A Common Council presentation later this month will outline two bond questions proposed for the November ballot totaling $54.6 million. The circa 1924 Macdonough Elementary School on Spring Street is in “significant” need of upgrades, Mayor Ben Florsheim said at Monday’s Council meeting. Officials are considering a $45 million renovation and expansion at the facility on the existing property. Over the course of construction, estimated to take between 18 months to two years, Nocera said, the vacant former Keigwin Middle School, next to the high school, will serve primary grade students. Across town, the tiny, one-room emergency dispatch center at the Cross Street fire station will be entirely rebuilt and relocated to the Mile Lane emergency operations facility for a cost of $9.6 million, said Nocera, a member of the Public Safety Telecommunications Commission.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/middletown-referendum-school-emergency-call-center-19615948.php

The Planning & Zoning Commission approved major renovations at Old Greenwich School at its meeting Tuesday, voting unanimously to approve plans to construct an 8,000 square-foot addition with four new classrooms, a new main entrance, improved handicap access and additional recreation space. The construction work is estimated to be in the $43 million range, and work is expected to start next year. Financing and budgeting the project has been a source of debate and deliberations for over two years. The last major renovation at the school was undertaken in 1996. The construction work will remove five trees from the site, but they will be replaced with new plantings. Once completed, the campus will have six new shade trees, seven ornamental trees and approximately 170 shrubs. The site will also have around 7,000 square feet of ground cover planted. Improvements to prevent flooding, including a redesigned plaza to move water away from the building toward a drainage system, are in store.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/greenwich-old-school-renovation-courtyard-19623067.php

A $2.2 million tax credit for Bowers Elementary School is expected to reduce the burden on Manchester taxpayers for “net-zero energy” renovations that were completed last year. Manchester officials said in a statement that the tax credit will help to reduce the debt issuance needed for the project, reducing the burden on taxpayers as a result of school renovation plans laid out more than five years ago. In June 2019, voters approved up to $88 million in bonding for the SMARTR2 school renovation project, which encompassed major reworks of three elementary school buildings with a focus on sustainability. Manchester initially allocated $5 million from the town’s reserve fund for the project and ultimately acquired $81 million in bonds for the project, with roughly two-thirds coming from the state’s Construction Grant Program.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/journalinquirer/article/ct-manchester-bowers-school-tax-credit-19623012.php

An on-ramp for Interstate 95 in Norwalk will be closed through Thursday morning, according to local police. The state Department of Transportation closed the Exit 15 on-ramp to I-95 North on Sunday evening to allow construction crews to work in the area. West Avenue traffic north of the on-ramp will be detoured to the Route 7 on-ramp, the Exit 1 off-ramp and then to Route 7 south to I-95 North. Meanwhile, traffic south of the closure will be detoured onto Cedar Street to Connecticut Avenue and then to I-95 north’s on-ramp at Exit 14, according to Norwalk police. The closure is part of a project to rehabilitate the on-ramp over the drainage structure. Waters Construction Co., Inc., was awarded the project for more than $6.3 million in March and it is scheduled to be completed by Nov. 4.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/norwalk-ct-traffic-i-95-exit-15-closure-detour-19621073.php

It started at $300 million. It went to more than $500 million then was scaled back to perhaps $425 million. Now the cost to rebuild Westhill High School has landed at about $460 million. The main reason for the eye-popping escalation is “industry trends” in school construction, according to information from city and school officials and their contracted engineers and architects. To plan, design and implement the project, the city has hired a phalanx of contractors – SLAM Collaborative, the architect; Colliers, the project leader; and Dimeo-Bismark, the construction manager. Officials now expect Stamford’s share to be $114 million, or 90 percent more than originally thought. One thing that may drive the price is that Westhill is the only city high school with a pool. It will cost $19 million to replace it, and the state will reimburse just 40 percent of that. A pool now is included in the design, but whether it makes it into the final design will be decided later. The design and cost estimates will be updated in early 2025 and again in the fall of that year, officials said.

