The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a $51.1 billion biennial budget early Tuesday morning that features a broad-based state income tax cut and dramatically boosts funding to local school districts. The package, which passed 139-12 with strong bipartisan support following a nearly three-hour debate that began late Monday, now heads to the Senate, which also is expected to approve the budget before the regular 2023 legislative session adjourns at midnight Wednesday. “We think there’s lot of good things in there,” House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said of the overall budget, which negotiators for the legislature and Lamont administration finished crafting this past weekend. “Look, do I wish we could spend a couple of hundred million dollars more? Yes, I do. I think that’s where our caucus was,” Ritter said. But he quickly added that would have forced a much larger effort to work around the spending cap and praised Democrats for compromising on this issue to ensure support from Lamont, other fiscally moderate Democrats and the GOP.

CT House adopts $51B budget with big middle-class tax cut

Transportation planners and contractors in Connecticut are shoring up a section of this vital roadway in Norwalk. The cost of the project is expected to be $104 million. The venture began in the summer of 2022 and is expected to be completed by the end of 2024. The goal of the job is to improve safety on this busy thoroughfare. Yonkers Contracting plans to use an innovative procedure that will save time and improve safety by executing a “bridge slide.” The contractor and its team will build the I-95 bridge over Saugatuck Avenue in Westport, then slide the enormous structure into place in late summer. In addition to the innovative construction on the I-95 bridge over Saugatuck Avenue, the construction team will carry out repairs on bridges over Franklin Street and the Saugatuck River. For this part of the project, workers will replace expansion joints and install new standpipes on the bridges.

https://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/yonkers-contracting-to-perform-bridge-slide-on-i-95-in-conn/61322

Construction employment is on an upward path and that’s both good and bad. By extension, if jobs increase, so does the need for workers. And that’s the continued challenge for the industry: contractors are beating the bushes for skilled labor to meet their labor needs. Construction employment rose from April 2022 to April 2023 in 42 states and the District of Columbia. While the numbers declined in seven states, they held their own in Hawaii. For the month of April 2023, construction employment increased in 24 states and D.C. Hiring declined in 26 states. Washington added the most jobs over the month, at 4,300; Illinois added 2,700; Wisconsin, 2,600; and California, 2,100. The construction sector shed 9,000 jobs that month, the first decrease since January 2022. This happened even as the sector’s unemployment rate fell and total number of job openings in the sector hit a near-record high, according to AGC. Average hourly earnings for production and nonsupervisory employees in construction jumped by 6.7 percent over the year to $33.94 per hour.

https://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/construction-jobs-picture-looks-bright-but-where-are-the-workers/61298

Almeida and the New Haven Fire Department rescue company he oversees faced that challenge on Friday afternoon after an apartment building under construction on Lafayette Street partially collapsed. They moved fast, but carefully, amid danger to themselves to save the life of a laborer for an Orange-based company called Seven Concrete while helping to build the sixth new apartment complex rising on a former Urban Renewal-leveled asphalt stretch of the Hill neighborhood. They didn’t know much about the call they were responding to as Rivera steered toward the partial collapse at 188 Lafayette St., in the heart of the ​“Hill-to-Downtown” redevelopment area where builder Randy Salvatore has been erecting a mini-city of medical district-marketed apartment complexes under the banner of ​“City Crossing.” This latest building is slated to rise seven-stories with 112 apartments. Seven Concrete workers directed Almeida to a portable ladder rising to an upper deck they were pouring.

