BY ANDREAS YILMA
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
NAUGATUCK — The Board of Mayor and Burgesses on June 20 approved to put the plans for the downtown sanitary, storm water/storm-water and streetscape improvement project out to bid.
Kleinfelder Senior Program Manager Neil Kulikauskas makes a presentation at a special Board of Mayor and Burgesses meeting on June 20 at Naugatuck Town Hall.
Kleinfelder Northeast, a national engineering firm with an office in Rocky Hill, will focus on the final design of storm water and sanitary sewer upgrades. Richter & Cegan Inc., a landscape architecture and planning firm from Avon, is collaborating with Kleinfelder, to work on the streetscape portion of the project.
The roughly $14.8 million downtown project will address Church and Maple streets, the Maple Street bridge and the intersection near Water Street. Of the money spent, $9.2 million will come from the borough’s American Rescue Plan Act funds with the remaining $5.6 million stemming from Tax Increment Financing funds. The borough board previously selected Kleinfelder last September to begin this project.
Work is expected to begin in October of this year and will be substantially finished by the end of the fall season in 2024. The remaining work which may include some buttoning up, plantings and final paving should be all completed by the spring of 2025.
ings and final paving should be all completed by the spring of 2025.
Mayor N. Warren “Pete” Hess said this plan accomplishes major things for the borough.
“It resolves a host of mostly storm water and sanitary sewer issues that have plagued the west side of Naugatuck for many years and creates a havoc in the downtown area when we have a lot of rainfall in a short period of time,” Hess said.
“Number two, by making those improvements we are also paving the way and fixing the infrastructure so that we would be ready for substantial new development in the downtown area and we need to provide remedies so Parcel B and the surrounding properties can be developed.”
Kleinfelder Senior Program Manager Neil Kulikauskas said they studied the drainage systems and performed hydraulics subsequently uncovering significant issues.
The project is intende to fix the issues uncovered, make sure the surrounding infrastructure would support the development plans with enough capacity in the system and integrate Parcel B with the downtown area.
The drainage system on Church Street was undersized and had broken and segmented pipes. There were also some bottlenecks due to repairs over the years on Maple Street, Kulikauskas said.
“Our plan here on Church Street is we’re upsizing,” Kulikauskas said. “ We’re increasing the size of the drainage. We’re replacing all the basins, modern basins, essentially brand new system. We’re also extending the system to the north.”
As Church Street is going to be torn up to install a new water main from Connecticut Water and a new gas line from Eversource, it made sense to replace sewer pipes which are brittle and at least 70 years old, Kulikauskas said.
Michael Cegan of Richter & Cegan Inc. Landscape Architects Urban Designers said all the materials they are selecting which includes the lighting, plantings and trees and outdoor furniture, all of their designs will work together to create a much more festive and inviting atmosphere.
Some of the streetscape improvements include brick sidewalks and portions of the Church Street sidewalk to be widened, granite curbing, more appropriate street trees to not block storefronts or signs, catenary lighting overhead and planters on the street to give some separation for outdoor dining from the vehicle traffic.
“We’ve created a gateway effect with this lighting,” Cegan said. “I think it’s really going to celebrate the changes and the festive atmosphere.”
The construction will still allow for pedestrians to access businesses on Church Street; however, parking spots will be temporarily lost as development progresses. Services for utilities such as water may be lost for about an hour but can be quickly switched over to the new service, Kulikauskas said.
A few parking spots will eliminated, such as those in front of Nardelli’s; but there will be additional parking spaces along Water Street. There will be parking in front of Coffee Shoppe, Kulikauskas said
The borough plans to make angled parking on Water Street going toward the Station Restaurant where there will be more new spots than the spots that are going away. The Police Department have approved the angled parking, Hess said.
Cegan said the renovations to the Town Green will include new seat walls, outlets, an electronic message sign and bike racks as well as a subsurface infiltration system.
