It took a few decades for development to start at the Steelpointe site, and now the latest phase for the East Side property between Interstate 95 and the harbor — a 1,500-unit luxury apartment complex — is again delayed. But whereas the developers previously blamed the lack of a groundbreaking on the global coronavirus pandemic that reached Connecticut in early 2020, the current problem is related to tainted soil from the land’s industrial past. A 2005 state-funded analysis concluded the area had a range of pollutants left behind, including petroleum, heating fuel, corroded underground tanks, hydrocarbons, copper, lead, mercury, arsenic, chromium and PCBs. It has added a level of federal oversight and requirements that were not initially anticipated. That final review and authorization could take two to three months. 

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Contaminated-Steelpointe-soil-slows-plan-for-17683747.php

Residents can expect development at several Washington Avenue locations in 2023, according to Freda. The sites Freda is eyeing include properties on the north and south side of the driveway entrance to Amazon’s campus and a four-acre lot across from the North Haven fairgrounds. “On the northside (of the Amazon driveway), we will be looking for a retail plaza there, with stores and perhaps a restaurant,” he said. “On the south side, you know, there’s a variety of different opportunities that I can’t really share.” Several construction projects are already underway in the area. Connex Credit Union, which currently has a location at 412 Washington Avenue, is building a new headquarters on an adjacent lot. In addition to the housing developments, a number of new businesses opened on Washington Avenue in 2022.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/North-Haven-eyes-Washington-Ave-for-development-17685573.php

A small slice of a trail running from the Canadian border to Key West is now under construction, connecting Bloomfield to Simsbury. The East Coast Greenway is a 3,000-mile trail from Maine to Florida for active transportation like biking, walking, running and inline skating. Connecticut is home to 200 miles of the trail, 104 of which are protected and separate from the road. The route is considered 53 percent completed in the state. The trail remains a work in progress, with the latest update bridging a 1-mile gap from Bloomfield to the Tariffville neighborhood in Simsbury, where bicyclists previously needed to scale a steep hill. The new connection will run along Route 189. 

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/East-Coast-Greenway-Bloomfield-Simsbury-17685492.php

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg will visit New London on Wednesday to highlight the recently announced $158 million federal grant the Gold Star Memorial Bridge is getting for repairs to the northbound span. It’s one of a few visits from the Biden Administration throughout the country Wednesday, to highlight the impacts of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that Biden signed in November 2021, also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. On Thursday, Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, announced that the Federal Highway Administration has awarded Connecticut $158,150,000 for repairs to the Gold Star Memorial Bridge. This is through the agency’s competitive Bridge Investment Program, which the IIJA established. The northbound span of the bridge, the longest in Connecticut, began the first phase of a $407.7 million rehabilitation in 2020.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20230101/transportation-secretary-pete-buttigieg-to-visit-new-london-this-week/

The town will hold a special town meeting next Tuesday regarding a $4.18 million appropriation for improvements and enhancements to Bethel High School’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning system. The system — which was not updated when the school was renovated in 2007 to 2009 — has posed problems for several years. During Bethel’s Jan. 3 special town meeting, voters will set a date for a referendum on the $4.18 million appropriation. With roughly $1.5 million already allocated to the project — $700,000 from the school district’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund grant money and $855,000 from the town’s American Rescue Plan Act funds — the school district is seeking more funding through the state HVAC Indoor Air Quality Grants for Public Schools program. 

https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Bethel-High-School-HVAC-system-upgrades-17679391.php

Two prospective developers — both described by city officials as well-qualified — made presentations this week at a community Zoom meeting hosted by the city and Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller, D-14. The two presentations were similar in some ways but offered a number of stylistic differences. The Glendower plan, presented by Glendower and Elm City Communities President Karen DuBois-Walton and Executive Vice President Shenae Draughn, included 32 new housing units, several third floor artists live/work spaces, several second floor community spaces such as conference and meeting rooms, a possible fitness studio or recording studio and ground floor retail and small business space. The Pennrose plan, presented by Boston office developer Karmen Cheung, would preserve the original school school building as affordable housing and live/work artists space and create an LGBTQ-friendly, 100 percent affordable rental development.

