Work starts to make State Pier wind-project hub
NEW LONDON — The $235 million plan to redevelop the State Pier into a hub for offshore wind projects will enter the next phase of its construction in January, officials said this week after receiving the final federal permit to begin work in the waters around the century-old pier.
That permit, from the Army Corps of Engineers, had been delayed for months after state regulators completed their approval of the project in August. The delay also caused the Connecticut Port Authority to miss its deadline for obtaining all necessary permits, prompting the state’s partners on the project to pledge their continued support.
The Port Authority announced it received the outstanding permit on Dec. 16 and its board of directors met Tuesday to authorize the contractor, the Kiewit Corporation, to begin limited dredging work this winter.
“We applaud the decision by the USACE to approve the project's federal permit,” Port Authority Executive Director John Henshaw said in a statement. “Paired with the state permit approved by [the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection] in August, the project has achieved all regulatory approvals for in water work. This major milestone caps two comprehensive state and federal permitting processes that began more than two years ago.”
Prior to the approval by state and federal regulators, work on the site had been mostly limited to land-based projects such as demolishing old buildings and regrading a portion of the property known as “The Hill.”
The bulk of the project, however, involves the work of dredging the riverbed around the pier and laying gravel to support a massive “jack-up” vessel that has legs capable of lifting itself out of water. The central wharf between the site’s two existing piers will also be filled with 7.4 cubic acres of material to create a single, massive pier capable of handling the heavy-lift equipment used to assemble wind turbines.
Once the renovation is completed, the State Pier will serve as a staging area for wind energy projects being built off the coast of Rhode Island and New York as part of a joint venture between Eversource Energy and Ørsted. Connecticut is slated to receive 304 megawatts of electricity a year from one of the sites, Revolution Wind.
While hailed by environmentalists and local leaders as a source of clean energy and jobs, the State Pier redevelopment has also attracted critics — several of whom spoke at Tuesday’s meeting — who point to the project's ballooning costs and an alleged lack of transparency.
“How high does the work at the State Pier have to go before you guys cry uncle?,” asked one critic, Kevin Blacker, referring to the original deal to spend $157 million as part of a public-private partnership.
Andrew Lavigne, a spokesperson for the Port Authority, told the board on Tuesday that the permit would allow authority officials to enter final talks with the contractor to determine a maximum price on the project, which he said could be presented to the board in January or February.
“We remain diligent and confident in our ability to deliver the project in a cost-efficient and timely way,” Lavigne said.
The state’s partners on the project also expressed optimism at the news of the latest permit.
“With the receipt of the Army Corps permits, State Pier has cleared the last major remaining regulatory hurdle, and construction of the full project scope can now proceed,” said Justin May, a spokesman for the Ørsted-Eversource partnership said in a statement.
“When complete, State Pier will be transformed from a long-underutilized asset into a modern, heavylift capable facility, delivering well-paying jobs and economic investment to New London while positioning Connecticut as a regional hub for offshore wind for decades to come,” May added.
A spokesperson for the Army Corps of Engineers did not respond to requests for comment regarding the delay.
The State Pier is one of two planned locations in Connecticut for staging offshore wind projects. The other, a proposed 15-acre site in Bridgeport Harbor known as Park City Wind, is part of an effort to build an 804-megawatt wind farm in the waters off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard.
That project, Vineyard Wind, has also faced scrutiny from fishermen in Eastern Connecticut who are concerned about potential negative impacts to the industry. A spokesperson for Park City Wind did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.