Spending on infrastructure for power, water, wastewater and telecom will continue to grow through the balance of 2024, driven by the public investment in water and wastewater as well as the energy transition. Nationwide, the forecast for electricity demand increased from 2.6 percent to 4.7 percent growth over the next five years, as reflected in 2023 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filings. FMI forecasts spending of $30 billion in 2024 on water supply, up 8 percent over 2023. Federal investments are driving spending. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allocates $50 billion towards safe drinking water, including $15 billion in grants and loans to identify and replace lead service lines and an additional $11.7 billion to finance any drinking water infrastructure priority, including lead service line identification and replacement.

https://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/mid-year-utility-infrastructure-outlook/65580

Members of the State Contracting Standards Board (SCSB) discussed possible enforcement actions against the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) after the department has ignored multiple requests for information related to a statutorily required audit, including removing DEEP’s ability to enter contracts. Since October of 2023, the SCSB staff and chief procurement officer have sent multiple requests to DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes and Chief of Staff Andrew Hoskins, most of which have gone unanswered well past the SCSB’s audit deadline of June 30, 2024. The SCSB had requested materials related to five contracts between DEEP and private vendors for repair to the Pachaug Dam, consulting, and energy efficiency services. Most of the contracts were not competitively bid, according to contracting report from the Office of Policy and Management. The SCSB often finds itself at odds with governors and executive branch agencies given their enforcement capabilities, and the board was only recently granted funding for its full contingent of staff by the General Assembly. The Lamont administration in the past has argued the SCSB is duplicative, pointing to the Auditors of Public Accounts, which regularly audits and issues reports on state agencies, but without the ability to enforce any of their findings.

https://insideinvestigator.org/state-contracting-board-mulls-removing-deeps-contracting-authority/

Officials will shift some $2.5 million in expiring American Rescue Plan Act funds to projects like the new library and park expansions to avoid having to refund the federal government. Town Manager Steve Stephanou said at a meeting Tuesday night that while Manchester must encumber all of the $25 million from ARPA by the end of the year, the town has until Dec. 31, 2026 to spend it. Allocated but unused ARPA funds listed in the memo include $850,000 for school repurposing plans, just under $300,000 for a business investment grant program, and $200,000 each for office renovations and land acquisition related to recreational trails. Town staff proposed a plan to re-purpose the $2.5 million by allocating $1.06 million to construction of the town’s new Main Street library, $850,000 to the expansion of Charter Oak Park, $500,000 for work at the Union Pond Dam, and just under $80,000 as contingency, with the remaining $39,000 going towards assistance programs and Senior Center improvements.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/journalinquirer/article/ct-manchester-arpa-library-allocation-19656387.php

The largest of them, the New Haven police department, received about $2,500 after reporting a local business that was found to be improperly classifying employees as independent contractors, a tactic often used by employers that want to cut costs illegally. The other $2,500 went to the Labor Department. Bruckhart noted that allegations of unpaid wages are not under their purview, so they always refer those complaints to the state Labor Department. The labor violations referred by police departments ranged from not providing pay stubs to not paying minimum wage or overtime, but the violations cited most often involve workers’ compensation law, as was the case in New Haven. Current state law requires companies to have workers’ compensation insurance for their employees so that benefits can be provided to employees who are hurt or get sick on the job, but violations of this law, by misclassifying employees as independent contractors, have been found over 4,000 times by the Wage and Workplace Standards Division in the state Labor Department.

Cities can get money from reporting labor violations, but few have

The majority of the funding, $69.1 million, is allocated to infrastructure projects, including $14.8 million to improve the Route 7 and Merritt Parkway interchange and $13.5 million for the Strawberry Hill Bridge construction. Several Norwalk schools, including Marvin Elementary, are finally getting HVAC systems, which Duff said will provide relief for students, staff and parents who often had to pick up their children early when temperatures were too high. In all, $21 million is going toward installing HVAC systems in Brien McMahon High School, Rowayton Elementary School, Naramake Elementary School, Marvin Elementary School, Brookside Elementary School, and Silvermine Elementary School. Additionally, $1.9 million in state funds is being directed to 15 local nonprofits, including the Waterford Upstart Program, which aims to provide early education to children in Norwalk. With $375,000 of state funding, Norwalk’s Early Childhood Coordinator Mary Oster said young students will receive personal devices equipped with educational programs.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/sen-bob-duff-celebrates-107m-state-funding-19629274.php

