City must spend extra on Coliseum 

New Haven Register, 12/13/2006, Mary E. O’Leary, Register Topics Editor 

-NEW HAVEN — The city will bond $600,000 to cover additional costs to bring down the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Deputy Economic Development Director Tony Bialecki Tuesday explained the complicated negotiations the city undertook with Stamford Wrecking, which was awarded a $5 million contract to bring down the massive structure.

He spoke at a meeting of the Development Commission held Tuesday night to update the public on the Coliseum and the Gateway Community College project.

The city has set Jan. 20 as the date Demolition Dynamics will implode the Coliseum. In the event of bad weather, it will take place on Jan. 21.

The exact time, public viewing places, and which tenants in the area will have to be evacuated, will be announced after the holidays.

Bialecki explained that a plan to protect vulnerable electrical, cable and telephone lines in the vicinity added about $1.8 million to the project and delayed the implosion by a year.

But because the city had bonded $6 million to cover the bid and contingencies, most of the additional cost was already covered. What remained was taken care of by cancelling some work and giving up some $300,000 it had hoped to recoup as its share of the recycled steel.

Weilinger Associates of New York developed a plan which called for removal of big sections of the garage decking and steel above the Coliseum’s arena. Twenty-five foot high berms of earth, crushed concrete, chain link fencing and tires will also cushion the area and a temporary bridge will be built over one section of street.

Bialecki said the extensive plans were needed to bring the utilities on board. "It was a risk factor no one wanted to take a chance on," Bialecki said.

On the Gateway plan, Bialecki said architects Perkins and Will of New York have started a schematic design for the $96 million building on Church Street and have incorporated a six-level, 620-space garage that will be hidden from the street.

The entrance to a service tunnel that serves the Omni Hotel may be relocated from Orange Street to George Street.

Tom Holahan, who is running for mayor, argued that Gateway should incorporate general-interest retail on its ground floor, and he questioned if the city will have enough parking once the college is finished in 2011.

Holahan suggested a longterm solution for parking would be to extend the air rights garage eastward as far as High Street, which could yield 5,000 new parking spaces.

The air rights over the Richard C. Lee Connector from High Street to Church Street could be reserved for a high rise development for residential, commercial and medical use, where it would meet up with the college.

This would allow the Route 34 corridor to be used for less dense mixed housing and commercial uses conceived by the West River Revitalization Committee.

Architect Nicholas Ohly also worried that the state will fail to come through in time with the promised garage at Union Station to make the Gateway parking plan work.

Alderwoman Frances "Bitsey" Clark, D-7th, wasn’t worried that there will not be commercial spaces at ground level at Gateway, as the bookstore, art gallery and culinary facility will engage students, whose large numbers should enliven the area.