UConn to get more than $660K in federal money to study crumbling foundations

The University of Connecticut has been awarded $662,400 in federal funding for research on the state’s crumbling foundations crisis.

The announcement was made Thursday by Democratic U.S. Reps. Joe Courtney (CT-02) and John Larson (CT-01). The money was secured in the House of Representatives’ fiscal year 2021 omnibus spending package, the congressmen’s offices announced.

The funding was awarded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and comes one year after UConn received $768,000 for similar research.

The funds will  support research into the premature degradation of concrete foundations that contain the  iron sulfide mineral pyrrhotite, which is a problem that has affected many homes in eastern Connecticut in recent years.

“This award highlights how this crisis is an all hands on deck situation,” Larson said in a statement. “With federal resources, local leadership and Uconn’s expertise, this effort will further our understanding on how pyrrhotite actually affects building foundations.”

Debbie MacCoy, a condominium owner and crumbling foundation advocate from eastern Connecticut, said in a statement that: “The research being conducted at the UConn is extremely important, as there is no research like it in the country that will, at some point, quantitatively establish a risk assessment scale to understand how much pyrrhotite in concrete is damaging.”