24 Colony Street development

Location: Meriden, CT

Developer: Westmount Management

Construction Manager: Enterprise Builders

This project was a joint venture of the Meriden Housing Authority (MHA) and Westmount Development Group. It consisted of the development of a new site to and build of a mixed-use 63-unit development in Downtown Meriden.  This project was the first new development in the City’s newly created Transit Oriented Development (TOD) District and the first collaboration between a local housing authority and the CT DOT with the express purpose of creating housing and parking adjacent to public transit.

We were brought on board by Westmount to handle all of the sitework for the project. A major challenge was contaminated soils from the previous manufacturing company that occupied the site. We needed to excavate, stockpile and strain materials that included brick and concrete. Once that enormous task was completed, we moved on setting up the site for this new development that would take up a city block and include a parking garage.

The new foundation required going down 10 ft more than usual (nearly 20 ft) in order to get down to stable soils – we utilized soil nailing to secure the new foundations as we excavated to protect the surrounding city streets. The backside of the property where the new parking facility was to be built required the installation of tie-backs that were secured into the hillside bedrock to secure a 100 year old rock wall that would not be stable enough for the requirements of the new construction.

The new development is now fully occupied and provides easy access (across the street) to Amtrak lines that go north to Springfield/Vermont, and south to New Haven/New York.