Port Authority Plans Announcement as Early as January of ‘Final Path Forward’

The redevelopment of New London State Pier has hit a number of snags and faces escalating costs (Credit: Carlos Stroud)

Share

TwitterFacebookCopy LinkPrintEmail

A “final path forward” for completing the New London State Pier redevelopment, complete with a final price, may be presented as “early as the next board meeting in January,” Executive Director Ulysses B. Hammond said on Tuesday.

The project has faced delays and cost increases from permitting, appeals and unexpected construction issues throughout a nearly four-year saga since the project’s announcement in 2019, but Hammond said it is on pace to have ships arriving in May 2023, and turbines leaving the port for Eversource and Ørsted’s South Fork Wind project in August.

“Currently a series of complex negotiations are underway regarding a fair, and what I will call final path forward with the entire project team,” Hammond said, including the Port Authority, Eversource, Ørsted, construction manager Kiewit, AECOM, Siemens, Gateway and Moffatt & Nichol.

Hammond said their goal is to bring the Port Authority board a final guaranteed maximum price along with that final path forward at its regular meeting in January.

“The citizens of this great state have invested generously, and deserve nothing less than our collective best effort to make the New London State Pier the first United States-based, heavy lift marine terminal,” Hammond said. “[The pier] will simultaneously accommodate offshore wind towers, nacelles and blades – as well as other heavy lift maritime cargo.”

At its last meeting in October, the board agreed to move $3.7 million in railroad lease payments out of escrow to cover escalating costs officials said were a result of unexpected problems encountered during construction.


This story has been edited (at the request of CPA) to clarify that the announcement may come as early January.