State Sen. Cathy Osten, D-Sprague, has said she will continue to advocate for a bill calling for an economic study of the area surrounding the Mohegan-Pequot Bridge despite the public-hearing testimony of two state commissioners who suggested last week that a pending transportation study should come first. The bill’s 10 co-sponsors include Osten and eight other members of the southeastern Connecticut delegation. It would require O’Keefe and Eucalitto to jointly conduct or commission an economic study of areas in Montville and Preston to determine whether the capacity of the Mohegan-Pequot Bridge adequately serves them. The proposed study would assess whether the bridge “permits the convenient, safe and expeditious flow of traffic” to the areas and the extent to which the bridge’s capacity will be affected by developments on the Mashantucket Pequot reservation and elsewhere.

https://theday.com/news/707001/osten-backing-economic-study-of-area-served-by-mohegan-pequot-bridge/#

The developer of a solar project at a former Windham landfill is threatening to scrap the project after discovering that required substation upgrades would cost 13 times more than the project itself. Verogy CEO William Herchel told CT Examiner that the company predicted a $2 million investment in the project. But Eversource, the electric company serving Windham, determined that substation upgrades would cost $26 million. The problem lies in Connecticut rules that require developers to pay the full upgrade cost to enable interconnection. Developers, utilities, regulators and consumer advocates have warned that this model could stall the expansion of distributed solar generation in the state, considered key to achieving a zero-carbon grid by 2040. Verogy’s project in Windham — selected in February 2024 as part of the state’s Non-Residential Energy Solutions, which provides tariffs to compensate solar generators — is a relatively small one, meant to supply the town hall and other municipal facilities. The project boasts a $161.74 per megawatt-hour price tag — 50% more than Eversource’s standard service supply rate for small businesses. The costs would be transferred to all Eversource ratepayers through the public benefits component of the bill.

High Upgrade Costs Threaten Solar Project in Windham

Construction input prices jumped 1.4% in January, marking the largest monthly increase in two years, according to an analysis by Associated Builders and Contractors. However, the price jump also stems from a rush to purchase materials ahead of potential tariffs, said Anirban Basu, ABC chief economist. The cost of inputs to construction now sits 40.5% higher than February 2020, according to the report. Even before Trump’s inauguration, the high probability of tariffs already appeared to have been driving price increases, said Ken Simonson, AGC chief economist. “A strong majority of contractors expect their sales to increase over the next six months,” said Basu. “The combination of increased demand for construction inputs and ongoing supply chain confusion suggest input price escalation could accelerate through the first half of 2025.”

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/tariff-fears-biggest-construction-cost-jump-2-years/740116/

The Planning and Zoning Commission tabled a vote Thursday on a proposed 40-acre quarry off Route 12 in Gales Ferry that residents have said would ruin their health, disturb their neighborhoods and reduce the value of their homes. The commission is next scheduled to meet to discuss and possibly vote on the application Thursday, Feb. 20 at 6 p.m. in the Town Hall Annex. Commission members had expressed skepticism during a series of meetings over the past two months about the quarry application submitted by Gales Ferry Intermodal LLC, a division of Cashman Dredging & Marine Contracting Co. of Quincy, Mass., for a site that once housed a Dow Chemical plant. The company is seeking a special permit that would allow it to blast away large portions of Mount Decatur, where a War of 1812 fort once stood and which GFI promised to protect and help place on the National Register of Historic Places.

https://theday.com/news/705762/decision-on-ledyard-quarry-plan-tabled-to-next-week/

Gov. Ned Lamont’s new budget proposal would keep Connecticut on pace to dramatically accelerate the rebuilding of its aging highways, bridges and rail lines. But that increase also could leave the transportation program needing new revenues in three years, and some legislators already have begun exploring new ways to pay for it — including a potential surcharge on certain delivered goods. The $55.2 billion biennial budget that Lamont proposed Feb. 5 includes a nearly $2.3 billion Special Transportation Fund for the 2025-26 fiscal year and a $2.4 billion plan for 2026-27, boosting spending about 4% in each year. The STF reserve, which holds annual surpluses from the fund, rose over the past three years from $241 million to almost $972 million, according to the state comptroller’s annual reports. That cushion account was slightly larger than 45% of last year’s entire transportation fund.

