Out of the nearly 2.8 million cars counted in construction zones in last year’s new speed camera program, nearly 25,000 drivers received written warnings, and more than 700 of them got fined at least $75, according to state data. Officials said the first year’s results is a good sign for the pilot Know the Zone speed safety program, which aimed to get drivers to slow down in work zones. The Department of Transportation, which is already looking to do it again, placed cameras from April through December at three major projects: on the Westport, Norwalk line and East Lyme on Interstate-95 and in Waterbury on Interstate-84. The program came out of state legislation in 2021 and in hopes of getting drivers to slow down and prevent construction site accidents. Anyone going at least 15 miles per hour over the speed limit received a letter in the mail from the state police with a photo of their license plate, warning them about their speed in the construction zone, and that they will receive a fine if they do it again. After the written warning, the second offense was a $75 fine and every one following was $150.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/westport/article/ct-dot-speed-camera-program-work-zones-i95-i84-18589612.php

As the $385 million school construction project gets underway, city officials are considering whether to enter a project labor agreement with local trade unions that would mandate a percentage of Norwich workers be employed on the project. The School Building Committee and the City Council would have to approve the project labor agreement with the Norwich-New London Building Trades Council. School Building Committee Chairman and Democratic Alderman Mark Bettencourt said the committee should be ready to seek construction bids by the end of 2024, so an agreement would need to be approved before then. Joe Toner, executive director of the Connecticut State Building Trades Council, told the School Building Committee that the agreement would set a percentage of project workers who are Norwich residents. An initial proposed agreement would have 25% Norwich residents required, with another 5% from New London County.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240106/norwich-considers-labor-agreement-for-school-construction-project/

With new buildings rising nearby on the former New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum site, Gov. Ned Lamont celebrated the city’s progress Wednesday and announced a $999,000 state “brownfields” grant to remediate leftover debris from the Coliseum’s 2007 demolition on property slated for a new, 277,435-square-foot life sciences and tech office building. The $200 million building — designed by world-class, New Haven-based architects Pelli Clark & Partners — is expected to be the third to rise in the first phase of development of the long-vacant property, which was a parking lot for years following the demolition of the Coliseum. The city and developer broke ground for the first mixed-use building to replace the Coliseum in November 2022. That 200-apartment building is the first of three buildings in Phase 1 of the site’s redevelopment, to be known as “Square 10.” The overall development is led by Spinnaker Real Estate Partners and LWLP New Haven LLC, to which the city transferred ownership of the property in late 2022. The office building is being developed by Durham, N.C.-based Ancora Partners LLC, which was represented Wednesday by Vice President, Development Peter Calkins.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/lamont-announce-990-000-clean-up-grant-new-haven-18586703.php

Construction has accelerated on a nine-lot subdivision project at 16 Neck Road more than a week after the town’s Zoning Enforcement Officer instructed the Westport-based developer, Frank Nocito, to halt work until he agreed to supervision by a town-approved engineer. Nocito, who hasn’t responded to questions shared by CT Examiner before the Christmas holiday, was sued by a former partner in a dispute over purchasing the 16 Neck Road property. That lawsuit was later withdrawn. As Old Lyme CT Properties Corp., Nocito is also named in an unresolved lawsuit filed in August in New London Superior Court by a local family regarding the long-stalled completion of a house in the Lords Meadow Subdivision in Old Lyme. After that lawsuit was filed, William Pitt Sotheby’s Realty in Old Lyme continued to sell and advertise projects in the Lords Meadow Subdivision.

Work Accelerates on 16 Neck Road Development After Request by Old Lyme to Cease Work

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