State Pier in New London is all but finished. Crews have helped transform this historic harbor front into an innovative hub for the offshore wind industry.
But it’s come at a cost — $310 million to be precise, as one of the state's most expensive maritime projects to date.
The cost to redevelop State Pier skyrocketed since its original estimates in 2019.
Then, the Connecticut Port Authority said the cost would be around $93 million. Fast forward to January 2023, with the project still unfinished, expenses racked up to more than $250 million due to years of delays, overruns and re-designs.
Port Authority Chairman David Kooris said in an interview at the time that they would be asking the state for a second round of money to finish State Pier.
The year before Kooris promised the State Bond Commission that taxpayers would not need to contribute additional funding for the project, but now he wouldn’t reveal how much more was needed due to ongoing negotiations with contractors.
WSHU submitted a freedom of information request to find out, which the Port Authority denied, saying the information was not in the public interest. WSHU appealed. And at a hearing the Port Authority’s lawyer said the quasi-public agency’s “decision has been that those communications are premature and to release those would impair the negotiation process. But they are in a position to produce those documents as soon as the contract is signed.”
This past January, a year later, the state Freedom of Information Commission issued a finding against the Port Authority, saying their interpretation of state statute was wrong. And the commission instructed officials to hand over the relevant documents.
In the document bundle that WSHU received was an email dated January 2023 to Port Authority interim executive director Ulysses Hammond detailing two possible financial scenarios to meet the shortfall in funding to bring the State Pier project to a close.
Those figures were between $25 and $40 million.
So, over the past year, while the public records process was playing out, the Port Authority had a significant idea of how much money they would need from the state to finish State Pier — which is not what they told lawmakers, including State Senator Heather Somers, a member of the legislative Appropriations Committee.
“It’s deeply disappointing that a quasi-public agency would not be forthcoming with a legislator,” Somers said in a June interview. “They deliberately omitted the pertinent cost information when responding to my questions regarding the State Pier project.”
She inquired in April 2023 about the projected increased cost, but was also turned away due to ongoing negotiations.
Recently, a spokesperson with the state Office of Policy and Management said the Port Authority contacted them earlier that month by phone advising they would be seeking $30 million from the State Bond Commission for the project, as is required under state statute.
“We just cannot tolerate the concealment of crucial information from the public domain, especially when the public is paying for it. It's not right,” said Somers after learning of the chronology of communications.
The Port Authority released its request for additional state funding during its May 2023 board meeting, one month before they would go before the State Bond Commission in June for the sum of money, which the governor and the commission granted.
Somers criticized the Port Authority that August, after a state audit questioned how the Port Authority would use that money in its bidding process. “Unfortunately, it falls in line with the behavior we have seen consistently from the Port Authority over the years,” she said this month.
Today, State Pier is also almost exclusively in the assembly of wind turbines for the South Fork and now Revolution Wind farm projects. The developers, Ørsted and Eversource, are paying to use it under a 10-year exclusive agreement, which could be extended in the future.
At a recent business lunch in New London, State Pier was mentioned by Gov. Ned Lamont, who has agreed to two rounds of bond funding for it.,
“State Pier — a little controversial — I remember that. It’s full, it’s occupied. Making money,” Lamont said with a chuckle. “It made a million dollars last year. That means in 300 years we’ll break even, but … we’re making a little bit of money on it.”
This year, the Lamont administration had proposed merging the Port Authority into the Connecticut Airport Authority to form a new agency called the Connecticut Maritime Authority. Although the proposal failed to advance in the last legislative session, supporters sought to reign in controversy at the Port Authority.
Somers and other Republican senators opposed the measure. She is calling for more transparency and accountability from the Port Authority and its spending.