https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/In-New-Haven-two-developers-present-plans-for-17446916.php

For years, the ramp heading into Stamford Town Center off Atlantic Street has been a sort of no-man’s land in the heart of the city’s downtown. Kooris is the president of the Stamford Downtown Special Services District, which was just awarded $5.6 million from the Department of Economic and Community Development through the State Bond Commission specifically to make the area more walkable and friendlier for non-motorists. Now that funding has been secured, Kooris said the next step will be figuring out what is feasible at the site and hiring a design and engineering firm. Kooris said he hopes to have more of a plan for the Atlantic Street ramp set up in the spring, with the hope of implementing some of the changes in 2024. “The ultimate goal is to improve the physical connection between the mall and the core of downtown,” he said. “This is all about taking a fresh look at that whole area.”

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/The-end-of-the-Atlantic-Street-ramp-Stamford-17669525.php

Towns and cities across Connecticut are set to see a major windfall from the $1.7 trillion bill to fund the federal government, thanks to the practice formerly known as earmarking where lawmakers secure large pots of money to benefit their state and districts. More than 170 projects were approved for Connecticut and tucked into the federal funding bill that passed Congress on Friday. The total amount for the state is upwards of $236 million — a number that greatly exceeds the previous year. U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, played an integral role in crafting and negotiating the overall bill as chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee. And with Republicans set to take over the House next year, this was DeLauro’s last budget at the helm of the committee. Congressional appropriators approved more than 90 Senate-only requests made jointly by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Murphy, totaling about $104 million. Some were requested by both House members and the two senators.

https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-connecticut-windfall-federal-money-20221224-jpderqbinvg7hoo2purgbzunpe-story.html

The U.S. Navy has given another $5.1 billion boost to its high-priority Columbia class submarine program and its designer and lead contractor on the new class of ballistic missile subs, the Electric Boat division of General Dynamics in Groton. EB, with shipyards in Groton and Quonset Point, R.I., has started building the first two boats in what is to be a fleet of 12 Columbia class ships that will replace the Navy’s aging, Ohio class missile submarines. The $5.1 billion announced by the Pentagon this week enables EB to acquire parts, material and other long lead-time items for the next five boats in the class. One of EB’s challenges is finding and training qualified shipbuilders. It now employs about 19,000 in Connecticut and Rhode Island where, in addition to starting to build the Columbia fleet, it is continuing to build the Navy’s Virginia class of nuclear powered attack submarines. The company has said it won’t hit peak workforce until the late 2020s and, even then, expects to continue to hire about 2,000 a year to maintain it.

https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-electric-boat-gets-5-billion-for-columbia-sub-program-20221223-ymp3fnztzbc7jokofnqmd5fqu4-story.html

Over the past two years, New London has been aggressively inventorying its pipes, the first step in the replacement process. Lanzafame has pored over historical records, hired engineers to do predictive modeling, and arranged for exploratory “test pits” to be drilled throughout the city to determine how many of its public water lines are made of lead. Connecticut is slated to receive about $30 million in each of the next five years through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act to find and replace lead pipes with those made of copper, said Lori Mathieu, public health chief of the Drinking Water Section of the state Department of Public Health. In Connecticut, 3,000 children under 6 years old—nearly 5% of children in that age group—were reported as lead poisoned in 2020, the latest year for which the state DPH provides numbers. More than a third of those children lived in Connecticut’s poorest cities: New Haven had 376 poisoned children, Bridgeport had 298, Waterbury, 252, and Hartford, 171.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20221224/no-longer-a-pipe-dream-state-in-line-for-150m-to-replace-lead-service-lines/