Town Approves $360,000 Contract To Start Richmond Hill Sidewalk Project 

Town officials on Tuesday approved an approximately $360,000 contract for a sidewalk installation project that’s been years in the making.

The Board of Selectmen voted 3-0 during a special meeting to approve a $358,780 contract with New Canaan-based Peter Lanni Inc. to install new concrete sidewalks, granite curbing and stone retaining walls on Richmond Hill Road between the Mead Park exit and Marshall Ridge Road.

The Richmond Hill Road railroad crossing, looking north on Aug. 15, 2023. Credit: Michael Dinan

“This work we would like to start immediately since we’re still in the railroad shutdown—Metro-North and Connecticut DOT [Department of Transportation] already did their work for the crossing itself,” Public Works Director Tiger Mann said at the meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference.

“It’s complete and it’s ready for us to come in, do our work, and then we can work on the connectivity from Mead Park to the railroad track and the railroad track to Marshall Ridge after,” Mann added. “We have a couple weeks’ window left before they open up the rail line again and they’d like to see us start this work and finish it in that timeframe.”

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted in favor of the contract.

The work could commence as soon as Wednesday, Mann said.

The town for years has planned to install a new sidewalk on that stretch of Richmond Hill Road—an area that about 70 neighborhood families called dangerous in a December 2018 petition.  (In 2020, a 13-year-old boy was struck by a car while walking on Richmond Hill Road to his bus stop; the following summer, a 15-year-old girl was struck along the same road.) 

The project had been approved to receive funding through a state Local Transportation Capital Improvement Program or “LOTCIP” grant. Mann said during the meeting that the town already received a letter of commitment for the grant funding, though the price tag for the work using the state bidding structure was about $660,000, compared to the town’s base price from Lanni (without contingency) of $312,000.

The selectmen asked whether the town is still eligible for the state LOTCIP grant money (yes, for a transportation project that fits the state requirements), how many arms will come down over the road when trains roll through at Richmond Hill (two) and whether a separate arm would come down to stop pedestrians from trying to cross the tracks when trains are approaching (no, signal lights will warn pedestrians to stop). 

Main said the town already has secured $1 million in LOTCIP funding for new sidewalks to be installed along the western side of Park Street from Route 106 to Main Street.

“We are working through the final concerns from them [state officials],” Mann said. “We actually have to do a ground-penetrating radar analysis in and around the Congreagional Church to make sure so make sure that no one is buried where we are proposing to put in the sidewalk.”