Amtrak will soon begin construction of a new, $1.3 billion Connecticut River Bridge between the towns of Old Saybrook and Old Lyme following the award of a design-bid-build contract to O&G/Tutor Perini, a joint venture of two major construction firms. It will be primarily funded by the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA), due to a $826.64 million federal grant awarded by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA); Amtrak and the state of Connecticut will foot the remainder of the project’s cost. It will be primarily funded by the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA), due to a $826.64 million federal grant awarded by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA); Amtrak and the state of Connecticut will foot the remainder of the project’s cost. The O&G/Tutor Perini joint venture will work with Amtrak at the Connecticut River site to construct a new two-track, moveable bridge to replace the existing dual-track structure between Old Saybrook and Old Lyme, located about midway between New York City and Providence, R.I.

https://www.constructionequipmentguide.com/amtrak-awards-13b-contract-to-construct-new-moveable-rail-bridge-in-connecticut/65195

O&G Industries, the largest privately held construction firm in Connecticut, is moving into a new 9,992-square-foot office space at 900 Northrop Road, the firm announced recently. The move comes after the state awarded O&G a major contract to carry out the reconfiguration project of I-91,1-691-and Route 15 Interchange in Meriden. O&G is the main contractor awarded with carrying out the second phase of the state’s $500 million highway redevelopment project, focused on an area which studies have found is one of the state’s most congested roadways. One particularly notorious segment of the interchange, the southbound, one-lane off-ramp connecting I-91 with Route 15, routinely causes traffic to back up by as much as a mile. The work on the second and third phases of the project are expected to last until 2029, with work beginning early next year focusing on restructuring the northbound and southbound interchanges between I-91 and the other highways.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/recordjournal/article/wallingford-highway-redevelopmement-office-move-19543861.php

The efforts to revitalize South Norwalk and improve pedestrian safety continue with the city receiving $14 million from a U.S. Department of Transportation program. Norwalk’s MLK Corridor Equitable Mobility Enhancement Project is receiving $14 million to fund improvements on 2 miles of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and six other roadways surrounding the South Norwalk Train Station. In all, 33 acres will be improved. This is the latest grant for the Norwalk Redevelopment Agency projects in South Norwalk, focusing on improving safety and connectivity. This grant will reconfigure a network of roads in South Norwalk to include bicycles and pedestrians, improved signage updated with real-time transit data, and advanced drainage and landscaping. Norwalk already has a $6 million grant to improve the Transit-Oriented District in South Norwalk around a new 200-unit apartment complex that is being developed. The state allocated a $1.3 million grant to remediate the brownfield site where the apartments are slated to be built by Spinnaker.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/south-norwalk-bike-pedestrian-grant-mlk-train-19541033.php

Ørsted and Eversource, developers of Connecticut’s first offshore wind farm, Revolution Wind, and the Connecticut State Building Trades Training Institute (CSBTTI), today announced the launch of a collaborative, pre-apprenticeship training program for 15 Eastern Connecticut residents. The upcoming cohort will include 15 trainees from the New London area, where workers at the State Pier are supporting construction of the South Fork Wind, Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind projects. Students will undergo pre-apprenticeship training for union construction careers, which are essential to the nation’s clean energy transition. “CSBTTI recruited and will now help prepare local workers for high-quality unionized construction apprenticeships while helping diversify the state’s building trades,” said Keith Brothers, President of New London/Norwich Building and Construction Trades Council. “We applaud Ørsted and Eversource’s commitment to ensuring Connecticut workers benefit from family-sustaining wages and benefits, while also connecting the state’s union tradespeople to Connecticut’s clean energy future and the economic opportunity presented by offshore wind. We hope to see a diverse pool of applicants, and we encourage women and People of Color to apply.”

https://us.orsted.com/news-archive/2024/07/orsted-and-eversource-partner-with-connecticut-state-building-trades-training-institute

US inter-city passenger operator Amtrak has awarded a joint venture of O&G and Tutor Perini a $US 1.3bn contract to build the new Connecticut River Bridge on the New York – Providence section of the Northeast Corridor (NEC). Construction is due to begin later this year. Design work is 100% complete and the project has been approved by both the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Construction management for the project will be undertaken by Aecom. Total cost of the project is $US 1.3bn, funded mainly by a $US 826.6m grant made by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The remainder is being provided by Amtrak and the State of Connecticut.

