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

Electric Boat hired 3,700 shipbuilders last year. It wants to hire more than 5,000 this year and just as many every year for decades into the future. The country is spending more than $13 billion a year on the two new, lethal and virtually undetectable classes of nuclear-powered submarines Electric Boat is building for the Navy, Virginia class attack submarines and the Columbia class ballistic missile submarines. As construction gears up, there is concern over whether Electric Boat – and the thousands of other manufacturers in the supply chain known as the submarine industrial base – can hire and begin production quickly enough to meet the aggressive construction and delivery schedule on which the Navy says U.S. security depends. Graney said the shipyard will spend more than $1 billion over the next five years to support the vendors, machine shops, laboratories and others that make up the submarine industrial base supply network in Connecticut. The Navy is spending close to $1 billion more on industrial base here and elsewhere.

CT’s Electric Boat looking to hire 5,000 more employees amidst “once in generation expansion”

Home-improvement giant Lowe’s and online home-goods retailer Wayfair will occupy two massive logistics buildings under construction in East Hartford, various sources have confirmed to the Hartford Business Journal. Massachusetts-based National Development bought 300 acres at the former Rentschler Field airport site from Raytheon Technologies in a $78.47-million deal sealed in January. Wayfair confirmed it’s planning to occupy a 1.2-million-square-foot facility in East Hartford in late 2024. Lowe’s issued a statement confirming it will occupy a 1.3-million-square-foot bulk distribution center by fall 2024. A formal announcement is expected during a March 6 groundbreaking ceremony at Rentschler Field.

https://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/massive-rentschler-field-logistics-center-development-inks-two-major-tenants

Plans for the 454-unit Niantic Village senior housing complex come at a time when town utilities engineer Ben North said there’s little, if any, capacity remaining in the system designed to send 1.5 million gallons per day of sewage to New London’s Piacenti Water Treatment Facility. Officials said the choice is either halt all large development or figure out how to add capacity to the system. Pelletier-Niantic LLC earlier this year filed a request to secure enough access to the sewer system to accommodate 160 condominiums, 144 apartments, and a 150-bed assisted living section, as well as urgent care and radiology facilities open to the public. New London attorney Bill Sweeney represented the New York-based senior housing developer at the hearing. He framed the capacity issue as one much larger than the development itself. He estimated construction would start two years from now, with peak demand realized in three or four years.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20230303/will-sewer-capacity-limit-shut-down-development-in-east-lyme/