sbt throws [error] Server access Error: Connection refused (Connection refused) url=http://repo.typesafe.com/

Able to resolve after adding additional type safe https resolver to the build.sbt. By default sbt was picking the http one. If you already have resolver configured (like I have maven) the new line is important or else you can use Seq construct)

resolvers += "Maven Central Server" at "https://repo1.maven.org/maven2"

resolvers += "Typesafe Server" at "https://repo.typesafe.com/typesafe/releases"

I had my resolvers set to "http://repo.typesafe.com/typesafe/releases/" and changing the resolver to using https made it work.