The city’s post-pandemic landscape is busy with development activity, from new car dealerships opening and proposals for hundreds of new apartments on the booming west side to commercial and residential projects slated for the downtown’s Main Street. “The diversity of these projects and the variety of uses is an indication of Danbury’s attractiveness as a place to live and work and expand your business,” said Sharon Calitro, Danbury’s planning director. “It shows that our economy is diverse and robust; people want to be here.” The approved building projects and proposed developments — 17 of which are highlighted here, coincide with a growth spurt in Danbury that demographers project could put the city of 86,000 at 95,000 by 2040.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/danbury-development-projects-downtown-west-side-17917423.php

Connecticut’s highway system was recently ranked fifth in the United States in terms of its cost-effectiveness and condition, rising 26 spots from last year’s rankings, according to the 27th Annual Highway Report released by the Reason Foundation. While Connecticut’s improvement is due partly to a change in the methodology, it also rose in the rankings due to infrastructure upgrades, including smoother highway pavement, and lower fatality rates. State spending on highway construction projects also contributed to Connecticut’s upswing. The state ranked 12th in capital and bridge costs per mile, and 16th in maintenance spending per mile. The study’s methodology uses highway spending, conditions, fatality rates and urbanized congestion data submitted to the Federal Highway Administration.

CT’s highway system ranks 5th in national study, as per-mile spending rises

The Connecticut Housing Finance Authority’s Mortgage Committee unanimously endorsed $36.5 million in loans to affordable housing projects in Newington, West Hartford and New Haven Tuesday. The loan proposals include $3.17 million for the second phase of Massachusetts-based Dakota Partners’ “Cedar Pointe” development of a 7.7-acre former car dealership property at 550 Cedar St. in Newington.
On Tuesday, the CHFA subcommittee also endorsed an $11.7 million construction loan and a $2.1 million permanent loan for the first phase of West Hartford Fellowship Housing’s plan to replace 23, 1970-vintage buildings containing 168 units with six buildings containing 300 apartments for the elderly and disabled. The CHFA Mortgage Committee also endorsed $19.53 million in loans for rehabilitation of 66 apartments and construction of 26 more at the McConaughy Terrace complex in New Haven.

CHFA poised to approve $36.5M in loans for housing developments in Newington, West Hartford and New Haven

Avangrid confirmed Wednesday it plans to restart construction of its planned New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line in Maine to tap hydropower in Canada after a jury verdict that the Orange-based company could proceed despite a 2021 voter referendum to block the project. It is a major win for renewable energy advocates in New England, with the lines designed to carry half as much more power than Avangrid’s Park City Wind farm that will be staged out of Bridgeport. Through its Avangrid Renewables subsidiary based in Oregon, Avangrid is one of the nation’s largest developers of renewable power generation spanning wind and solar. The company is readying to drive the first monopile foundation this spring for Vineyard Wind off the Massachusetts coast, which will be the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in the United States. Construction of Park City Wind will follow next year to supply renewable power for Connecticut.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/avangrid-ui-maine-canada-hydro-power-ct-ma-me-17919495.php

The town is asking residents to vote on spending $16 million to save the original 1928 Farmington High School building. The cost of that project would be offset by $7 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds from the federal government, making the total price tag for the town $9 million. If approved, the town would convert the building into a new town hall, with offices for multiple municipal departments, meeting space and a 3,600 square-foot gym for community use. Town officials have said the time to decide is now because doing the renovations at the same time the old high school is torn down would result in construction savings. The third question on the referendum ballot is whether the town should spend $4 million to improve and reconstruct roads around town.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/connecticut/article/farmington-budget-1928-building-17920043.php

Infrastructure was the buzzword on Wednesday as officials pushed ceremonial shovels into the ground to kick off the I-95 Exit 74 reconstruction project that will realign interchanges, widen lanes and replace the bridge at Route 161. The $150 million project is expected to be completed in Spring 2027. Garrett Eucalitto, state commissioner of transportation, said the project will alleviate bottlenecks in an area with a high rate of crashes due to inadequate design, especially in the on- and off-ramps. The state has also attached a Project Labor Agreement, or PLA, to the project, Eucalitto said, “which means that workforce training will occur right here on this job site.” “PLA’s help ensure the next generation of trades people get the hands-on training they need to help deliver the infrastructure of our future,” he said.

Officials Kick Off 4-Year Construction at I-95 Exit 74, Lamont Talks Faster Rail

A group of local and state officials, from First Selectman Kevin Seery to Gov. Ned Lamont, stood in front of an excavator at the former site of the Starlight Inn Wednesday morning. Construction workers watched in their yellow vests and hard hats from the staging area that will become a northbound on-ramp and commuter parking lot by the end of the more than four-year, $148 million project.
State Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Gary Eucalitto said the project will realign on- and off-ramps to give drivers more time before merging or trying to get off the highway. The goal of the project, which was referred to by multiple officials as “transformational,” is to reduce congestion and improve safety on the highway and Route 161. The state DOT is picking up 20% of the cost while the federal government, through President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure deal, is responsible for the rest.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20230426/officials-say-exit-project-will-bring-transformational-improvements-to-east-lyme-traffic/

Eversource Energy has started work on a $12 million upgrade of its distribution network in northern Waterbury, company officials said this week. The project, which will be rolled out in phases through 2025, got underway earlier this year, according to Mitch Gross, an Eversource spokesman. The first phase of the project will be completed by the end of August, with work being done Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. – weather permitting. “Our engineers are constantly looking at the system and one of the factors they look at is the history of outages in a given area,” Gross said. The upgrades for the 2024 and 2025 construction season are still in the planning process, he said. Eversource has 52,332 customers in Waterbury.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/evesrouce-upgrading-network-in-waterbury-17917473.php?src=sthplocal

A mix of two- and three-bedroom condominiums are about to be built in New Britain near the southwestern edge of Batterson Park. The wooded field behind Frisbie’s Dairy Barn along Farmington Avenue will be cleared this summer, and new housing will be built starting later in the year and continuing through late 2024, according to property owner and developer Michael Frisbie. But as with most developers in this time of construction inflation, economic uncertainty and supply chain disruptions, he acknowledged that could change in the next year. The company will build each unit at 2,300 square feet, he said, and will determine from market reaction how many will be configured with two bedrooms and how many with three. The condo complex will be directly behind the gas station. Noble plans a new road with both ends on Alexander that will curve through the property and serve the driveway of each condo.

New condos coming to edge of Batterson Park in New Britain

City officials gathered Saturday morning to mark the 36th anniversary of the L’Ambiance Plaza collapse. L’Ambiance, a 16-story apartment building, was being built using lift-slab construction, in which the concrete slabs are poured on the ground, then lifted into place using jacks. On April 23, 1987, a slab slipped and the structure collapsed, killing 27 men and one teenager who was working at the site with his father. Lift-slab construction was later banned in Connecticut. Renaissance Plaza, a four-story affordable housing complex now stands on the site, and a statue commemorates the L’Ambiance victims.

https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/bridgeport-lambiance-plaza-collapse-ceremony-17911080.php?src=rdctpdensecp