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

An updated plan for the town-owned 517 & 529 Gold Star Highway properties, along with adjacent privately-owned parcels, calls for 390 apartments, housed within five, five-story buildings, and amenities that include a clubhouse and pool. The Town Council at its Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday evening approved the updated concept plan and a one-year extension to the option agreement, which was set to expire in September. Jon Reiner, the town’s director of planning and development services, said this week that in 2019, the town started working with PJ&A LLC as the preferred developer for the town-owned properties. Recently, PJ&A entered into an agreement with Orr Partners, a Virginia-based developer. Orr Partners has developed about 5,000 multifamily units in the eastern part of the country. Orr Partners has an office in Groton and has overseen the construction of facilities for Electric Boat, according to the letter from Sweeney.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240627/updated-plan-for-gold-star-highway-properties-calls-for-390-apartments-realigned-entrance/

he school construction project will cost at least $50 million more than the $385 million approved by voters in 2022, due to increased construction and labor expenses, project officials said. According to updated estimates provided by Mike Faenz, the city’s owner’s representative from Construction Solutions, Inc., the cost of the four new elementary schools now total $310.8 million. Adding the final two projects ― the $99 million overhaul of the Teachers’ Memorial Global Studies Middle School and a $25 million renovation to Samuel Huntington School as the new central office and adult education building ― increases the total to $434.9 million. Inflation and widespread construction cost increases have spiraled beyond expectations for the John M. Moriarty and Uncas schools as well, far exceeding the 8% escalation factor in the original budget.

https://www.theday.com/local-news/20240627/norwich-new-schools-project-50-million-over-budget/

For the high school, the council approved a supplemental appropriation of $189 million to have the full $239 million project cost authorized. The council also issued $15 million in general obligation bonds as “cash on hand” for the project, according to Chief Financial Officer Jared Schmitt. The state plans to reimburse the city for 80 percent of the cost of the high school, meaning taxpayers are responsible for $47.8 million, but the city still needed to authorize spending for the full amount. Additionally, the council moved $19 million from the South Norwalk School project to the high school. The South Norwalk School is slated for completion in August 2025 and the new Norwalk High School should welcome its first class two years later.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/education/article/norwalk-high-sono-schools-construction-19541111.php

Old-Lyme-based READCO announced last week that it had sold its portfolio —more than two million square feet of commercial space— to Glastonbury-based Trio Properties, which manages about 2,500 multifamily units in Connecticut and 15 other states. As part of the deal, the companies’ owners decided on a partnership to jointly manage a real estate development and investment company that will operate under the READCO brand. An example of the model they want to promote is the joint Trio-READCO development in Pawcatuck, where they are proposing to build a housing and commercial complex on the site of the vacant Hoyt’s/Regal theater on Route 2 which declared bankruptcy during the pandemic. The project contemplates separate living, shopping and recreational components, with the latter designed to serve the entire surrounding community, not just the complex residents.

New Partnership Bets on Updated Mixed-Use Model for Southeastern Connecticut

East Hartford has received $262,750 through the Connecticut Recreational Trails Grant Program to help address erosion and flooding issues at Great River Park on East River Drive, part of $10 million in grants announced by Gov. Ned Lamont and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection earlier this month to make improvements to 45 multi-use trails across the state. Marc A. Nicol, director of park planning and development for Riverfront Recapture, which manages the park, said that the funds will be used to hire a consultant engineer to do survey work and determine the elevations of certain areas of the river walk. He said that the project will start at the edge of the parking lot, where the amphitheater is, and go south toward Charter Oak Bridge.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/journalinquirer/article/ct-east-hartford-great-river-walk-grant-19525191.php