Government

Selectmen Approve Contract To Replace Guiderails on Nursery Road

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Officials last week approved funds to improve the guiderails along the sides of a town road that the state had deemed “poor” and in need of “corrective action.”

The new, Merritt Parkway-style guiderails for Nursery Road will replace the existing cable ones, following a unanimous vote by the Board of Selectmen for a $58,750 contract with a Plainville-based company to do the work. “The [Connecticut Department of Transportation] rated this guiderail as ‘poor’ so it needs corrective action,” Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer with the New Canaan Department of Public Works, told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held Aug. 22 in Town Hall. “They say it’s a high priority of corrective action. It’s a residential area so we are going with a Merritt Parkway-style rail and the funds are available in the guiderail account.”

The contractor is Eagle Fence & Guardrail.

Government

Town Approves Purchase of Pedestrian-Activated ‘Flashing Beacons’ Alerting Motorists to Foot Traffic at Weed and Elm

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Motorists traveling northbound on Weed Street soon will need to pay attention to a flashing beacon indicating that pedestrians have entered a crosswalk leading to a heavily used new sidewalk at the Elm Street intersection. Town officials last week approved the $16,600 purchase of new pedestrian-activated push-button beacons to alert motorists when people have entered the soon-to-be-striped crosswalks on foot. The funds are coming from a state grant that New Canaan put in for and received, which also paid for the new sidewalk along the west side of Weed, from Elm to Irwin Park, according to Joe Zagarenski, senior engineer in the Department of Public Works. “I understand this has the support of Traffic Calming and the Police Commission,” Zagarenski told members of the Board of Selectmen during their July 25 meeting, held at Town Hall. “These also have a 90 percent adherence rate, so they are very effective,” he said.