Among the plum tools enacted this year to spur development, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has highlighted bills to consolidate design and construction bids, as well as spur public-private partnerships on big projects.
For a governor who has demonstrated swift action in his first two years on the job, he may have to show a little patience.
“Frankly, our strategy is to go slow,” said James Redeker, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Transportation, speaking at a Construction Institute conference in East Hartford in mid-October.
“It would be foolish for a department that has never done a design-build project ”“ there”™s nobody. When I asked my staff of managers how many people have done a design-build project ”“ I have 100 managers ”“ I”™m the only one that raised a hand, because I”™m the only one that”™s done one, and I guarantee you I”™m not going to be managing (a) project.”
DOT is also going through the learning process on the new public-private partnership model authorized by the Connecticut General Assembly, as it works to replace the Stamford Transportation Center”™s parking garage.
“I am working on what is a first for the DOT, I think, of a public-private partnership I”™m calling the Stamford transit-oriented development project,” Redeker said. “We”™re making great headway figuring out how to deliver a project in partnership with the private sector cheaper, faster, better and all with the customer in mind first.”
Connecticut”™s construction industry lost 30 percent of its jobs in the most recent recession, according to Ron Van Winkle, an economist who is town manager for West Hartford. If not as severe as the recession of the early 1990s, when the industry lost 38 percent of its workforce, that is little consolation to struggling builders today.
“Our state”™s economy is beginning to pick itself back up, beginning to move,” Van Winkle said. Employment is beginning to grow. Connecticut is looking better today than it has been over the past couple of years, (but) the construction industry still suffers ”“ we”™re still running at that low level.”
The Connecticut Department of Construction Services expects $350 million in funding for construction projects at schools and other public facilities throughout the state, coming off $275 million in the current year ”“ and just $29 million the year before that, according to Bud Salemi, deputy commissioner of the department.
“I”™m still not sure how we”™re going to get all this stuff done at the Department of Construction Services, but we”™re going to give it all we got,” Salemi said.
In addition, Malloy”™s new energy plan calls for billions of dollars in new construction to lay new natural gas lines to allow businesses and homes to convert from oil, if they so choose. Dan Esty, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, estimates the funding will support 7,000 new jobs annually.
For builders, any work will be welcome with the uncertainty of the November elections and the federal budget deliberations to follow, with a trickle-down effect to state and municipality projects.
“The good news is for the next two years,” Redeker said ticking off major road and transit projects under way across Connecticut. “The bad news is after that, because we don”™t know what”™s going to happen. Frankly, we”™ve been living on a funding stream that”™s higher because of earmarks and discretionary money ”¦ That will disappear.”
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