The new Eastern Greenwich Civic Center, projected to cost roughly $25 million, should be mostly built by spring of 2024, and one town official said the exterior of the new building will likely completed soon. The new facility, named the Cohen Eastern Greenwich Civic Center after its donors from the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundation, is replacing the old civic center, which was built in 1950. The foundation donated $5 million to the town in exchange for naming rights. The former civic center stopped programming in early 2022 to prepare for the demolition, which was completed in October 2022. The construction of the new facility began in November 2022. Since the Eastern Greenwich Civic Center is still an active construction site, it is closed to the public.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/greenwich-civic-center-cohen-18209055.php

The offshore wind market in North America has attracted global developers and equity partners as state and federal policies finally align to encourage investment in domestic clean energy. But at the same time, developers face challenges as inflation, supply chain bottlenecks, the high cost of materials, competition for vessels and ports, and workforce shortages threaten to slow progress. Park City Wind is proposed by Avangrid Renewables. It has contracted to provide 804 megawatts of capacity to Connecticut. The project would be staged from Salem, Massachusetts. The offshore wind port is being developed by Crowley Maritime, with its administrative office in Providence. Revolution Wind II is proposed by Ørsted and Eversource. The 884-megawatt project could serve Rhode Island if it gains a utility contract. Ørsted plans to stage all of its New England projects from the Connecticut State Pier in New London. Citing an industry report and government data, Ørsted says switching from coal-fired generation to wind power can reduce the carbon emitted from energy production by more than 99%.

https://www.bizjournals.com/rhodeisland/news/2023/07/21/offshore-wind-explainer-new-england.html

Flooding has covered a low-lying section of Interstate 95 the past few days during torrential downpours, causing detours and slow downs for drivers. It’s problem the state Department of Transportation says its hoping to alleviate through a construction project that should take about a year to complete. He said the construction zone at the site of the flooding didn’t cause it. The area has been prone to flooding for years. In addition to improving drainage on the section of I-95 in Norwalk, Morgan said, the $100 million upgrade will also create full-width shoulders for additional safety and includes bridge improvements. But drainage is a key component, he said.

https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/norwalk-i-95-exit-16-flooding-drainage-project-dot-18208719.php

The detours will occur twice daily from Monday through Thursday as both sides of the highway are shut down for roughly 15 minutes each time. State Department of Transportation spokesman Josh Morgan said a blast operator from Maine Drilling and Blasting will be using explosive charges to dislodge chunks from 800 feet of rock ledge between exits 74 and 75. The blasting project is slated to take six to eight weeks to complete once it starts with a bang on Aug. 1. The plan is to widen the highway to accommodate auxiliary lanes that will give drivers more time to get up to speed and so cars traveling just one exit will be able to get off without ever having to merge into another lane of traffic. The work is part of a four-year, $148 million construction project at the Exit 74 interchange of I-95 that began in March.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20230719/weeks-of-twice-daily-highway-closures-coming-to-east-lyme/

The CAA board, citing uncertainties about state funding, at its regular meeting voted unanimously to suspend those talks for the foreseeable future and focus on the half-dozen airports the organization already runs. The deal between Bridgeport and the CAA over Sikorsky, in the works in some form since at least late 2021, appears to be a casualty of a last-minute change to the new two-year state budget that lawmakers finalized in early June. That fiscal plan included the elimination of a tax on airplane fuel, giving carriers that fly in and out of Connecticut to CAA and non-CAA airports a break. Established a decade ago to take over running state-owned airports from the Department of Transportation, the CAA manages Bradley International in Windsor Locks and the smaller Danielson, Groton/New London, Hartford/Brainard, Waterbury/Oxford and Windham facilities. Dillon said the budget for those five smaller airports is currently about $4 million in the red.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/ct-airport-authority-ends-talks-bridgeport-run-18209280.php

Construction to build 24 riverside apartment units in three buildings is underway on Main Street in South Meriden. Local developer LaRosa Construction is behind the project. Doing business as Rincon Holdings LLC, the company won Planning Commission approval for the project by a 4-1 vote back in January. LaRosa had prior approvals from the Zoning Board of Appeals to change the use in the Neighborhood Commercial Development District and on the number of units. The city’s Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Commission had approved the stormwater detention plan and other flood controls, and the Design Review Board OK’d the project with some architectural and landscaping changes. City Councilor Bob Williams, who represents South Meriden, previously told the Record-Journal the development is the first new residential building in that area of South Meriden since work was completed on Diamond Hill Road.

https://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/Meriden/Meriden-News/Demolition-continues-at-33-Main-Street-to-make-way-for-housing.html

In an unexpected move, the state Department of Transportation told town officials on Monday that it plans to fully replace the 83-year-old Alpha Street viaduct while preserving the through streets running below it. The new plan, dubbed “option five,” came after the department offered several repair options, including a $25.5 million bridge replacement that would have closed off Cutler Street and parts of Main and Matthews streets, First Selectman Danielle Chesebrough told CT Examiner. The 625-foot bridge, known as the Frank Turek viaduct, traverses Amtrak tracks and has provided the only vehicular access to Stonington Borough since 1940. The cost of “option five” has yet to be determined, but the town’s budget is capped at $1.2 million, Chesebrough said. Federal funds will supply 80 percent of the total, with the remainder paid by the state, according to a June 6 DOT presentation.

CTDOT Maintains Through Streets for Stonington Viaduct Replacement

Board members for Savin Rock Communities voted unanimously to borrow up to $29.3 million to make upgrades to Surfside, a 254-unit public housing property designated obsolete in early 2020 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to authority Executive Director John Counter. Counter said in March that plans to borrow in order to renovate Surfside Apartments would be the first phase of a multiphase plan to update the West Haven housing authority’s housing stock. Although Counter had said 24-hour maintenance service is available to Surfside residents, the repairs that must be made to the building are beyond patchwork. On Tuesday, he said the borrowing will support upgrades to the roofing, boiler system and fencing, among other things.

https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/29-million-approved-toward-improvements-west-18205497.php?src=nhrhpdesecp

Hours after municipal demolition permits were issued for the property, the city’s zoning chief Monday advised the developer and contractor behind a 177-unit apartment complex planned for the former Testo’s restaurant of “serious questions and reservations” with the plan approval his department issued in March 2022. As a result, wrote Zoning Administrator Paul Boucher in a letter Monday night, he temporarily revoked that months-old authorization, which for weeks now has been scrutinized by the municipal law department for potential but so far unspecified improprieties. But on Tuesday workers had begun tearing down two of the homes on the Madison Avenue site anyway. Contractor John Guedes, who designed the apartments and whose local Primrose company is building them for out-of-town owner Amit Lakhotia, continued to maintain in an interview Tuesday morning that “everything was done by the book.”

https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/bridgeport-temporarily-revokes-zoning-permit-18206140.php

Gov. Ned Lamont announced Tuesday that nearly $7 million in State Bond Commission funding will be used for an apartment complex on the site of the former Showcase Cinemas. A groundbreaking is expected later this year. Lamont said construction is tougher in Connecticut than many other states and the lending market is difficult, but the apartment complex known as Concourse Park and other projects around town mark the beginning of a major revival of East Hartford. New Britain-based Jasko Development, in partnership with West Hartford-based Zelman Real Estate, plans to build as many as 400 units as part of a market-rate, “amenity-rich” complex to be named Concourse Park. Walsh said the apartment developers must have shovels in the ground by the end of September 2023, in keeping with a development agreement for the property.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/journalinquirer/article/east-hartford-showcase-cinema-apartments-18206218.php