Lamont budget calls for CT to ramp up transportation projects

The borough is the first town statewide to join the Connecticut Municipal Redevelopment Authority, newly established to help municipalities with transit oriented development. MRDA, a quasi-public state agency created in 2024 by state law, is responsible for helping municipalities with transit-oriented development, mainly focusing on the growth of new housing, as defined under state statutes. The state Department of Transportation has already made plans and allotted funding to relocate the Naugatuck train station right next to The Station Restaurant at 195 Water St. to the middle of Parcel B where Water Street will be extended. Construction is expected to begin in the spring.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/waterbury/article/naugatuck-ct-mdra-transit-train-20163900.php

The Department of Defense has ordered its contracting officers to halt the use of project labor agreements on “large-scale construction projects,” according to a memo obtained by Construction Dive. The notice, dated Feb. 7, says contracting officers shall remove PLA requirements created by former President Joe Biden that apply to projects receiving $35 million or more in federal funds. As part of the memo — signed by John M. Tenaglia, principal director of defense pricing, contracting and acquisition policy for the DOD — contracting officers were ordered to amend solicitations for federal contracts to remove PLA requirements. The memo comes a few weeks after a U.S. Federal Claims judge hamstrung the order by ruling in favor of a group of construction companies that filed protests against the implementation of the mandate on specific projects. Judge Ryan Holte said in his Jan. 21 ruling that the implementation of the mandate on seven contract procedures in 2024 ignored federal agencies’ own research indicating PLAs would be anti-competitive and relied on “arbitrary and capricious” policy.

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/dod-plas-halted-federal-contracts-infrastructure-usace/739903/

Having threatened, implemented and then pulled back on tariffs involving imports from Canada and Mexico earlier this month, President Donald J. Trump has now implemented 25 % tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports. As of Tuesday evening, it was still unclear how much steel Connecticut businesses purchased from international sources in 2024. But according to American Iron and Steel Institute, Canada was the top importer of steel into the United States in 2024 with 6.56 million tons, followed by Brazil with 4.5 million tons and Mexico with 3.52 million tons. Technically speaking, importers pay for the tariffs, Stanaitis said. But he said most economists agree that much of the cost of tariffs is paid by consumers in the form of a higher price for the goods they purchase. Brian Raff, vice president of the Chicago-based trade group American Institute of Steel Construction, said the tariffs are beneficial to the domestic industry as a whole, whether it involves producers, fabricators or even end users. The trade group represents about 1,000 steel fabricators across the country, including about 17 in Connecticut.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/ct-steel-aluminum-tariffs-mixed-reviews-20160337.php

WeHa Development Group LLC is seeking a zoning change for 1800 Asylum Ave. that would allow them to convert the long-vacant property into Heritage Park, a development consisting of six duplex townhomes, 93 rental one- and two-bedroom units, 19 townhomes that will be for sale and a 90-unit assisted living facility combined with a grocery store, a spa facility and more than 42,000 square feet of other retail uses, including a restaurant. The proposal is among nearly a dozen active and in progress housing developments in town. It has been a long road to redevelopment for the former UConn campus, which has been vacant since the university moved the school to downtown Hartford around eight years ago. Residences at Heritage Park at 1700 Asylum Ave. has since been sold off by WeHa Development Group LLC to Garden Homes, who will oversee the construction and management of the site.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/westhartford/article/west-hartford-ct-uconn-campus-housing-retail-20158238.php

Crews have been hard at work demolishing the old Southington Public Library at 255 Main St. now that the new, 30,000-sqaure-foot library opened next door in December. Efforts to build a new, state-of-the-art building have been in the works for several years, including residents’ approval of $16.9 million for the project in 2021. A $5 million state grant was awarded in 2023 to increase the square footage and improve the architectural features of the building. The total cost of the project was $21.9 million. The new library has two floors. The Southington Public Library recently shared a video to its Facebook page that showed Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. in the end stages of demolishing the old building.

https://www.ctinsider.com/recordjournal/article/southington-library-demolished-20158997.php