission.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/connecticut/article/amtrak-northeast-corridor-2037-master-plan-18489230.php?src=sthpdesecp

This week’s public hearing on a developer’s plan to build multi-family housing in a largely vacant office park got testy all around. Residents said the developer’s representatives “browbeat” them with false information about the effects of the 508-apartment complex proposed for 900 Long Ridge Road, and fudged a study to make it look like the added traffic won’t be bad. The new buildings, which will house 56 studios, 235 one-bedroom apartments, 202 two-bedrooms and 15 three-bedrooms, will be set on 36 acres just south of the Merritt Parkway. The site once was home to Combustion Engineering and Nestle Waters, now BlueTriton Brands. Today BlueTriton occupies one building and the other is vacant. The Zoning Board did not vote on the project during the meeting. They tabled it until after Thanksgiving.

Hearing Turns Testy as Developers Seek Approval for 508 Apartments Along Merritt in Stamford