Construction recently began on 90 market-rate housing units at 406 Bee St. bringing more housing options to the city’s east side. Bee Street Apartments LLC purchased the 7.8-acre vacant parcel for $1.7 million in August from JHM LLC of Lexington Mass. Keith L. Lenhart and Daniel J. Mancosh are listed as principals of Bee Street Apartments. Lenhart is president and Mancosh is director of AR Building Co. Inc., of Seven Fields, Pennsylvania. The land is appraised at $841,700. City officials and the general public have mixed views on additional housing in all areas of the city. Those opposed have expressed concern about potential drains on city services such as schools and public safety. But supporters say the city needs more varieties of housing stock at all price points.

https://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/Meriden/Meriden-News/Site-work-begins-for-east-side-apartments-in-Meriden

After years of planning and execution, the new $7.8 million state-of-the-art pool and splash pad complex at Veteran’s Memorial Park in Middletown is set for a June opening. Funding came from the $33.5 million 21st Century Parks Bond approved by taxpayers in 2015. The complex will open to the public on June 20. It was initially scheduled to be available for use in time for the 2022 summer season. The 64-year-old pool will be 50 percent larger than the former one. C. J. Fucci Construction is managing the project, and the city is also working with SLR Consulting, formerly Milone & MacBroom. Nocera, a lifelong resident who lived on Broad Street as a child, remembers walking to the nearby pool. “It’s a fabulous renaissance in that whole park,” enhanced by the Greater Middletown Military Museum, Connecticut Trees of Honor and skating rink on the grounds.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/middletown-eyes-opening-new-state-of-the-art-18088204.php

Southern Connecticut State University is in the final construction stage of its $52.4 million new building, ready for the faculty to move in less than two weeks from now. The Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system is struggling with lower enrollment to the point it plans “devastating” budget cuts — including 650 faculty and staff layoffs and the termination of some programs. The new building features 64 offices, eight classrooms, a 99-seat auditorium, an 85-seat community lounge, a specialty classroom, five conference rooms, 16 team rooms and a boardroom, according to Peter Visentin, who heads the university’s architectural services. Faculty of the School of Business will move into the new office spaces May 22, three days after the construction company transferred the building to the state. An opening ceremony of the building is set to take place Sept. 15.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/scsu-completes-school-of-business-building-18086526.php

According to the Barnum Museum museum website, the building, located at 820 Main Street, has begun a “major construction of the historic exterior.” The museum building has been closed to visitors since it sustained damage in a 2010 tornado. The Barnum Museum is on the National Register of Historic Places and is dedicated to Barnum & Bailey circus founder, former Bridgeport mayor and longtime resident, P.T. Barnum. Built in 1893, it contains more than 60,000 artifacts related to Barnum, Bridgeport and 19th century America. In the years since the tornado, the museum has raised $15 million toward repairs. That money has largely gone toward repairing the building’s iconic onion dome and east wall, and to clean some of the estimated 20,000 artifacts that sustained damage from water, dust, humidity and bits of broken glass.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/scaffolding-bridgeport-s-barnum-museum-amid-push-18088351.php

During its Tuesday Board of Selectmen meeting, the board approved $21,735 to install fiber optic cable at the Locust Avenue location and another $51,032 to relocate the dispatch center to the building. The police department is being moved while its headquarters at 174 South Ave. gets a complete facelift that could take anywhere from 18 months to two years. During a phone interview, Zagarenski described the work on the South Avenue building as a “renovate as new project,” in which the current building will be “stripped down to bare walls and reconstructed as new modern police facility.” Zagarenski said the project has been funded for up to $29 million including construction and other costs, such as relocation.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/new-canaan-police-locust-avenue-south-avenue-18076076.php

