The town is one step away from gaining the approvals needed to build a new police station after the Planning & Zoning Commission reviewed plans for the proposed $16.4 million project. The discussion came during a virtual public hearing at a P&Z meeting on Feb. 27. Ultimately, the commission voted unanimously to close the public hearing and move the project forward for a final vote at a future meeting. The new police facility would be built on an 11.17-acre site at 238-240 Danbury Road. If the final approval comes as expected, the town of Wilton could break ground on the project as soon as late May or early June, officials said. Construction is expected to take about 20 months. At the meeting, the floor plans, site improvements and architectural drawings were presented by Rebecca Hopkins of Tecton Architects.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/new-wilton-police-station-17823878.php

The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection announced plans to open two procurements for zero-carbon energy this year, including one specifically for offshore wind. The department has authority to procure about another 1,200 MW of offshore wind, but said it hasn’t determined how much, if any, it will procure this year. Speaking to state lawmakers during an Energy and Technology Committee hearing on Tuesday, DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes didn’t commit her department to selecting any bids, saying they want to evaluate how the costs would stack up against forecasts of future energy prices and see if they’re in the “best interests” of electric customers. Dykes also said she has heard anecdotally that developers have “a lot of interest” in using the New London State Pier, where the Connecticut Port Authority said last week that work has completed on the heavy-lift delivery platform that the offshore wind partnership of Eversource and Ørsted will start using this spring for staging in the construction of their South Fork Wind project. The last time DEEP took bids for offshore wind in 2019, it selected Park City Wind to sell power at $79.83 per megawatt-hour to Connecticut electric customers from Avangrid’s 804 MW project proposed to be built off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.

Connecticut Opens Bidding for New Offshore Wind Projects

A Branford-based engineering and construction company contracted to perform work at State Pier in New London has filed a lawsuit claiming it is owed more than $800,000 for extra work it performed during the demolition stage of the massive rehab project. Blakeslee Arpaia Chapman, Inc. filed the suit in November against Kiewitt Infrastructure Co., the project manager of the $255.5 million State Pier project being overseen by the Connecticut Port Authority. Kiewit disputes the claims in legal filings related to the case, which is pending in New London Superior Court. Kiewitt subcontracted Blakeslee in March, 2021 to perform work demolishing clusters of concrete mooring blocks atop piles, called dolphin moorings. Kiewit agreed to pay $1.877 million to Blakeslee for the work but, the suit alleges, refused to pay Blakeslee another $838,422 it requested. The additional money includes $763,497 requested for extra work and $79,925 in retainage, a withheld portion of a final payment. The lawsuit was initially filed in November of 2022 and the two sides have each traded motions in New London Superior Court. Earlier this week, Kiewit filed a motion to move the case from the New London Superior Court to the state’s complex litigation docket.

https://www.theday.com/news/20230307/contractor-sues-over-unpaid-work-at-state-pier/

During a Monday news conference, Tong, the state’s top civil lawyer, said that about $181 million in fraud has been recovered by state and federal authorities among the nine state agencies he is allowed to monitor. There are more than 100 such state departments, offices and quasi-public agencies, though, while attorneys general in neighboring states, have broader authority. “Every public dollar is entitled to strong, robust protection from waste, fraud and abuse,” Tong said. Hawthorne, the state’s top union official, said that wage theft and other kinds of worker exploitation, could be pursued by Tong’s office. “It provides a further level of trust from the public with our state government, so we know that our tax dollars are spent wisely. It will help us continue to distance ourselves from the corrupt days of Gov. Rowland.”

https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/attorney-general-tong-wants-expand-investigative-17824266.php

Technological trends in large firms include building information modeling (BIM), the use of advanced building materials and construction robotics. Safety continues to be at the forefront of the industry no matter the size of the firm, with technological advances in tools such as construction wearables to keep workers safe. Technology has not scaled as quickly in construction as it has in other industries, such as automotive or aerospace, but it still has an impact. Technology has changed the construction process from the earliest phases of planning through to a project’s completion. Gone are the days of thick binders filled with paperwork that are handed over to the client at the end of a project, only to sit on a shelf and collect dust. The more sophisticated firms deliver those closeout packages digitally now.