Stamford Finance Officials to Review $460 Million Cost for Replacing Westhill High School

In his new job as the city’s economic development director, William Wallach will help decide the future of the recently demolished Torrington Company Standard Plant. Demolition of the Standard Plant on North Street, a project that began in October 2023, was completed at the end of July. To help finance the estimated $4 million demolition, the DECD provided a $2 million Brownfield Remediation Grant for IRG Realty Advisors LLC, representing Torrington Standard LLC, owner of 70 North St. The property owner, Torrington Standard LLC and IRD Realty Advisors, ran the demolition project with Manafort Brothers Construction, razing 24 of the 26 buildings. Two buildings remain standing, and one is occupied by a manufacturer, Wallach said. Now, the 9.4-acre property offers nearly 500,000 square feet of space and is a blank page awaiting its next iteration, Wallach said.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/torrington-new-economic-development-chief-demoliti-19582487.php

The City Council on Monday started a process to discontinue a portion of Lawler Lane in a move that could help attract the first development project to the new Occum Industrial Center. The council considered a resolution to discontinue 1,500 feet of Lawler Lane where land for the Occum Industrial Center lies on both sides of the road. The entire stretch of road proposed for closure is abutted by the Occum Industrial Center, owned by the Norwich Community Development Corp. Abutting properties on either end of the closed portion would have nearby outlets ― Canterbury Turnpike to the south and Scotland Road to the north. Development on the industrial park land would not use Lawler Lane at all, Salomone said, but would exclusively use the new industrial park access road that will run from Route 97 near Interstate 395, Exit 18. The industrial park road, funded by $11.4 million in state grants, is planned to end at the Lawler Lane industrial park property.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240805/proposed-road-closure-could-lead-to-first-development-in-new-norwich-industrial-center/

The fourth floor of Danbury High School’s C Wing was an active construction zone late Thursday morning. They are more than a month into a multimillion-dollar project that represents the first effort to overhaul some of the school’s science laboratories in more than 60 years. The project calls for the overhaul of 18 science labs, 12 prep rooms and two offices, as well as four workrooms and storage rooms — nearly 29,000 square feet of space. The work will be completed over two summers. The first stage, in the the chemistry labs on the fourth floor, will be completed later this month. Next summer, the second phase, on the fifth floor, will be tackled. The first phase, a more than $5 million undertaking, is now underway, Iadarola said.

https://www.newstimes.com/news/article/danbury-high-school-science-lab-renovation-19604966.php

Kimberly Glassman, director of the Foundation for Fair Contracting of Connecticut, which monitors public works projects to ensure compliance with state laws, said that worker misclassification — for example, classifying a worker as an independent contractor instead of as a salaried employee who would earn benefits — along with lack of workers’ compensation and not paying fringe benefits are ways that employers try to increase their profits. “They are very stealth at this. They have companies and lawyers and insurance companies that are showing them how to circumvent these laws. Some of these loopholes are legal, some of them aren’t, but they are very astute at it,” said Glassman, who said that they are monitoring 60 to 70 construction projects at a given time. While her organization can’t conduct audits, they do a lot of their investigations by combing through documents they receive via Freedom of Information Act requests. In addition to advocating for more wage investigators, she also said that protecting and expanding standards for prevailing wages, licensing, apprenticeships and the bidding process is a focus of the organization at the legislative level. “By and large, we’re talking about low-wage workers or middle-class workers who are just trying to get by and take care of themselves and their families,” said Glassman.

Wage theft complaint backlog grows, but Dept. of Labor lacks staff

One of the last dominos needed to kick off a $145 million renovation of downtown Hartford’s XL Center is expected to fall Aug. 8, as the state Bond Commission takes up a request to borrow $118 million to fund the project. With this added to $27 million previously approved by the bond commission, the Capital Region Development Authority expects to have enough to complete a large program of repairs and renovations at the roughly 50-year-old, 16,000-seat arena in downtown Hartford. The commission will be asked to sign off on more than $1 billion in bonds on Aug. 8, including funding for transportation projects, environmental cleanups, housing development and various other initiatives. The CRDA, which manages the arena, has negotiated an agreement that would have venue operator Oak View Group pay $20 million toward the renovation. In return, OVG gets a 20-year contract to manage the facility and will keep the first $4 million in annual profits.

Bond Commission to take up $118M funding request for XL Center renovation and more