Gales Ferry Intermodal’s third submission of its quarry proposal, which addresses some of the concerns residents expressed in a series of public hearings last winter that brought out as many as 200 people each time will be heard Sept 12 at 6 p.m. at Ledyard Middle School. The new proposal offers some financial incentives to the town, 25 cents per cubic yard of material extracted from the site as “payment in lieu of taxes.” The plan didn’t estimate how much money the town would likely accrue from the operation, or over what time period. Opponents of the resubmitted project, including members of the community group Citizens Alliance for Land Use, have argued that any monetary offer from Gales Ferry Intermodal is irrelevant when it comes to considering the quarry’s compliance with regulations. Other issues they say are left unaddressed include the loss of property value and the impact of stormwater runoff. Backers say the quarry is necessary to supply the needs of the offshore wind industry, among others operations that require gravel.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240812/controversial-ledyard-quarry-plan-getting-another-look/

For nearly four decades, Connecticut has designated a portion of its annual budget specifically to finance upgrades to its aging transportation infrastructure. And while fuel taxes were the principal source of revenue for the STF throughout most of its history, sales tax receipts recently have supplanted them — albeit just barely. The Special Transportation Fund, which is projected to spend $2.3 billion this fiscal year, represents nearly 9% of the state’s $26 billion budget. Initially, the fund was used to pay debt service — principal and interest — on the bonds Connecticut sells on Wall Street to finance repairs, improvements and upgrades to highways, bridges and rail lines. Currently, nearly $1 billion — over 40% — of the STF is used for that purpose. The fund is now used to finance the operations of Connecticut’s Department of Transportation and Department of Motor Vehicles as well. Critics fear the STF surpluses will keep growing and have renewed their call for gasoline and other tax cuts. But the Lamont administration insists big unused resources won’t be a problem again because a long-anticipated surge in the rebuilding of Connecticut’s aging infrastructure will take off this fiscal year.

What is CT’s Special Transportation Fund?

“The potential Fed rate cut in September is becoming increasingly more likely, alongside slower inflation and weaker labor market conditions,” said Sarah Martin, associate director of forecasting at Dodge Construction Network, in the release. “This is likely driving owners and developers to remain optimistic about 2025 market conditions and pushing more projects into the planning queue.” The continued growth in construction planning — which leads actual construction spending by 12 months — has come as renewed fears sprouted this month that the U.S. economy may be sinking into recession. In contrast to anxiety over last week’s soft jobs report, the planning report provides evidence that owners and developers are simply waiting for lower rates to deploy capital. Data center projects, for example, continue to have an outsized influence on nonresidential planning activity, but momentum is building across many other major sectors as well, said Martin in the release.

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/construction-planning-recession-fears-july-dodge-momentum-index/723772/

Construction is underway on a $2.5 million project to install hundreds of feet of new sidewalks, three new bus shelters and other safety improvements in New Milford along Route 7 to keep pedestrians off the road. On the roadway also known as Danbury Road, the Hartford-based contractor BETA Group Inc. is installing 2,300 feet of new sidewalks from Candlewood Lake Road South to Larson Road, between New Milford High School and the Elephants Trunk Flea Market, according to Joe Cooper, communications manager for the state Department of Transportation. New crosswalks will also be installed at Danbury Road and Sullivan Road, and a new crosswalk and bus shelter will be installed at Pickett District Road and Danbury Road, near the John Pettibone Community Center, Cooper said. Construction on the sidewalk project began July 15 and is anticipated to be completed July 31, 2025, according to Cooper. He said the $2.5 million project is 80 percent funded by the Federal Highway Administration’s Transportation Alternatives Program while the remaining 20 percent is funded by the town of New Milford. The DOT did not specify when each component of the project will be completed.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/newmilford/article/new-milford-sidewalk-project-construction-underway-19628268.php

After the budget for the project ballooned by 71 percent in recent months due to booming escalation costs, officials worked to find roughly $55 million in savings to bring the total budget down to $461 million. That’s still a 53 percent increase over the original budget set in 2022 of $301 million. When looking at the two images together, the differences are immediately apparent. The most recent drawing shows how one part of the L-shaped structure has been dramatically reduced. Overall, the structure was trimmed by 35,000 gross square feet. A big driver of the increased cost is escalation, which has “continued to increase in an unprecedented fashion since the pandemic,” read an update posted to a website created by the city and dedicated to Stamford Public Schools construction projects. New construction costs have rapidly increased in recent years. The projection for 2026, when construction of the new school is expected to begin, is between $700 and $950 per square foot. The project is expected to be completed by 2029.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/stamford-ct-new-westhill-high-school-rendering-19626115.php