Workers have begun cutting off the gas mains under the bridge and are expected to finish this week. The next step is to work on the new footprint which will extend the bridge from 35 feet to 55 or 60 feet. The existing bridge will be demolished and the new abutments will be built at the same time. The road pavement will be raised six inches. The bridge carries traffic over Harbor Brook between Park and Pratt streets. Last year, the city received notice from the South Central Regional Council of Governments that it had been awarded a $3.8 million Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program grant from the state for the project. Milone & McBroom are engineering the expansion of the Meriden Green. BL Cos. is doing the channel redesign between Cedar and Center streets.

https://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/Meriden/Meriden-News/Work-underway-on-the-cedar-street-bridge-The-road-is-partially-closed.html

Construction has started but is not finished. Three stories of elevated steel and dark gray metal walls at the site still appeared bare and hollow. Mayor Michael Passero said it was a celebration of the construction’s halfway point. He said the developers, New-York based Vessel Technologies, started putting together what is to be a five-story modern apartment building four weeks ago. Rubler said the material for the building was pre-fabricated at a facility in York, Pa., and made in a way that makes the completed building and its construction more efficient. He said this method does not make it any less safer than other buildings and the material used, such as steel, is non-combustible and able to withstand major storms. Passero said the “cutting edge” development is significant as the site has been vacant for nearly 30 years since the colonial-era building there burned to the ground.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20230519/new-london-officials-celebrate-speedy-construction-of-downtown-apartments/

In April, a bipartisan group of House education and workforce committee members introduced the National Apprenticeship Act of 2023. Creating near one million registered, youth and pre- apprenticeship opportunities over five years, it earmarks almost $4 million for the cause. The proposed legislation authorizes $400 million in funding for fiscal year 2025, increasing by $100 million annually to $800 million for FY 2029. Last fall, President Biden launched the Apprenticeship Ambassador Initiative, a network of businesses and organizations supporting registered apprenticeship. The more than 200 businesses and organizations have existing registered apprenticeship programs in more than 40 industries. The program also provides workers with on-the-job learning experience, job-related instruction with a mentor and a clear pathway to a good-paying job. It builds on Biden’s efforts to expand registered apprenticeships, including investing hundreds of millions of dollars in them.

https://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/putting-spotlight-on-apprenticeships/61166

Property owner, applicant and developer Brook Street Rocky Hill LLC, headed by principal Miodrag Delmic, has submitted a site plan application to the Rocky Hill Planning and Zoning Commission for properties at 553, 565 and 595 Brook St. Delmic is proposing to build four new warehouses on the site: two will be 30,000 square feet with six bays each; one will be 20,000 square feet with four bays; and one will be 40,000 square feet with eight bays. The warehouses are being built on speculation as their uses have not been identified, Delmic said. A zone change for the Rocky Hill properties would be required as the area is now zoned for an office park and would be changed to a business park. The developer presented the plans to the town Open Space and Conservation Commission and received approval.

Rocky Hill warehouse complex proposed

After being in the works for five years, a plan to expand Hamden Middle School to accommodate sixth-grade students has been nixed, but the reason for the decision depends on whom you ask. The expansion would have allowed the district to move sixth graders from the elementary schools to the middle school, offering them more learning opportunities and freeing up space for universal pre-K.
It originally was part of the Reimagine, Restructure, Results Initiative, a $30 million districtwide proposal approved in 2019 aimed at addressing declining enrollment and impending racial imbalances in the district. By late last year, the middle school expansion was all that remained. By then, the estimated cost of the project had gone up to approximately $22 million — double the $11 million price tag the council originally authorized. In the meantime, the board is going back to the drawing board to come up with a redistricting plan.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/hamden-middle-school-expansion-nixed-18100560.php

