School Building Committee Chairman Mark Bettencourt said Tuesday the bids the city has received to build two new elementary schools are within the funding amount approved by voters. The bids, which are available on the city’s bidding portal, show that the lowest possible cost for 26 categories of work to complete the Greeneville and Stanton elementary schools, including sitework, demolition, heating, venting and cooling, is $102 million. That estimate, calculated by adding the lowest bids submitted in each of the 26 categories, does not include the cost of Downes Construction, the construction manager for the two schools, and Construction Solutions Group, the project manager for the $385 million project to build four new schools and renovate two buildings. It also does not include the cost of architectural design or woodwork, a 27th category which did not attract any bids. The highest possible cost for the two schools, based on the initial bids, is $133.2 million. It would be unlikely for the city to choose all of the most expensive bids.

https://theday.com/news/721726/bids-for-two-new-norwich-schools-range-from-102-million-to-133-million/

A once-every-four-years report card on the upkeep of America’s infrastructure gave it a “C” grade on Tuesday, up slightly from previous reports, largely due to investments made during former President Joe Biden’s administration. The report from the American Society of Civil Engineers, which examined everything from roads and dams to drinking water and railroads, warns that federal funding must be sustained or increased to avoid further deterioration and escalating costs. It’s especially critical that infrastructure can handle more extreme weather due to climate change, said Olson, noting hurricanes that devastated the East Coast and parts of Appalachia last year. The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act provided $550 billion in new infrastructure investments, but is set to expire in 2026. President Donald Trump’s administration has targeted some of Biden’s green policies. Public parks improved to a C-minus from a D-plus, for example, thanks in part to significant investments over several years. Recently, however, the Trump administration moved to slash National Park Service staffing. Even if current federal infrastructure funding were maintained, there still would be a $3.7 trillion gap over a decade, according to the report.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/business/article/u-s-infrastructure-improved-with-biden-era-20239216.php

A New York City developer paid $5.85 million for a parcel of land in Windsor near Bradley International Airport, with plans to cobble together an industrial building at the site using building “blocks” made elsewhere to reduce the cost and construction time. With construction to take place at 36 Hazelwood Road, the PNK Group industrial building would total 218,000 square feet of space. PNK Group uses factories in Pennsylvania and Georgia to build “large-unit block” structure components, in its words, which it then transports to sites for assembly into warehouses and other industrial buildings. PNK Group completed the 22-acre land purchase on March 6 through a limited liability company called PNK CT1 LLC. The property had been owned previously by UW Realty VII, a limited liability company registered to real estate investors Bradford Wainman and Robert Urso of Glastonbury, who paid $1.15 million for the land in 2022.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/realestate/article/ct-windsor-industrial-site-purchase-5-85m-pnk-20240046.php

Town officials hailed the reopening of the Park Road bridge Tuesday morning, the completion of the seventh and final bridge replacement project here following the catastrophic flooding that hit the area more than seven months ago. Park Road has been closed since the historic Aug. 18 flooding event when torrential rains wreaked havoc on homes, roads, bridges, and culverts. Oxford was among the hardest hit towns in the area. Temple said he is confident the new bridge has been built to effectively survive a similar flood in the future. He said the previous bridge gave way during the flooding, and then later, in December, a Revolutionary War-era stone archway — that was beneath the bridge — also collapsed. Oxford town officials say the total cost for reconstruction of local roads will likely come in around $8 million, of which the town is hoping to receive about 70 percent reimbursement from the federal government’s FEMA program.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/waterbury/article/oxford-ct-august-floods-park-road-bridge-reopens-20239644.php

The proposed sale of the shuttered Harding High School is off, and the 8-acre Central Avenue property may instead become the location of a new structure for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade students. Thomas Gaudett, Mayor Joe Ganim’s chief administrative officer, said, “There aren’t a whole lot of places in Bridgeport to build a new school, and the Harding site happens to be kind of in a centralized location,” referring to its placement where the East End, East Side and Mill Hill neighborhoods meet. “It happens to be in the city’s control already, so it’s a great opportunity.” On Tuesday, the city’s economic development director, Thomas Gill, and the hospital each confirmed the latter would no longer buy the former school for an expansion. The final decision was made over this past winter. Gill said the proposed sale price was $3 million and the city would have torn down the structure. The hospital would have remediated any contaminated soil. He said the Bridgeport City Council wanted the hospital to be on the hook for the demolition as well.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/bridgeport-harding-high-school-sale-canceled-20240366.php

