The Board of Selectmen at its most recent meeting unanimously approved more than $38,000 in two contracts with a Plainville-based company to replace guide rails on Ponus Ridge and Turner Hill Road.
Northbound approach of Ponus Ridge bridge over the Merritt Parkway. Credit: Michael Dinan
Eagle Fence & Guardrail under a $21,950 contract that includes $2,500 contingency and $2,500 for New Canaan Police presence will replace guide rails on both approaches to the Merritt Parkway overpass at Ponus Ridge, following the board’s 3-0 vote. A state bridge inspection found that the railings themselves at that location were missing and that id had a loose cable system, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann.
Additionally, Eagle under a $16,190 contract that includes $1,800 contingency and another $2,500 for police will do similar work on a stretch of Turner Hill Road that spans a steep embankment and stream, Mann told the selectmen at their March 27 meeting, held at Town Hall.
“They [Eagle] gave us an alternative to what we normally have been doing, based on the fact that there is a lot of rock and a lot of ledge,” Mann said. “They were actually able to help us save some money in that regard.”
Funding for both projects is in place already, Mann said. First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted in favor of the contracts.
The $2,500 for police presence at each job is a safely high estimate for about five days of work, and could come to less than that figure, Mann said.
Devereaux asked whether the job had been competitively bid.
Mann said that though this specific job was not competitively bid, the same jobs have been put out to bid in the past with a very small response and with Eagle consistently returning with the best price and high-quality work.
For example, Mann said, in the past the town has solicited bids from five separate guide rail companies and received only two bids once, three in another instance and one thereafter.
“Eagle been very responsive and has done done excellent work for us,” Mann said, adding the given how low the price was for these jobs, the town “thought it in [our] best interests to go to Eagle directly.”