$333M Proposed to Overhaul Hartford, Conn., WTE Facility

Connecticut’s Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA) and the construction overseer and facilities operator, Sacyr Rooney Recovery Team LLC (SRRT), for MIRA’s waste-to-energy (WTE) plant have proposed a $333 million agreement to overhaul the plant and a related recycling facility in Hartford.

The aging WTE plant currently serves about a third of Connecticut’s communities and has broken down multiple times over the past year.

The next move for MIRA and SRRT will be to draft a “comprehensive development agreement” by October 2020, Hartford Business Journal reports. If a deal isn’t reached by then, according to the report, the state and SRRT “would likely part ways, leaving the future of the facilities in question.”

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin is adamantly opposed to the plan and the idea of keeping the plant in the city, the Hartford Courant reports. In addition, the costs in the proposed plan could result in major tipping fee increases for participating cities and towns, officials claim.

Hartford Courant has more information:

A proposed $333 million agreement to modernize regional trash and recycling facilities in Hartford has been reached between the system’s quasi-state owner and a contractor but getting cities, towns and the state to participate may be a lot tougher.

One critic of the plan is Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin, who is adamantly opposed to keeping the massive trash facility in his city.

Read the full article here.

Hartford Business Journal has more:

Overseers of the aging waste-to-energy plant on the banks of the Connecticut River in Hartford expect to issue $333 million in tax-exempt public bonds to finance a proposed overhaul of the facility and a related recycling plant.

That estimate is included in a newly signed term sheet between the quasi-public Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA) and its selected construction overseer and facilities operator, Sacyr Rooney Recovery Team LLC (SRRT).

The two sides have been in talks since last year. The negotiations have taken longer than expected, which led lawmakers to probe the situation earlier this year, after which both sides renewed in writing their commitment to work out a deal.

Read the full article here.