The $57.5 million project got underway after a series of adjustments to reduce the cost and meet the approved budget. These changes included eliminating improvements to security vestibules and fire protection systems and redesigning the HVAC system. The original project included improving HVAC systems at Lyme Consolidated School, Center School, Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School and Mile Creek Elementary School. It also included fire protection system upgrades, additional parking spots and the expansion of the Mile Creek building. After receiving the first bids for the HAVC for the three schools in August, the project cost had risen $7.7 million above the $57.5 million budget approved by referendum in 2022. Before the referendum, the district received a $9 million grant for the Mile Creek School expansion from the state Department of Administrative Services. In 2023, the three other schools received $12 million in grants for HVAC system upgrades, a state initiative spurred in response to COVID-19. Nevaiser said the district’s need to replace aging air conditioning equipment existed before the pandemic.

Construction Work Begins at Lyme-Old Lyme Schools as New Bids, Cuts Resolve Cost Overruns

Still reeling after learning a $54 million proposed senior center and health department campus would be delayed by more than six years, city officials have turned their sights to rehabilitating their existing buildings. Work on three bridges, and Harbor Brook dredging will significantly delay campus construction, Scarpati recapped for members of the Senior Center/ Health Department Building Committee on Wednesday. However, the dilapidated building on the proposed site at 116 Cook Ave. will likely come down this year. The lease with the state is up in 2032, but Daniels is in talks with state officials about allowing the city to renovate both floors simultaneously. Daniels asked the Finance Committee to allow him to apply for a $250,000 Community Investment Fund grant to do a needs assessment on the Health Department building. That leaves the senior center at 22 W. Main St, an 84-year-old building with water leaking throughout the outer walls into the interior. The estimated cost to repair the walls is about $360,000 however a laser roof scan conducted last week revealed about 40 percent of the insulation under the roof is saturated, Daniels said.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/recordjournal/article/meriden-senior-center-health-department-delay-19916401.php

A consultant hired by the town estimated Thursday at a Planning & Zoning Commission meeting that the 40-acre Gales Ferry Intermodal site being considered for a quarry application would eventually contribute more than $1 million a year to the town’s tax base. Donald Poland of Goman + York in East Hartford cited the impact of the proposed construction of three buildings totaling 26,000 square feet on the former Dow Chemical site off Route 12 within the next 13 years. “When the development is stabilized in year 12, the site is projected to be net positive by approximately $1,064,192,” according to Poland’s slide shown Thursday. He added that the quarry project would lead to an estimated 77 full-time-equivalent jobs on a temporary basis and 130 permanent full-time jobs in the region. The effect would create an extra $7.6 million in revenue in the region, he said.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20241114/analyst-controversial-ledyard-quarry-project-will-eventually-create-1m-in-tax-revenue/

The Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday to approve revised plans for the four new elementary schools in the city’s $385 million school construction project. If state school construction officials approve the final plans for the first two schools, the John B. Stanton and Greeneville elementary schools, the city can put those two school projects out to bid in early January and start construction in March, project officials told the school board Tuesday. Construction on the other two new schools, the John Moriarty and Uncas schools, could start in 2026. Preliminary cost estimates have the new Greeneville Scbool at $79.4 million, $539,359 more than the funding amount provided to the state Department of Administrative Services in the city’s earlier funding authorization, School Building Committee Chairman Mark Bettencourt said Thursday. The new Stanton School is estimated at $67.5 million, nearly $1.4 million lower than the previous estimate.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20241114/norwich-approves-plans-for-four-new-elementary-schools/

Gov. Ned Lamont said Tuesday he is in no rush to decide if he will seek a third term in office, stating that he will wait until the end of the 2025 legislative session to decide. “I think it’s too early,” Lamont said during an interview with Hartford Business Journal. Lamont, who will turn 71 in January, is leaving his options open as well, stating that he’s been in the governor’s office for a while now “and I kind of like the job.” “I think people feel like the state’s in a better place today than we were eight years ago,” he said, noting that he’s happy to answer the question that Vice President Kamala Harris “found so nettlesome.”“I’m not going to get into it until the end of the next session,” he said. The state General Assembly will convene its 2025 legislative session on Jan. 8 and it will adjourn on June 4.