https://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/technology-levels-playing-field-among-construction-firms/60192

The proposed development of a 40-unit apartment building on Mohawk Drive, not far from the landfill, has nearby residents concerned about increases of levels of methane in the area. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection presently oversees the landfill. “The gaseous ‘burping’ that results from the breakdown of trash has reduced, though still needs to be managed,” said DEEP Director of Communications Will Healey. Dozens of residents appeared at a recent Planning and Zoning Commission public hearing to oppose this apartment application. During the hearing, the developers’ representatives suggested blasting may be necessary during the construction process. The methane collection system is also visually inspected weekly, and routine repairs are made when necessary, he said.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/shelton-apartment-plans-residents-concerned-17813738.php

After nearly five years, construction may begin this spring on The Wellington, a planned 31-unit affordable housing development at 131 Cottage Road. The financing is set to be finalized for the $11 million project and a general contractor, Haynes Construction of Seymour, has been hired. The architects are Schadler Selnau Associates of Farmington. Two nonprofit agencies, Hope Partnership LLC of Essex and the Caleb Group of Boston, the majority owner, are overseeing the project, from garnering financing to construction. Hope Partnership bought the land and buildings as an unfinished multifamily development in 2018. The Caleb Group joined the effort in 2020.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/shoreline/article/construction-begin-madison-affordable-housing-17818353.php

D&V Development of Middletown, located in Wallingford, submitted an application to the Land Use Department detailing a plan to construct housing on city-owned land. The project would involve a land swap with the city. Other issues involved the proposal’s proximity to wetlands, environmental impacts of the construction, an increase in traffic, and student safety. D&V Development’s spokesperson David Carson, managing principal at OCC Group, wrote to the agency Feb. 22 saying it had withdrawn its application to address comments from agency members and the city engineer. “Resubmission will provide the opportunity to present additional testimony with regard to the wetland delineation on the site,” he wrote. If the application were to eventually be accepted by inland wetlands, it would move on to the Planning and Zoning Commission.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/developer-withdraws-application-housing-near-17822633.php

Distribution warehouses for Lowe’s home improvement and Wayfair home furnishings stores, a total of 2.5 million square feet, will be built on the wide expanse of historic Rentschler Field, officials announced Monday at the ceremonial groundbreaking. Trucks and heavy equipment rumbled on the 300-acre site as lawmaker gathered in a tent with managers of the devolpment company, Massachusetts-based National Development. The dual warehouses are expected to create 400 construction jobs and up to 1,000 permanent positions, the developers said. Annual tax revenue for the entire logistics and technology center will be about $4 million, officials said. Construction crews were bringing in extra material to raise the pancake-flat site near the Connecticut River due to the high groundwater table, Marsteiner said. Trucks have unloaded about half of the 500,000 cubic yards of material needed to prepare for building construction, enough to fill nearby Pratt & Whitney Stadium to the brim 1 ¼ times, he said.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/lowes-watfair-warehouses-east-hartford-rentschler-17822775.php

Over the next 10 to 15 years, Yale University will expand its School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS) campus presence through a construction overhaul of lower Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven, Conn. The project will take place on sites already owned and occupied by Yale and will include the construction of a new SEAS quadrangle on the east side of Hillhouse Avenue. To accommodate the new facilities, the university will demolish Mason Laboratory, Helen Hadley Hall, and the southern portion of Dunham Laboratory. In addition to the lower Hillhouse construction, the university will simultaneously begin construction of the new physical sciences and engineering building at the north end of campus. Students and faculty in Yale’s computer science program have long called for upgrades to the “outdated” Arthur K. Watson Hall, which currently houses the department. Several professors have said that the department’s sub-par facilities greatly impact its ability to attract world-class researchers and faculty members.

https://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/yale-to-build-new-school-of-engineering-and-applied-science-quadrangle/60180