Community Forum March 6, 2025: Allen St. Storm-Sewer-Sanitary System Problem and Project

All of our recent flooding updates and narratives with photos, video interviews, documents, etc. are published on-line in the New Britain Progressive’s “Flooding Series”. View and listen to our City Council presentations on the City Web-Site; Go to newbritainct.gov. Click on government, common council, videos.

To: Our Neighborhood Flooding Victims, Concerned Citizens-Taxpayers, City and State Officials.

Here is our shortened version of the Allen St. Time Line: A 30 year journey of neglect and mismanagement, 1995-2025.

The Allen St. System serves 177 acres of developed, congested, commercial and residential properties. Intense rainfall inflows and infiltrates our compromised underground infrastructure, flooding and saturating our land, easily overwhelming our antiquated and undersized storm-sewer system and retention pond. Our section of this acreage (50 properties) receives the blunt of the contaminated flooding water along with sanitary back-ups and breaks.
In 1995, Public Works Director Carilli, PE determined with his engineers that the Allen St. Storm-Sewer-Sanitary System requires upgrades.
From 1997 to 2025, the record clearly shows how the Allen St. Problem has grown from a localized, small storm-sewer back-up to the neighborhood wide storm-sewer-sanitary flooding emergency it is today.
In 2012, Mayor O’Brien did responsibly initiate the original Cardinal Engineering Plan for the Allen St. Project.
In 2013, Mayor Erin Stewart took office and chose to ignore Mayor O’Brien’s $7M Cardinal Engineering Plan. The 2025 cost for the Allen St. Project is now $15M. The 2025 Cardinal Plan will be shovel ready by 4-1-25 per Public Works Director Mark Moriarty, PE.
2013-2025 Stewart described the problem this way, “The Allen St. Problem is our most pressing need. The Allen St. Project is critical to resolving chronic issues including flooding due to storm-sewer failures, sanitary back-ups and breaks due to insufficient capacity and the system’s age.”
Stewart also identified storm-sanitary cross connections on Allen St. further contributing to this public health crisis. The contaminants in the flooding water include a toxic mix of bacteria, fecal matter, fats, motor oil, grease, etc.
We started tracking the flooding events in 2018. There have been 13 flooding events from April 2018 through December 2024. In August of 2023, Weston Sampson Engineers declared, “The Allen St. Project must be a high priority because the infrastructure is at CRISIS LEVELS!”.
Over the past 30 years, City and State Officials chose to kick the Allen St. Project down the road allowing the system to deteriorate further. Neglect and mismanagement has carried the day regarding the Allen St. Project.
Over the past 12 years, Stewart has petitioned our state legislative delegation for the required Allen St. Project funding. As you all know, hundreds of millions of earmark free dollars have flowed to New Britain from our State and Federal Partners.
Over the years, Stewart had her own fiscal agenda which did not include the Allen St. Project. The lack of fiscal oversight from our City and State Officials clearly underscores the serious nature of this ongoing public health issue. Meanwhile, the storm-sewer flooding, sanitary back-ups and breaks will continue.
As noted by Stewart in her September 2023 WVIT-NBC interview, “We are targeting the main areas of town that catch storm-sewer issues the most.” Stewart also noted, “Allen St. is one of the City’s longest and busiest thorough fares.” Thus far, the Allen St. Problem has been ignored by our City and State officials.
We’ve heard all of the stories regarding the complex nature of the Allen St. Project which have been debunked by the Cardinal Engineers. They have completed many infrastructure projects similar to Allen St.
Our Mattabasett Waste Water Treatment Facility is impaired by the excessive storm water and ground water entering and flowing from the compromised Allen St. system during these flooding events.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent to treat excessive storm-ground water entering our Mattabasett Waste Water Facility, to repair the Allen St. storm-sewer-sanitary failures, to update our aging Allen St. engineering plans and to reimburse our flooding victims for their damage claims.
Now we must factor in the millions of more dollars needed to construct the Allen St. Project in today’s dollars vs. 2013. All of this is fiscally irresponsible. After the flooding water recedes and during dry spells, the Allen St. Problem is conveniently forgotten by our City and State Officials.
The cause and effect because of the neglected Allen St. Problem is clearly identified. Whether one home is flooding due to compromised infrastructure systems, or 50 properties or 100 properties, each case requires and deserves the needed expertise, funding and upgrades from our City and State Officials.
Meanwhile, our quality of life continues to suffer, our safety continues to be in harm’s way and our properties and structures are at risk.
As Majority Leader McNamara wrote, “There can be no more URGENT priority for the Lamont Administration and Legislative Leaders in 2025 than to help communities with “grants-in-aid” for stormwater infrastructure improvements in HIGH RISK FLOODING AREAS.”
McNamara continues, In addition, “A major boost to the State’s Clean Water Fund” with earmarks for storm and sewer upgrades would also help communities address their most urgent needs.”
The final Allen St. engineering plan will be shovel ready by April 1, 2025 per Director Moriarty. City and State Officials; Prioritize, Fund and Construct the Allen St. Project Now!