Tensions between Bradley International Airport and its smaller-but-ambitious competitor, Tweed New Haven, are reflected in a burgeoning turf battle over whether the airport authority that operates Bradley has the power to license Tweed. Kevin A. Dillon, the executive director of the Connecticut Airport Authority, is pressing Tweed to submit to its licensing authority as Tweed awaits federal approval of plans to lengthen its runway and build a new terminal in East Haven. The Tweed New Haven Airport Authority has refused to complete the form necessary to renew a license that expired in March 2022, saying under federal law it answers to the Federal Aviation Administration, not the CAA. Dillon said there are no obstacles to Tweed’s licensure other than its refusal to complete the paperwork.

A Bradley-Tweed airport turf battle takes flight in CT

The giant Stone Bridge Crossing mixed-use project in Cheshire has cleared another development hurdle as the retail portion won town land use approval. The Planning and Zoning Commission last week granted approval for the 130,000-square-foot retail area, which will include large and small storefronts, restaurants, outdoor seating areas and drive-thrus. Tenants for the retail portion have not yet been announced. The retail portion of the project — on what’s known as Lot 5 — is part of Miller, Napolitano, Wolff LLC and Tri-Star Development’s broader plans for the massive Stone Bridge Crossing project, which also contains more than 300 residential units in various stages of construction.

Retail portion of Cheshire’s massive Stone Bridge Crossing development approved

The Connecticut Port Authority has paused its search for a new executive director but is adding a new position to help market its deep-water ports and manage its small harbors. The port authority plans to hire a maritime business development manager that will in part handle the duties performed by Andrew Lavigne, the former manager of business development and special projects. As the port authority transitions from the construction project at State Pier, Hammond said much of the organization’s attention will turn to marketing the state’s three deep-water ports in New London, Bridgeport and New Haven as well as assisting municipalities with management and infrastructure at 35 smaller ports and harbors across the state. Throughout the construction of State Pier, the CPA has also had project management assistance from personnel at the state Department of Transportation. That assistance disappears once the project is completed.

https://www.theday.com/news/20231017/ct-port-authority-to-add-staff-focus-on-ports-and-harbors/

The City Council voted unanimously Monday night to use $385,000 from the city’s American Rescue Plan Act federal grant to purchase nearly 30 acres off Ox Hill Road as a potential site for a new police station and to expand Mohegan Park. Residents will vote on whether to build a proposed new $44.75 million police station at a Nov. 7 referendum. The council removed $500,000 from the $715,000 earmarked to hire new police officers. Police Chief Patrick Daley said the department is having a difficult time hiring officers and likely could not use the ARPA money within the federal time limits. The council used $385,000 of the police money to cover the entire purchase price for the land. Speakers during public comment Monday offered mixed reactions to the use of ARPA funds to purchase the land for the police station.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20231017/norwich-city-council-approves-385000-to-buy-land-for-proposed-police-station/

Outfitted in hard hats and neon orange construction vests, the city’s mayor and top engineer looked out the third floor windows of what will be Danbury’s new high school, their eyes fixed on an office building down the hill on Apple Ridge Road. With the demolition of the interior complete, and construction workers putting in the lines on the concrete for the framing that will become classrooms, labs and offices, Iadarola said it was easy to see the city’s vision coming into reality for the 24-acre west side campus and the rebranding of the high school known as the Academies of Danbury. The completion of the demolition phase and the start of the construction phase is part of a larger $208 million spending plan approved by voters in 2022 to build more classrooms across the city, including $27 million for a 16-classroom early childhood education center at location to be determined.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/danbury-career-academy-construction-underway-demo-18428940.php

The City Council agreed 5 to 1 Monday to authorize Mayor Elinor C. Carbone to negotiate a lease agreement with Walden Renewables of Portland, Maine to lease six acres at the landfill. In the initial six-year development period, the company will pay $5,000 a year while it looks into permitting and connecting the facility with Eversource. After that, it will enter a 40-year lease at $6,000 per acre with a 2% increase per year. The facility, which would potentially hold between 100 and 150 megawatts of renewable energy, would be connected to the Eversource power grid and serve as a backup for power “to save for a rainy day when we have a capacity event,” Dale Knapp of Walden Renewables of Portland, Maine told the City Council last month during a presentation on the project. If the solar array and energy storage facility are built, there will still be about 55 undeveloped acres left at the landfill, he said.

https://www.rep-am.com/localnews/2023/10/16/battery-project-gets-boost/

Now that the Mixmaster rehabilitation project is nearing completion, the state Department of Transportation is moving on to New Mix, a plan to look ahead to what the interchange of Interstate 84 and Route 8 will be like as much as 50 years from now. And removing the long-closed Exit 21 exit ramp on I-84 eastbound will be among the first projects on the list. To that end, a public meeting will be held Oct. 25 to discuss the removal of the exit ramp, which will include extending an auxiliary lane near Exit 22. The Oct. 25 meeting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. at Maloney Magnet School, 233 S. Elm St., Waterbury. The first half hour will be an informal open house so the public can speak one on one with DOT project staff.

CT DOT looking ahead up to 50 years on a highway interchange. What will the big changes mean for drivers?

The zoning board of appeals in an unusual move is scheduled to convene Wednesday and Thursday just to hear testimony for and against the North End development, an indication of the anticipated sizeable turnout. At issue is the July 27 decision by Paul Boucher, head of the municipal zoning department, to revoke the authorization his office issued last October for Lakhotia’s development, located at Madison and Westfield avenues. That zoning application was submitted in late 2021, before new, more restrictive citywide land-use regulations took effect the following January that would limit the proposed four-story building’s height to three and require ground floor commercial tenants.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/testos-apartments-appeal-madison-ave-mario-testa-18429180.php

Connecticut drivers should avoid taking I-95 in Norwalk and Westport this weekend due to a major bridge replacement project at Exit 17. A section of I-95 northbound will be closed from Oct. 20 at 8 p.m. to Oct. 23 at 6 a.m. while the Connecticut Department of Transportation completes the first of two lateral shifts to replace the bridge over Saugatuck Avenue. DOT can accomplish the bridge replacement in one weekend because of the use of an accelerated bridge construction method called a lateral slide. Rosenblatt said the bridge replacement is one of the largest elements of the $104 million Norwalk-Westport I-95 improvement project.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/i-95n-closed-norwalk-westport-bridge-replaced-18422100.php

Andre Swanston, a multimillionaire tech entrepreneur who attended the University of Connecticut and now lives in Ridgefield, is pursuing expansion teams in both Major League Soccer and the National Women’s Soccer League, to play in a new stadium in Bridgeport. The project would also include housing, restaurants and a hotel adjacent to the stadium, Swanston told CT Insider in an exclusive interview. Swanston said his effort will be “overwhelming majority privately funded” but that he will likely seek some amount of public financing as well. The total cost of the project, including expansion fees and construction costs, will exceed $1 billion, he said. The proposed new stadium in Bridgeport would be built on a property along the Pequonnock River currently home to the Shoreline Star Greyhound Park, which has been vacant since 2021.

https://www.ctpost.com/sports/article/mls-nwsl-bridgeport-andre-swanston-18424628.php?src=rdctpdensecp