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

The state Department of Transportation is planning $106 million in infrastructure upgrades at the Waterbury, Beacon Falls, Seymour, Ansonia and Derby-Shelton train stations along Metro-North’s Waterbury line, with construction beginning in 2025. The improvements will be funded with a combination of federal and state money, and about $3 million is expected to go toward renovation of the southern part of the Republican-American building at Waterbury station. Construction is expected to occur between 2025 and 2027, DOT spokesman Josh Morgan said. DOT will hold two public information meetings to discuss the planned improvements. The first will take place Monday at 6 p.m. at Waterbury City Hall, 235 Grand St., in Veterans Memorial Hall on the second floor. The second is set for Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Ansonia Senior Center, 65 Main St.

https://www.rep-am.com/localnews/2024/11/12/dots-106-million-upgrades-to-stations-along-waterbury-line-to-begin-in-2025/

Gov. Ned Lamont, state DOT Commissioner Garrett Eucalitto, Shelton Mayor Mark Lauretti, Derby Mayor Joseph L. DiMartino, former Valley United Way chair and Derby Historical Society head Jack Walsh and a host of state legislators braved a stiff wind Tuesday morning to celebrate the reopening of the bridge connecting downtown Derby and Shelton. Work on the project began three years ago. The renovation work began in 2021. The final cost to rehabilitate the bridge stands at $12.4 million — 80 percent of which was funded by the federal government. State money covered the remaining 20 percent. The original estimated project cost was $10.3 million. The contract was awarded to Mohawk Northeast, Inc. Construction. The project design was performed by AECOM under contract with the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments.

https://www.ctpost.com/news/article/ct-city-officials-celebrate-reopening-19908102.php

Ted Lazarus, a principal of the Litchfield-based Park Lane Group, said Friday remediation at 90 Garfield Ave., former home to the Edward Bloom Silk Co business, is about 90% complete and he expects construction of 87 apartments ― 20% of which will be set aside as affordable housing ― to be finished by the first quarter of 2026. The Park Lane Group, operating as Garfield Mills LLC, bought the 97,000-square-foot mill building, which has sat unused for decades, for $239,000 in 2019. The company, with the aid of a $1 million state brownfield remediation grant, began cleaning the property about eight months ago. Lazarus said the former factory was rife with contaminants, including lead-painted walls and chemical-laden caulk in window sealants. The mill, also known locally as the Faria Mill, is located in the city’s Tax Increment Financing Garfield Mills District, an incentive zone created by the council in 2022 that allows a portion of any increase in tax revenues from rising property values to be set aside for infrastructure improvements in that area.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20241110/garfield-mills-owner-expects-to-begin-apartment-construction-in-coming-weeks/

The Southington Public Library is almost ready for the community to enjoy an improved experience as it moves into a new state-of-the-art building in the next few weeks. The move from the current library location at 255 Main St. to the nearly 30,000-square-foot new building next door will begin on Nov. 18, with the reopening scheduled for Dec. 2. The Library Building Committee had planned an original opening date of Nov. 28 or even a little sooner but decided to hold off until after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, according to Town Council Vice Chair Jim Morelli. “I think the architect (DRA) and the building manager (Whiting-Turner) did a phenomenal job,” Morelli said. “They worked really well together for the town, and Turner managed the budget like it was their own money. They were able to really get a lot more things into the building than we thought we would originally, and it’s still all on budget.”

https://www.ctinsider.com/recordjournal/article/southington-library-new-building-move-reopen-19897591.php

The completion date of a project to rebuild a bridge on Cedar Heights Road has been pushed back, again. The goal was to get the bridge, rated in “Serious” condition by the Connecticut Department of Transportation, rebuilt by the end of November after a string of delays. However, City Engineer Lou Casolo said the hope now is to open the bridge to traffic by April 2025 after it was discovered the new bridge was built too low. Tony Vitti, president of A. Vitti Excavators, which is building the bridge, said his company will pay to fix the height discrepancy. Completing the project any later could delay replacement of a bridge on Wire Mill Road, which is completely supported by federal funds. The Wire Mill Road project must be completed by the end of 2025 or those federal funds could be reduced or revoked, Casolo said. Bids were put out for contractors to take on the Wire Mill Road project with a commitment from the city to get work started on it April 1. Casolo said A. Vitti Excavators will work through the winter to make sure the replacement for the more-than-90-year-old bridge on Cedar Heights Road can be completed.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/stamford-ct-cedar-heights-road-bridge-delay-19900424.php

The Board of Mayor and Burgesses last Wednesday approved a work order for Parcel B, Phase 1 construction services and Phase 2 design services in the amount of $42,920. Pennrose, a real estate development company from Philadelphia, and Cloud Co. of Hartford are set to develop 7.75 acres at the corner of Maple Street and Old Firehouse Road, known as Parcel B. The development is broken into three phases that will include three four-story buildings with 60 units in each structure, consisting of 29 one-bedroom and 31 two-bedroom units. Phase 1 would be closest to Maple Street, phase two closest to the Naugatuck Event Center, which is also being repurposed into another apartment complex, and phase three in the middle as Department of Transportation would need staging area for the new proposed train station that is expected to move from near The Station Restaurant to the middle of Parcel B. The borough board also approved to enter into an agreement with Down-To-Earth Consulting for an amount not to exceed $155,200 for environmental services for remediation of Parcel B. The town previously received a $1.3 million Department of Economic and Community Development grant for the downtown revitalization project which will cover the costs of remediation, Stewart said.

https://www.rep-am.com/localnews/2024/11/10/naugatuck-moves-forward-with-downtown-revitalization/#google_vignette