A stone bridge on Wesskum Wood Road in Binney Park needs to be replaced and work is expected to start July 5, according to Greenwich’s Department of Public Works. The project is expected to take a year to complete and traffic will be detoured on Arch Street, Sound Beach Avenue, West End Avenue, Summit Road, Drinkwater Place and Owenoke Way during construction. In addition to the new bridge, there will also be new curbing, a sidewalk on the bridge’s interior, a path connecting to Binney Park trail, decorative crosswalks and accessible pedestrian ramps compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Crews will also widen the bridge so cyclists have better access and parts of Wesskum Wood Road will be repaved. Replacing the bridge is expected to cost $1.67 million, with half the construction and inspection fee to be funded by a State of Connecticut Local Bridge Program grant.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/greenwich-binney-park-bridge-wesskum-wood-road-18149476.php

Dixwell Plaza’s redevelopers plan to start knocking down vacant buildings in the mid-century shopping plaza as soon as September — as they move forward with a years-in-the-making effort to build up the heart of New Haven’s historic Black neighborhood. Those plans were presented by the Connecticut Community Outreach and Revitalization Program (ConnCORP) and its construction partners on Wednesday night during a community meeting they hosted at the Stetson Library at 197 Dixwell Ave. ConnCORP Chief Operating Officer Paul McCraven said in the next 60 days neighbors should expect to see activity begin at the site. He said phase one of the project will cost an estimated $146 million. Skanska USA Building Inc. Senior Project Manager Beau Burgess and Project Superintendent Brian Lake shared with neighbors the timeline and logistics of the demolition period.

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/dixwell_plaza_update_3

The development, called the Regency at Woodbridge, will feature three or four complexes with a total of 70 carriage-style town homes covering about 15 acres on Bradley Road and Litchfield Turnpike, the plans show. A sign on site touts luxury-style homes. The cost of the units will start at more than a half-million dollars, according to a listing for the project on the website for Toll Brothers, the project’s developer. Woodbridge Zoning Enforcement Officer Kristine Sullivan said work began on the development earlier this year. Toll Brothers has estimated that it will take about three years to complete, according to Sullivan. The Woodbridge Town Plan and Zoning Commission unanimously approved the housing development application at a meeting in September 2022. Based in Fort Washington, Pa., Toll Brothers has built 10 age-restricted developments in Connecticut, a project official said at the time.

https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/regency-woodbridge-housing-development-townhomes-18165031.php?src=nhrhpdesecp

A local golf club received the approval needed to go forward with a $4.5 million construction project that will offer new amenities to its members. Bull’s Bridge Golf Club submitted a special permit and site plan application to the New Milford Zoning Commission in March to make kitchen and dining room additions in its clubhouse on Old Stone Road. The club’s application also called for building a new golf house that would be connected to the clubhouse by a breezeway. The Zoning Commission unanimously approved the club’s application at its June 13 meeting.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/newmilford/article/new-milford-approves-4-5-million-expansion-18163101.php

The analysis found that solar power had lowered the demand for energy in the region and fewer power plants had retired, putting New England in a better position to manage gas constraints in the winter. ISO-New England President and CEO Gordon van Welie cautioned, however, that the study is not complete and that there are still serious concerns about long-term winter reliability. The study assumes that the gas distribution system will operate without issues, and that new offshore wind resources will compensate for oil plants shutting down. But recent delays and canceled contracts for Northeast wind projects have raised doubts, van Welie said. Eversource Vice President of Energy Supply James Daly said the study used “optimistic” assumptions that should be questioned, including projections of 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind and 1,400 megwatts of energy storage coming online, most of which isn’t under contract.

New England Energy Officials Challenge ‘Optimistic’ Study on Natural Gas Supply

An extra $5 million for the school building project could be used to add turf and lighting to the property’s new playing fields, and members of the project’s building committee are eyeing a grant to pay for it. Construction began in mid-2022, and the middle-high school project is well underway on Major Besse Drive. Construction crews are working on the actual buildings, which are being built on steel beams and concrete foundations. The new school campus, which has separate spaces for middle and high school students, and shared areas, such as the cafeteria, gym, auditorium and athletic spaces, is taking shape. The grant request came to the City Council with a grant application for their review, defining the reasons why the grant was needed. The application also defined the high school’s athletic fields and the adjacent city swimming pool, playground, basketball courts and other community facilities as a “Community Fitness Complex” that would be used by the whole town, not just the high school.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/torrington-school-project-planners-want-5-18161230.php

The Connecticut Department of Transportation lists 24 major construction projects statewide – encapsulating some of the biggest and most expensive projects in the state. Some of those are still in the planning phases, while others are already complete. CTDOT is working on a major project on Route 15, better known as the Merritt Parkway that will resurface the road in both directions and make other improvements along a three-and-a-half-mile stretch from Norwalk to New Canaan. That work is expected to continue until late October 2024. This spring, CTDOT began work on I-95, Route 161 and Frontage Road in East Lyme that it says will make entering and exiting the highway at Exit 74 safer. CTDOT began a three-year project last summer to rehabilitate the bridge that carries Route 82 over the Connecticut River in East Haddam.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/major-road-construction-impact-travel-across-ct-18163174.php

The Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved the construction of a five-story, 80-room extended stay hotel at 321 Liberty St, Route 2, in Pawcatuck, Tuesday night. The project was proposed by Mystic Sahajanand, LLC, of Pawcatuck, whose principal, Mukesh Patel, also owns the 75-room La Quinta Inn & Suites at 349 Liberty St., which was constructed in 2009. The commission unanimously approved two special use permits for the project with six stipulations, among which were posting an Erosion and Sedimentation Control Bond, notifying town staff prior to construction so that they can inspect the erosion control measures, and providing a plan for best practices for stormwater management. After the meeting, Patel told CT Examiner that his company will operate and manage the hotel as a franchise of Extended Stay America, which provides suites equipped with kitchens and on-site laundry facilities.

80-Room Hotel Approved in Pawcatuck

The state of Connecticut is going to pay the town $7,100 for an easement that passes over the Quinnipiac River Linear Trail to facilitate the movement of construction equipment to a Route 15 northbound bridge slated for repair. While the state needs it for the upcoming work, the easement will be permanent. It is part of a path that starts on private property, crosses over the town-owned land and ends at the bridge. The easement extends from North Plains Highway over private property, Mayor William Dickinson Jr. said, and reaches town of Wallingford property, extends across open space to the linear trail and crosses the trail to the area needed for bridge construction. According to a Department of Transportation Public Information Meeting on the project from Aug. 4, 2022, DOT officials said the trail would remain open for the duration of the project. The only disruption would be when machinery needs to cross the trail. Construction fencing will be in place at the project site to protect the public.

https://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/Wallingford/Wallingford-News/State-to-pay-town-for-easement-over-Quinnipiac-River-Linear-Trail-for-bridge-construction.html

The proposed four-story 300,000-square-foot iPark Hotel would be located at the mixed-use campus of iPark Norwalk, at One Cannondale Way, off Kent Road between Danbury Road and the railroad line. The commission had asked the developers to prepare more details on the project’s potential impact on traffic in the area. At the meeting, consultant Veronica Prezioso of Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. of White Plains, N.Y., told the commission that there would be a negligible difference. In its unanimous approval of the project last November, the Architectural Review Board requested pollinator plants, which he noted were added to the plan in a long and narrow section of plantings at the front of the property. The P&Z Commission will likely be voting on the application for the iPark Hotel at its June 26 meeting.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/experts-ipark-hotel-wilton-norwalk-border-impact-18159670.php