Work Starting on Merritt Ramps

The Connecticut Department of Transportation announced that it recently signed a contract with O&G Industries of Torrington, Conn., to start reconstruction on part of the Merritt Parkway in Norwalk. The first $34 million project would take about three years.

The first phase encompasses reconstruction of parkway interchanges at Main Avenue and Route 7 in Norwalk. The work will include reconstructing Interchange 40 to modify the design of on and off ramps and improve traffic flow.

A second phase of work would add directional ramps to and from the Merritt Parkway and Route 7. That $64 million project is not part of the current contract but would go to bid in two years.

Bill Seeks $60 Billion for Rails

A bipartisan group of legislators in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill earlier this spring that would provide $60 billion in bonds, loans, grants, and tax credits for high-speed rail and conventional rail infrastructure projects. H.R. 1631, dubbed the Railroad Infrastructure Development and Expansion Act for the 21st Century, addresses both passenger and freight rail systems.

Unlike federal highway funding legislation, the bill does not earmark dollars to specific projects or allocate funds by state. But it does outline a framework in which states will select, design, schedule, and finance their own rail corridors as well as decide whether to use steel-wheel or Maglev trains.

The bill also identifies two possible high-speed rail development corridors in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut region that are eligible for funding, according to a spokesman for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's Democratic minority office. One is the existing Northeast rail corridor from Boston to Washington, D.C., which runs through Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. The other is the Empire Corridor from New York City to Albany and Buffalo.

Other aims of the bill are to eliminate crossings at grade for high-speed rail systems, apply prevailing wage rate standards to the funded rail construction projects, and develop an interstate compact for multi-state corridors. The legislation would give preference to projects that link rail passenger service to other transportation modes, have all environmental work complete, and demonstrate state or local financial support.

Sheraton Adds Fuel Cell Plant

Marking a first for a New York City high-rise building, the 50-story Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers in Midtown Manhattan recently added a 250-kw fuel cell power plant. The $1.2 million electrochemical power generator would provide about 10 percent of the 1,750-room hotel's power and energy use for hot-water heating, while also reducing pollution.

Trystate Mechanical, based in Yonkers, N.Y., installed the fuel cell plant, which was designed and built by Fuel Cell Energy of Danbury, Conn. Both Trystate and Fuel Cell Energy are operating units of PPL Corp. of Allentown, Pa.

The plant uses hydrocarbon fuels to create hydrogen in an external fuel processor. It produces electricity and heat with no combustion, feeding on fuel such as natural gas and air. Since there is no fuel burning, the technology can reduce emissions of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur dioxide. In the case of the hotel's plant, the reduction is expected to be equivalent to "eliminating 118 cars from the road [or] planting 161 acres of trees," said a spokesman for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, which owns and operates the 1.2-million-sq.-ft. Sheraton.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority provided a $920,000 grant for the project.