The Stamford Transportation Center — the second-busiest Metro-North Railroad station after Grand Central Terminal — will soon have a new $81.7 million, 928-spot garage to replace its existing one on Station Place. Looming over Interstate 95’s Exit 7, the gray structure might be the most visible, but it’s just one of multiple projects the transit hub has received funding for in recent years. Other projects that have been announced include elevator and escalator repairs, a master plan to guide future improvements and the eventual demolition of the existing parking garage. Burnham said the entire project will be completed by the end of summer 2024. Previously, officials said it would be done this August; they did not say the cause of delays.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/stamford-train-transportation-center-renovations-17918598.php?src=sthpdesecp

The city recently received approval of the grant from the state Community Investment Fund that will construct 2,700 feet of access road and install utilities running from Route 97 in Occum into the 384-acre Business Park North. The Norwich Community Development Corp. purchased the property in December for $3.55 million. The grant will build a road from the area near the Exit 18 ramp from I-395 into the business park property to Canterbury Turnpike and prepare 12 development pads. Norwich Public Utilities will install natural gas, water and electric lines along the roadway. NCDC President Kevin Brown said the rest of this year will be spent designing and engineering the road and market the development sites, now that construction is imminent. Brown said construction should start next January, with a goal of opening the first development parcels by December 2024.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20230501/officials-celebrate-planned-access-road-to-new-norwich-business-park-land/

The town’s Conservation Commission has until May 23 to make its final decision on a controversial wetlands application for the construction of a large distribution center. On Monday, the commission met at the Shepardson Community Center to begin deliberations on the application after closing the hearing last month, a hearing that spanned five meetings and nearly three months. It did so before a packed house full of residents opposed to the plan by Drubner Equities, LLC of Waterbury to build a 750,000 square foot distribution facility on the campus of what is currently the Timex Corp. world headquarters off Christian Road. Residents fear that the massive distribution center, with trucks rolling in 24-7, will destroy their community’s small-town feel. They are appealing to the commission’s “conservation consciousness” and to reject the application.

https://www.rep-am.com/localnews/2023/05/01/middlebury-neighbors-fighting-proposed-distribution-center-at-timex-corp/

Encompass Health Corporation, whose plans to build a $36 million 100,000-square-foot facility on Danbury’s west side were approved by zoning officials in May 2021, has been waiting for state approval of the Certificate of Need application it filed in August 2020. With its certificate granted last week, construction on Encompass Health’s new rehabilitation hospital near the intersection of Reserve Road and Winding Ridge Way can at last commence. The 40-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital will serve people who have suffered strokes, heart attacks, and neurological ailments by providing physical rehabilitation, occupational therapy and speech therapy. The facility will become part of Encompass Health’s national network of rehabilitation hospitals and be the company’s first rehab hospital in the state of Connecticut.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/danbury-rehab-hospital-certificate-of-need-approve-17920363.php

If the city had not earlier this month begun tearing down parts of the blighted Remington Arms plant along Barnum Avenue, the crumbling East Side edifice, ruined by neglect, vandals, multiple fires and the elements, would have soon fallen in on its own, possibly injuring passersby. As head of the city’s building department, Kica, following an inspection of the long-abandoned property’s interconnected structures last winter, issued a Jan. 9 emergency demolition order to the economic development department for a large section of the former factory complex. Kica cited significant degradation of the roofs, walls, masonry and flooring of the handful of linked buildings at Barnum Avenue and Helen Street. By mid-February, other building department documents show, Manafort Brothers Inc. of New Britain had been hired for the job, with an estimated start of early to mid-March.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/bridgeport-s-building-chief-remington-imminent-17920099.php

Earlier this week, the Department of Energy released its newest roadmap toward developing a temporary solution for storing the nation’s spent nuclear fuel — a process the agency now says will take between 10 and 15 years to complete. Without any purpose-built facilities to handle spent nuclear waste, operators of U.S. nuclear power plants have been forced to store their spent fuel rods on site in giant pools or in dry concrete casks. Over the next two or three years, the agency said it plans to embark on a campaign to inform communities about what hosting a nuclear storage facility would entail, as well as what federal funding would be available, before soliciting a call for volunteers. Officials will then take several more years to assess those bids, before negotiating and signing agreements with the selected locations. Permitting and construction would then take another three to four years, according to the DOE timeline, before the facilities are ready to begin operation.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/department-of-energy-spent-nuclear-fuel-storage-ct-17924070.php

The High Line, a 1.5-mile elevated park full of lush greenery in New York City, could influence the city’s vision of creating a pedestrian walkway that would “float” above Route 9 in Middletown, reconnecting people to Middletown’s portion of the Connecticut riverfront. In 2021, Cooper Robertson of New York drew up the master plan that is expected to become a private-public partnership with the city. The project, which cost some $187 million to build, has humble origins. The Middletown group also visited Little Island, a man-made public space over the Hudson River with a base of concrete, funnel-looking support structures upon which sits a park on various levels. There are hills, lush grass, and other plantings mixed with pieces of art, as well as seating areas. Florsheim also talked about the casual nature of the High Line and his vision for what Middletown’s version could be. “The goal is that we want it to be a place that you just end up, maybe without intending to.”

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/middletowners-visits-high-line-nyc-route-9-17922838.php

Members of the city’s Board of Finance said they were worried about how to pay for a new Westhill High School even with substantial help from the state. The total cash needed to pay for the work in each of the next four fiscal years is high: it’s estimated to be $52.66 million in fiscal year 2024-25, $106.8 million the following year and $90.4 million the next, with more payments in future years. The total project is estimated to cost $301.3 million, of which the state has agreed to pay for 80 percent of eligible expenses. In a letter to the Board of Representatives, Simmons noted that the Board of Finance already cut her proposed operating budget for city government by $6.3 million and cut the Board of Education’s budget by $1.25 million. She argued that any further cuts by the Board of Representatives “would negatively impact city services for residents.” Simmons said in her letter that she and leaders of the Board of Representatives agreed on a $5 million reduction to the school construction reserve in lieu of other cuts.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/stamford-finance-board-worries-covering-new-17922363.php

Tony Valenti and Mark Lovely of Southington-based Lovely Development and Newport Realty are building The Steele Center, a $17-million, 75,000-square-foot commercial and residential development, that will bring 70 market-rate apartments and several commercial storefronts to the Kensington Village area. Steele Boulevard is a new road that stretches from Farmington Avenue to the new Berlin train station on the Hartford line, featuring several residential and mixed-use buildings under construction. The Steele Center project is moving along, despite some delays with supply chain issues, and a pivot from planned two-bedroom units to smaller apartments to keep pace with the changing market, Valenti said. “We can never move as fast as we want, but as soon as we got past all the supply issues, we are totally back on track and we want to finish off this development,” he said, expecting to be completely finished in a little more than two years’ time.

Berlin’s Steele Center taking shape, with two more buildings under construction

A five-story 150-unit mixed-use housing development could be coming to the former Puritan Furniture site on New Britain Avenue in Elmwood. If approved, the project — which has been called Elmwood Lofts in filing documents — would be the first to make use of the town’s new ordinance establishing a transit-oriented district in that part of town. In exchange for building there, the town gives developers the opportunity for higher density occupancy, reduces the amount of required parking spaces and provides incentives for affordable housing. The project also doesn’t need public hearings or Town Council approval, just the authorization of town administrators. If approved, the housing development would bring West Hartford close to having 1,000 new units of housing become available across town at several sites across town, with some having opened recently, others currently being built and a few more approved but not yet under construction.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/westhartford/article/west-hartford-ct-housing-transit-oriented-district-17911270.php