Town officials voted last week to repair a stretch of sidewalk opposite the fire station that’s been damaged, in part, from large emergency vehicles pulling up onto it while turning in order to back into their bays at the Main Street building.
The repair will involve about 156 feet of sidewalk in front of the Vine Cottage, according to Walker Blair, a New Canaan High School senior intern with the town Department of Public Works.
“The fire trucks as they have come out of the firehouse, they have hit the granite curbing and caused it to shift outwards, allowing water to permeate between the concrete sidewalk and the curb which has caused major cracking and even, in one place, sinking under the concrete,” Blair, who plans to attend Lehigh University next year to study mechanical engineering, told members of the Board of Selectmen at their June 6 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of a $27,036 contract with New Canaan-based Peter Lanni Inc. The project had gone out to bid to six contractors and two returned with quotes, Blair said.
Public Works Director Tiger Mann said that the deterioration has happened over time and was exacerbated when a natural gas line was run through the area.
“It just so happens they drove over it and punched through, which then allowed us to go out there and take a look,” Mann said. “And once we took a look we could see a separation between the two and could see the undermining throughout the rest of the sidewalk. So at that point in time we said, ‘Well we’ve got to come back in and replace the whole thing.’ I really would not blame it on them [the Fire Department] at all.”
Corbet asked how the town can be assured that the same issue will not re-emerge with the fire vehicles damaging the sidewalk.
Mann said, “Part of this had to do with the fact that we had a gas line going through there, so some of that settlement is not related to the fire trucks. They have to actually drive the unit on the sidewalk to make their turn in. But the sidewalk was only at present at a five-inch depth. We’re going to make it a nine-inch depth, so that will help. And then reinforce the granite curb itself so it will be more of a monolithic pour together.”
Corbet asked whether the curb will be raised higher and Mann said no.
“It’s only a couple of inches above ground, so they can mount it right now but the problem we had, again, was the gas line went alongside it, caused a little bit of undermining, then the granite curb shifted once we hit it, allowing water inside and that was the problem,” he said. “So once we settle it back together again, we should be fine.”