Availability of parts, not people, is the largest barrier right now to catch up with the delays in constructing Virginia-class nuclear attack boats, company officials at submarine builder Newport News Shipbuilding told USNI News. While work stoppages and worker attrition due to the COVID-19 pandemic have been cited as reasons for the delay in submarine production, availability of parts and materials has become the primary reason for delays, Newport News president Jennifer Boykin told USNI News on Friday. Workforce and supply chain concerns have prompted the Navy, HII and General Dynamics Electric Boat to retool the schedule for the Block V Virginia-class. Compounding the slip in the program schedule, the Navy is almost one year late in issuing advanced procurement contracts for the next two Virginia-class Block V attack boats. The impasse is over an insurance dispute between the submarine shipbuilders in the event of an accident occurring either during construction or operations aboard attack boats that field Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles.

https://news.usni.org/2023/05/08/submarine-supply-chain-largest-barrier-to-improving-virginia-attack-sub-schedule-says-boykin

Wellbuilt Company, a developer headquartered in Greenwich with two projects already in Stamford, has filed a pre-application with the Land Use Bureau to explore building an extended stay hotel on the property. Preliminary designs include a 10-story building with 95 rooms and ground-floor space reserved for retail or a restaurant. Parking would be off-site in the Bell Street garage. According to the pre-application, the concept is common for urban hotels and it was reviewed favorably by the city’s Transportation, Traffic and Parking Department. The developer has yet to submit a formal Zoning Board application, opting instead to file a pre-application. In order for the deal to close, though, the developer must secure zoning approval for the project. Trinity Financial, the developer of 66 Summer, did not respond to an immediate request for comment. In 2017, the company sold the 200-unit building to an out-of-state company for $67.5 million.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/greenwich-developer-exploring-plans-10-story-18074598.php?src=sthpdesecp

Much has changed since workers building the 66-story, 850-foot-tall Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan posed for “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” in 1932, but it remains construction’s most iconic photograph. The OSH Act created OSHA in 1971, so this photo existed decades before any federal agency provided standards or cited employers for violations. Goss and Rank also both noted a long battle to create the steel erection standard, which is a little over 20 years old. With today’s OSHA standards, if an inspector came across a sight like the men in the photo, the fines could vary, depending on whether they are classified as willful or not. If they are, Goss said, the construction firm could face an initial fine of around $155,000 per person — about $1.5 million total. That would be before negotiating a settlement from OSHA. For context, that would be about $200,000 higher than the largest initial fine of 2022.

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/Lunch-Atop-Skyscraper-safety-week-construction-violations-OSHA/649221/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202023-05-05%20Construction%20Dive%20Newsletter%20%5Bissue:50248%5D&utm_term=Construction%20Dive

Given the shock of the earlier plumes of black smoke emanating from the bridge, there was some surprise when two southbound lanes opened three hours later. Additional lanes opened the following morning, but the right-hand acceleration lane and pedestrian walkway remain closed. “The Gold Star Bridge was inspected by experts immediately following the crash, which is why it was able to reopen several hours later,” DOT spokesperson Josh Morgan said in an email Wednesday. “Under no circumstances would that bridge have been reopened if there were any safety concerns.” Sweeney said if the superstructure had been jeopardized, DOT was looking at an alternate plan to push southbound traffic onto the northbound span. Rizzo said as Sweeney’s team did its assessment underneath the bridge and it became clear the left two lanes could likely reopen, the highway operations team was coming up with a traffic plan and acquiring the needed materials.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20230506/how-dot-determined-the-gold-star-bridge-was-safe-to-reopen-after-catching-fire/

A Norwegian green hydrogen company recently announced plans for a “gigafactory” to be built in Michigan using technology that is being developed and tested at the company’s Wallingford operation. Nel Hydrogen makes devices that take water and split it into hydrogen and oxygen, known as electrolyzers, as well as making fueling stations. It recently announced plans for the new plant in Michigan, as well as an expansion of Proton Onsite, the electrolyzer manufacturing facility on Technology Drive in Wallingford, which it purchased in 2017. The Wallingford expansion will assist in the operations at the Michigan plant. Van Name said he did not have information with regard to how many new jobs the project may bring to Wallingford, but said the company has been actively hiring for the last year.

https://www.myrecordjournal.com/News/Wallingford/Wallingford-News/Wallingford-company-expansion-will-test-new-equipment-for-new-Michigan-plant.html