A national organization that aims to help develop safe, livable cities will work with East Rock neighbors and alders to study the intersection of Willow and Nicoll streets, which has been the location of a number of motor vehicle accidents over the years. Strong Towns, a non-profit organization, will conduct a virtual “Crash Analysis Studio” session over Zoom on April 2 at 6 p.m. after being approached by neighbors working with East Rock Alders Caroline Tanbee Smith, D-9, and Anna Festa, D-10, Tanbee Smith said Monday. Among the solutions under consideration are a four-way stop, sidewalk bump-outs or bollards and a speed table, she said. The request for Strong Towns, which is headquartered in Minnesota, to get involved came from two residents, Rishabh Mittal — who works as a transportation planning consultant — and Peter Clark, said Tanbee Smith.

https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/group-study-safety-willow-nicoll-new-haven-s-20237836.php

The commercial development planned for 1 Trefoil Drive has received back-to-back approvals. The Planning and Zoning Commission Wednesday night unanimously approved the site plan for the 35,350-square-foot development, which includes a 26,000-square-foot ‘upscale’ grocer, an urgent care facility and two restaurants, one being a fast food chain. Trumbull 111 LLC, which is contracted to purchase the property, proposed the development and said in an emailed statement that the approval “capped a very positive and collaborative process.” The project’s traffic study was approved by the police commission Tuesday night.

https://www.ctpost.com/news/trumbull/article/trumbull-1-trefoil-project-grocer-urgent-care-20230208.php

Connecticut’s two largest investor-owned utility companies raised alarms Monday over recently-filed legislation that seeks to impose dramatic new regulations on their businesses — including a requirement that they split apart their electric and gas interests. In addition to prohibiting companies like Eversource and United Illuminating from owning both electric and gas utilities in Connecticut, the bill would limit their ability to profit from investments and it would make the companies and their internal documents subject to the state’s Freedom of Information Act. The bill would also add qualification requirements for new board members of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority while attempting to limit conflicts of interest between regulators and the utilities. The bill would also limit the number of PURA commissioners previously employed by entities regulated by the authority and extend the “cooling off” period for former commissioners to take a job with a regulated utility, from one year to five. Board members who previously worked for a utility — which would include interim Commissioner David Arconti, a former UI lobbyist — would be be required to recuse themselves from any cases involving their former employer for a period of five years.

Lawmakers consider banning Eversource, UI from owning both gas and electric utilities

A project labor agreement, or PLA, is a binding contract between a government or private entity that needs a construction project done and a labor union. Before workers are even hired on a project, the two sides negotiate a PLA that sets wages, benefits, work conditions and often provisions for resolving labor disputes to prevent strikes or other work stoppages. Non-union industry groups and conservative organizations have long criticized the practice of governments using, encouraging or mandating PLAs, arguing that forcing projects to use union labor makes them slower and more expensive. But new research from the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the University of Illinois’ Project for Middle Class Renewal found the opposite. The study, commissioned by the state’s Capital Development Board, found that PLAs in Illinois have enhanced bid competition, helped to lower construction costs for taxpayers and increased business for firms owned by people of color, women and veterans. “The biggest finding in this report, and one that hadn’t been shown as much in other research or was unclear, is that Project Labor Agreements promote robust competition,” said Frank Manzo, an economist at ILEPI, a nonprofit research organization with a board of directors that’s closely tied to organized labor. “The PLAs were linked with a 14% increase in the number of bids submitted by contractors seeking to win public building contracts.” The report analyzed hundreds of public building projects — 499 had PLAs and 274 did not — as well as the bids for state projects.

https://www.nprillinois.org/illinois/2025-03-21/new-report-finds-project-labor-agreements-lower-costs-boost-competition-in-illinois

Among its busy schedule for work on state roads this spring and summer, the Connecticut Department of Transportation is planning some Interstate 91 ramp work. The DOT said it is developing plans to realign the Interstate 91 north and south ramps at Exit 24 in Rocky Hill. According to the DOT, the goal of the project is to address the intersection at the I-91/CT 99 ramps. Slip ramps will be removed to create shorter pedestrian crossings and ramps, according to the agency. The design will be completed in April of 2026, with construction expected to start later that fall, “assuming acceptance of the project, availability of funding, receipt of any required right-of-way and environmental permits,” according to the CTDOT. The project will be undertaken with 100 percent state funds, according to the DOT. There are 545 active capital projects planned for this year on state highways, bridges and roads. Two hundred of the projects, like Rocky Hill, are in the planning phase and 171 are under construction.

Amid major I-91 ramp reconfiguration and detours, plans in works for another nearby ramp