Lamont to decide on reelection bid after legislative session ends

City officials on Tuesday marked the start of construction on The Monarch, an affordable multifamily development in New Haven’s West River neighborhood. Being developed by Honeycomb Real Estate Partners, the 64-unit building will be located at the site of the former New England Linen company, at 149 and 169 Derby Ave. The $27 million project is being funded in part by a 4% federal low-income tax credit through the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority, a $500,000 brownfields grant from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, and $500,000 from American Rescue Plan Act money. The old building was razed, and the 1.77-acre site was remediated and will soon be home to a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments. This project is one of the latest multifamily housing developments on vacant or abandoned sites throughout the city. Since 2020, more than 2,000 new housing units have been built in the Elm City and an additional 3,500 new units are currently in the pipeline, of which an estimated 40% are affordable.

Construction starting on $27M affordable housing project in New Haven

Following the Biden administration, which put billions of dollars into Amtrak, high-speed rail, public transportation and the transition to electric vehicles and buses, what might change under the incoming administration? On transportation policy that affects cities and states nationwide, Trump has a mixed record. In his first term, he proposed a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan that never came to fruition. He repeatedly tried and failed to cut funding for Amtrak’s long-distance trains and attempted to take back nearly $3.5 billion in already-awarded federal grants for the California high-speed rail project to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco. Instead, the first Trump administration largely favored highway expansion projects. Federal grant programs under the Trump administration will likely focus on roads and rural areas, marking a big shift from the Biden administration’s prioritization of transit, cyclists and pedestrians, Freemark said.

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/trump-impact-transportation-policy-transit-ev/732665/

The town has received applications for two projects that would construct a total of 257 apartments on Route 32. When the Planning and Zoning Commission meets on Dec. 10, it is expected to set a public hearing date for the two projects. The first project calls for a four-story mixed-income apartment building on Route 32 across from Fort Shantok Road. West Hartford-based developer Honeycomb Real Estate Partners, LLC, has submitted an application for the project, along with site plans a traffic study and drainage report. The second project calls for five four-story apartment buildings on 12.9 acres of vacant land on Norwich-New London Turnpike across the street from the Tantaquidgeon Museum. It would contain 200 units. East Hartford-based Four Seasons Construction has submitted plans for the project known as Shantok Village, along with reports on traffic impact and drainage and a letter from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection stating there are no endangered species on the site.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20241112/two-large-apartment-projects-planned-for-route-32-in-montville/

A 46-acre property at 132 Spencer Hill Road could become home to a solar farm. The undeveloped land was purchased by Vineyard Sky Farms Corp. in February for $860,000. The council in February approved a proposal for the development and construction of a 3.74-megawatt, ground-mounted solar array from Greenskies Energy. The project calls for the installation of about 8,200 individual panels, which should generate 5.9 million kilowatt hours per year, enough to power 350 to 450 typical homes. No work, however, has begun on the Greenskies project, Green said. The plan is for Greenskies to lease 16 acres from the 190 acres owned by Frank Ahern and Karen Merete. The property consists of forest, wetlands and a pasture/hayfield. Meanwhile, Vineyard Sky is allowed to cut the trees down because it owns the property and is only opening up more space for grazing, an agricultural use of the property, Green said.

https://www.rep-am.com/localnews/2024/11/09/this-46-acre-property-in-ct-could-become-a-solar-farm/#google_vignette

The dust — sold under the trademark brand Pozzotive — is a cement alternative developed by Urban Mining Industries and manufactured at the company’s first-of-its-kind facility in Connecticut, where recycled glass is cleaned, crushed and milled before being distributed to nearby plants to be mixed into concrete. Gov. Ned Lamont toured the Beacon Falls plant on Tuesday, following the announcement of a $37 million matching grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for Urban Mining to build two new, larger facilities in Florida and Maryland, allowing the company to expand its reach down the East Coast. Urban Mining leases its current plant from partner O&G Industries, a Torrington-based construction firm that also utilizes Pozzotive at all eight of its concrete plants in Connecticut.

https://www.ctinsider.com/connecticut/article/ct-recycling-urban-mining-beacon-falls-lamont-19906287.php