https://www.railjournal.com/infrastructure/amtrak-awards-us-1-3bn-connecticut-construction-contract/

A recent funding approval will keep the planned National Coast Guard Museum on track for a 2026 opening on the city’s waterfront, project officials said on Thursday. The National Coast Guard Museum Association Board of Directors on June 12 approved allotting $40 million for the next phase of construction on the 89,000-square-foot, six-story museum behind Union Station, said Wes Pulver, association president and a retired Coast Guard captain. “You’re going to see a lot of work this summer with concrete pile caps finished to distribute the weight of the building,” he said. “Then this fall, we’ll have a mock-up of the structure put up in October with that steel work continuing over the winter. This is all with the goal of finishing the work in late 2025.” Once complete, the building will be turned over to Coast Guard officials who will set a formal opening date. Construction is being overseen by the North Stonington-based A/Z Corp.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240630/40m-approved-for-next-phase-of-new-london-coast-guard-museum-project/#

Connecticut’s first offshore wind project, Revolution Wind, is under construction today, with the wind turbine components being staged out of New London State Pier. As the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, or DEEP, considers which offshore wind project should follow Revolution Wind, it should look to maximize the role that State Pier will play in the state and region’s offshore wind future, helping to secure investment and employment opportunities for our community for many years to come. The transformation of our State Pier has been impressive, with workers busy today staging and assembling turbine components for Revolution Wind and cranes once again dotting our waterfront. The Pier already made history for its role in South Fork Wind, the country’s first commercial-scale wind project, which completed construction earlier this year and is delivering power to New York. Starboard Wind would create more jobs in Connecticut, including at the State Pier, and bring an estimated $420 million of direct investment and expenditure to our state.

Opinion: New London at center of vital emerging American energy industry

After a more than decade-long period of largely flat growth, electricity demand is poised to skyrocket by 2030 as the artificial intelligence revolution, the expansion of chip manufacturing, and the electrification of the vehicle fleet all coincide as the U.S. is trying to address climate change. The tech sector’s build out of data centers to support AI and the adoption of electric vehicles alone is expected to add 290 terawatt hours of electricity demand by the end of the decade, according to a report released by the consulting firm Rystad Energy this week.
NextEra CEO John Ketchum told investors earlier this month that U.S. power demand will increase by 38% over the next two decades, a fourfold increase over the annual rate of growth in the previous 20 years. NextEra expects much of the demand to be met by renewables and battery storage, Ketchum said. The company has a 300-gigawatt pipeline of renewable and storage projects.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/30/failure-to-meet-surging-energy-demand-will-jeopardize-economic-growth-utility-execs-warn.html

New England is responsible for 2.8% of all carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S., Dolan said, and much of the region’s energy policy is driven by decarbonization. While alternative energy options like solar and wind have had a lot of time in the spotlight recently, Dolan emphasized the need to continue to support existing clean energy sources like hydro and nuclear as decarbonization efforts grow over the next several years. In 2023, 49% of the region’s energy supply came from natural gas, 20% nuclear, 8% hydro, 10% renewables (such as wind and solar), and 13% net imports, according to new data from ISO New England. Notably absent from that list are coal and oil, which combined for less than 0.5% of megawatt hours in the region in 2023. Dolan said ultimately, decarbonization needs to be a national effort, but states like Connecticut, and New England as a region, can help lead.

Amid decarbonization efforts, New England’s energy demand expected to increase 23% over next decade

Work to remediate sections of the New Milford High School roof that were insufficiently repaired is expected to be completed over the summer, starting in July, officials say. The six-year-long ordeal has included two fires, leaks and the discovery that some panels had been fastened improperly. The town and school board have been discussing their options for finalizing repairs on the roof over the last five months — particularly in terms of addressing the fasteners and clips installed on the roof by United Roofing & Sheet Metal, the project’s original contractor. Officials also remedied persistent leaking issues in the roof that were traced back to the roof’s cupola this past spring. The roof project began about six years ago as a $4.75 million effort to upgrade the aging roof and repair damage from a microburst storm in 2018. Silver Petrucelli & Associates, hired by the town in 2020, recommended replacing the asphalt roof and restoring the flat roof with a standing seam roof.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/newmilford/article/new-milford-high-school-roof-deficiencies-fix-19539394.php