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

Amid strong opposition from the public, members of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission continued a public hearing regarding a special exception request to construct an 8,100-square-foot trucking terminal with 10 loading docks in a densely populated, residential area near Interstate 91. The plan calls for eight small, and two large, overhead bays and a 42-space parking lot to accommodate tractor-trailers and employees, Land Use Director Marek Kozikowski said Thursday. It would be built on wooded land, a portion of which would need to be cleared. The project received approval at the May 3 Inland Wetlands & Watercourses Agency meeting.

https://www.middletownpress.com/news/article/middletown-homeowners-turn-droves-oppose-truck-18131832.php

Local, state and federal officials gathered in Waterbury Monday morning to celebrate $8.8 million in brownfield cleanup funds for Connecticut. Waterbury is pushing hard to cross properties off its list of brownfields. The 12-year-administration of Mayor Neil O’Leary has succeeded in pulling in tens-of-millions of dollars in state and federal cleanup grants. Speakers emphasized the need for continued investment in communities burdened by brownfields, in order to create opportunities. Several also focused on the magnitude of brownfields investment being pushed by lawmakers and President Biden. “To quote President Biden on occasion: ‘This is a big frigging deal,’” quipped U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

EPA announces $8.8M for CT brownfield cleanup efforts

An isolated corner of downtown Hartford that struggled for decades to be known for more than its dusty parking lots appeared finally to have something going for it: a popular minor league ballpark and brisk leasing of the first of as many as 1,000 apartments. The city and the original developer, who was fired from the project on city-owned land, must first battle in court over the termination and who has the right to develop the rest of the land around the ballpark. A trial is expected in April, 2024. Some argue the setback for North Crossing is only temporary — and should not be overblown or interpreted that all development is coming to a halt in Hartford. “It’s great when these things happen without a hiccup, but there is often a hiccup,” David Griggs, chief executive of the MetroHartford Alliance, the region’s chamber of commerce, said. “So I don’t want us to look at this as a systemic problem with either the way the city is operating or the way our development of our city and region is moving forward.”

Development near Hartford ballpark thrown major curve. Will lengthy delay hurt project’s momentum?

Built-out and pocked with abandoned buildings and tattered shopping plazas, East Hartford has long suffered from a lack of interest by developers in building anything new within its 18 square miles. With per-capita income among the state’s lowest at about $32,000, East Hartford’s residents face few choices when it comes to shopping, updated housing or amenities within town limits. But a surge of federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act, regional non-profits and the state has sped the demolition of structures that have sat derelict for decades, with the wrecking ball set to swing starting in the coming months. The state bond commission is expected to vote to authorize $11 million in funding at a scheduled meeting on June 26 that will allow for the demolition of three dilapidated buildings in and around Founders Plaza, an office park along the Connecticut River.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/east-hartford-development-rentschler-founders-18132685.php

Workers were pouring 4 million pounds of concrete when a building under construction on Lafayette Street collapsed Friday, injuring eight, an official said. As of Saturday afternoon, four of the workers who were rescued at the scene of the collapse at 188 Lafayette St. remain hospitalized, according to a spokesperson for Yale New Haven Hospital. One of the workers was listed in serious condition and three were in fair condition, the spokesperson said. The workers had poured about three-quarters of 4.2 million pounds of concrete on a second-floor slab when the floor collapsed into the first floor and basement, trapping several workers, city officials said. Mayor Justin Elicker said Friday the city has started a review to ensure the construction permit process was done properly. A stop-work order has been issued to the construction company, he said. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the site, officials said. New Haven police will also conduct an investigation, fire Chief John Alston said. RMS Companies owns the building and is developing the project, while Yale University owns the land, city officials said.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/new-haven-building-collapse-injures-8-18133534.php

Deborah Sims, like Newton, also attended the rallies at Mount Trashmore. Now she and the coalition she helped form are on the cusp of turning the municipally-owned site across from Johnsons Creek, bordered by Central Avenue, Trowel Street and Suggetts Lane, into an agricultural and wellness campus. The new name? Mount Growmore. On Monday Bridgeport’s City Council is likely to approve a land development agreement and ground lease for the property with the East End NRZ Market & Cafe. The market/cafe was co-founded a few years ago by Sims and others to provide fresh and healthy food in the East End, which has been considered a “food desert” because its residents lack easy access to those necessities. The first phase of Mount Growmore’s build-out involves indoor hydroponic gardens in trailers, an idea which, Sims said, came about because market staff typically have to travel about an hour away to purchase reasonably-priced produce to re-sell locally.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/bridgeport-transforming-mt-trashmore-mt-growmore-18131003.php