The FUSCO Group of New Haven is building a $78 million, 140,000-sq-ft, six-story clinical laboratory building at Yale-New Haven Hospital, which will serve the entire facility.

John Farnham, executive director of Associated General Contractors of Connecticut in Wethersfield, reports that construction craft employment is down approximately 28% from one year ago.

“As far as vertical construction, there is little or nothing,” says Raymond R. Oneglia, vice chairman of O&G Industries of Torrington, Conn. Consequently, O&G’s materials division is off, which Oneglia expects will remain down during the first half of 2010. However, money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has helped the asphalt and civil sides of O&G’s business.

Stimulus projectsO&G has begun a $62 million Merritt Parkway widening project in Fairfield and Trumbull counties, scheduled for a 2011 completion, funded by the stimulus bill.

AI Engineers of Middletown received a contract in July to provide consulting engineering for the $70 million reconstruction of the Amtrak bridge over U.S. Route 1 in the Town of Branford.

The Metropolitan District Commission (MDC) in Hartford is in the midst of a $2 billion clean water program, resulting from a federal consent decree and a Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection consent order to achieve Federal Clean Water Act goals.

“The consent decree says we will spend $100 million a year, $2 billion, during the next 15 to 18 years,” says Robert Moore, MDC chief administrative officer.

MDC has received stimulus funding for multiple projects, including the $22 million Homestead Avenue Interceptor Expansion, being completed by Northeast Remsco Construction of Farmingdale, N.J.; the $4.3 million Edgewood Street sewer separation, a Coastline Construction of Clinton, Conn., project; and the $8 million Tower Ave sewer-separation project, under way by CB Utility Co. of Bristol, R.I.

Other civil work proceeding MDC also has begun other projects, not funded by stimulus dollars. Insituform Technologies of Chesterfield, Mo., is working on two sewer-lining projects, valued at $18 million. Awards are pending for additional work to be let this year.

Gilbane began in October a $37 million upgrade to the Wastewater Treatment Plant in Norwalk.

O&G is working on the first $70 million phase of construction to replace the Moses Wheeler Bridge over the Housatonic River in Stratford and Milford. The company will build the foundations and complete utility work, aiming for a 2011 finish.

The state is replacing the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge (Q Bridge) in New Haven. San Francisco-based URS Corp. is providing design services.

“The heavy civil side is probably going to have a stable market going through 2010,” Shubert says. However, he cautioned that the state lacks adequate highway funding to deal with capacity issues and a growing need for roadwork.

“We’re facing significant challenges,” Shubert says. “Our legislature and governor are locked in a debate over a deficit mitigation plan for our budget.”