West Hartford Fellowship Housing, a nonprofit that for over 50 years has provided low-income housing for an older population and to people with disabilities, broke ground on a sweeping and transformative $100 million project that will modernize and expand upon its Starkel Road campus, ultimately providing 300 total units of in-demand housing. The plans will replace 23 of the 24 buildings on site with six new buildings. Construction will be done in four phases, with the first estimated to take about 18 months. The town, which is currently reviewing its new affordable housing plan, has set a goal to have 10 percent of its housing stock be considered affordable. Those types of units have appeared across town in the last few years, with most recent additions being properties managed by the West Hartford Housing Authority on New Park Avenue and the recent approval that will transform a former synagogue into affordable housing. The West Hartford Inn is also marked to become affordable housing.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/westhartford/article/west-hartford-ct-fellowship-affordable-housing-18519125.php

On Tuesday, city and state leaders announced millions in grants and investments will go toward two major revitalization projects aimed at improving Grand Avenue. More than $7.5 million will improve a 1.5-mile stretch of Grand Avenue in the Fair Haven, Mill River and Wooster Square neighborhoods. The first phase of the revitalization project will focus on roadway enhancements: including repaving and traffic calming improvements along the busy and dangerous stretch of road. The second phase of the project will include streetscape improvements: sidewalk upgrades, new signage, lighting, trees and planters.

https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/new-haven/new-haven-gets-7-5-million-to-improve-grand-avenue/

The razing of the third and final building of the former Anaconda American Brass Co. factory complex is nearing completion just over a month after demolition crews first converged on the site at 170 Freight St. Six excavators were in operation Tuesday, taking down the last skeletal remains of what was the first large brass manufacturing firm in the United States and, for much of its existence, the country’s largest brass manufacturer. Manafort Brothers of Plainville is doing the demolition work on the 20-acre brownfield through a contract with the city. The city held a news conference marking the start of demolition in October, hailing it as an opportunity to transform a blighted, contaminated property into a potential hub for jobs and economic growth.

https://www.rep-am.com/localnews/2023/11/28/final-anaconda-building-in-waterbury-razed-environmental-tests-of-20-acre-site-to-continue/#login

The Northeast Corridor Commission — a coalition of Amtrak, commuter transit agencies, states and the U.S. Department of Transportation — announced Nov. 16 an ambitious 15-year plan to rebuild the Boston-New York City-Washington, D.C., rail line. The plan is an update to one set out in 2021 that outlined repair needs, service goals and the necessary infrastructure to achieve those, and is estimated to cost $176 billion in inflation-adjusted, year-of-expenditure dollars. “Amtrak ridership on the Northeast Corridor is at all-time record levels, and the projects included in this plan will provide the capacity, reliability, and service improvements that our customers need and deserve,” Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner said in a statement.

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/amtrak-northeast-rail-corridor-plan/700677/

In a crowded room in the state Capitol, administration officials and members of the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate offered a defense of the 2035 mandate— something that never came in October and November, when Republicans campaigned against it as bureaucratic overreach. The display came a day after the Lamont administrations confirmed it did not have the votes for passage by the legislature’s bipartisan Regulation Review Committee of regulations that would have implemented a timetable for the transition to car and truck markets dominated by electric vehicles. Every state has two options: hewing to the California standards or the ones set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has set a less ambitious timetable for phasing out gas-powered cars.

https://ctmirror.org/2023/11/28/ct-new-gas-car-ban-pledge-2035-lamont/

Plans to upgrade the HVAC system at Polson Middle School sparked a short debate about spending limits and the town’s goals for environmental sustainability at Monday night’s Board of Selectmen meeting. The work at Polson Middle School and the new elementary school are part of a larger $89.2 million project approved by referendum in Feb. 2022. The new school budgeted for $61.15 million and improvements on Polson budgeted for $21.55 million. There is a third project for improvements on Brown Intermediate School, budgeted at $6.5 million. By a vote of 4 to 0, with one abstention, the board approved a $935,000 bid for the Polson project by BL Companies, a local architectural and civil engineering firm.

School Construction Moves Forward in Madison, With Brief Debate Over Goals for Sustainability

Bridgeport has joined Fairfield, preservationists, residents and business owners in questioning the “unreasonable” impacts of a proposed $225 million project by United Illuminating. The utility company applied with the Connecticut Siting Council in March to replace its aging electric transmission lines with 100- to 135-foot monopoles along the Metro-North Railroad line in downtown Bridgeport, Fairfield and Southport. Lee Hoffman, an attorney representing the city in United Illuminating’s application, said Bridgeport is concerned that the project would negatively impact future economic development, coastal resources, low-income residents and people of color. At the end of the Tuesday meeting, Morissettee extended the hearing to Dec. 12. Per state guidelines, the council must issue its decision by March.

Bridgeport Joins Growing Opposition to $225M United Illuminating Project

Our 30,000 men and women members in the Connecticut State Building Trades Council are the best-trained construction workers in the nation. They stand ready to partner with our great state to construct, install, and maintain our Class 1 Renewable energy projects, including solar farms, offshore wind projects, fuel cells, anaerobic digesters, and electric vehicle charging stations. Sadly, however, President Biden’s intention of these projects being good union jobs has not yet come to fruition here at home. The Connecticut State Building Trades should be at every table where decisions regarding development are being made. We must be a part of the transition to clean energy. Put us to work.

CT’s building trades support transition to EVs – and want to build the infrastructure

Connecticut’s truck tax continues to underwhelm, falling $25 million short of estimated revenue from 2021 when the tax – called the Highway Use Tax (HUT) – was passed by the General Assembly along a party-line vote and over the protestations of Connecticut truckers. The HUT was passed following the defeat of Gov. Lamont’s numerous tolling proposals for Connecticut highways, and supporters argued the tax was necessary to bolster the struggling Special Transportation Fund (STF) that pays for Connecticut’s transportation infrastructure and public transportation. The tax is based on the truck’s weight and the number of miles it travels in Connecticut. At the time of passage, it was estimated the HUT would bring in $90 million by fiscal year 2024 and nearly $100 million by 2026. Those figures, however, have been adjusted downward by roughly $25 million to $30 million for the 2024 fiscal year, according to the latest Fiscal Accountability Report from the nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis (OFA).

https://insideinvestigator.org/connecticuts-truck-tax-continues-to-fall-short/

The pier on the Connecticut coast is filled with so many massive oddities that it could be mistaken for the set of a sci-fi movie. Sword-shaped blades as long as a football field lie stacked along one edge, while towering yellow and green cranes hoist giant steel cylinders to stand like rockets on a launchpad. It is a launching point, not for spacecraft, but for the first wind turbines being built to turn ocean wind into electricity for New Yorkers. Crews of union workers in New London, Conn., are preparing parts of 12 of the gargantuan fans before shipping them out for final assembly 15 miles offshore. Orsted and its partner, Eversource, expect the electricity to start flowing from the first South Fork turbines before the end of the year. But the weather offshore — sometimes, it can be too windy to build a wind farm — as well as all sorts of mechanical matters and a simmering labor dispute at the pier could delay the flow of power from the ocean to Long Island.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/27/nyregion/offshore-wind-power-farm-ny.html