Nearly all workers in Connecticut, regardless of industry, could soon be eligible for up to two weeks of paid sick leave each year under legislation approved by Senate lawmakers on Thursday. The bill currently before lawmakers would expand that eligibility to all private-sector workers, with the sole exception of construction workers who are covered by collective bargaining agreements. In addition, covered employees would be able to accrue sick time faster, gaining up to 80 hours — two weeks — of time off each year. The proposal has elicited the strong support of unions, workers and physicians, who touted the health benefits of allowing workers the ease of taking time off to care for themselves and family members. According to legislative analysts, the bill would extend paid sick leave to 1.6 million workers in Connecticut. After roughly two hours of debate Thursday, the Senate voted 20 to 12 along party lines in favor of the legislation, sending it to the House for further consideration.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/politics/article/ct-paid-sick-leave-law-expand-most-workers-2-weeks-18107077.php

A pair of new schools that will form a K-8 campus in the Cove neighborhood will cost the city roughly $65.8 million, according to early estimates. The money will go toward building two new schools a mile apart — a K-4 facility at 83 Lockwood Ave. and a new 5-8 school at the current site of K.T. Murphy Elementary School on Horton Street — and would involve demolishing current structures at each location and also tearing down Toquam Magnet Elementary School. The total price tag for the work is $158.3 million, but the city is expected to receive state funding for approximately 60 percent of the total cost. The Board of Representatives will cast a final vote on the funding on June 5. If approved, the plan would need to be submitted to the state by the end of June in order to be considered for reimbursement.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/stamford-s-proposed-south-side-school-cost-city-18106783.php

Eversource’s “Stevenson to Pootatuck Rebuild Project,” which entails rebuilding existing 115 kV transmission lines between Stevenson Substation in Monroe and Pootatuck Substation in Shelton, began in late February and is expected to last through the end of the year. New infrastructure improvements include the installation of new monopoles and new wires. The Eversource crews have placed “trail closed” signs wherever the hiking trails intersect or follow the powerline corridor. Eversource has also erected construction fencing across the trail, which Gallagher says the city suggested they do because “our experience shows that some trail users disregard signs and pass through the Trails Committee’s active work zones, even under leaning trees that are in the process of being cut down with a chainsaw.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/eversource-power-line-build-close-parts-shelton-18106415.php

An attorney for a developer proposing 65 apartments at the former Colonel Ledyard School property, which is within walking distance of Electric Boat, said Tuesday that creating “attainable housing” is a driving force for the project. Bill Sweeney, who represents Bellsite Development LLC of Manchester, the developer of the former school site on 120 West Street, said at a public hearing that while the proposed development calls for market-rate housing and not deed-restricted affordable housing, it targets people who are part of a growing workforce in Groton and want to live in the community. Bellsite, the developer for the town-owned site located in the city, presented its plans Tuesday to the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission to convert the former elementary school building into 29 apartments and construct 36 additional apartments on site. Bellock said the project would substantially preserve the original school building. The first phase of the project calls for renovating the school and adding a second story to it. This phase would create 27 one-bedroom units and two 2-bedroom units. The second phase includes the construction of six attached three-bedroom townhome units to the east of the front parking lot, as well as a 30-unit apartment building — with 20 one-bedroom units and 10 two-bedroom units — to the rear of the school building.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20230517/colonel-ledyard-school-apartment-plans-presented-to-groton-commission/#

As the Wilton Planning & Zoning Commission considers a proposal for a new four-story hotel on the town’s side of the iPark complex, owners of the campus outlined its plans to also build a parking garage and apartments on the Norwalk side. The P&Z Commission will continue the public hearing for iPark Hotel, a 120-room hotel proposed for the iPark mixed-use campus on the Wilton-Norwalk border, at its meeting on May 22. Plans for the proposed four-story building on Cannondale Way were approved by the Architectural Review Board last November. This would be the first within the town’s borders. The plans for a hotel in Wilton have been in the works for many years. The Planning and Zoning Commission voted in 2016 to allow hotels under the town’s zoning regulations, with this specific project in mind. Wilton currently has no hotels.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/wilton-hotel-ipark-cannondale-way-18099597.php