News

‘The Community Is Very Concerned’: South Avenue Repaving To Start in September

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A long-running construction project in New Canaan is now expected to stretch into the 2026-27 school year, officials said Tuesday, raising traffic concerns for the town. The water company, Aquarion, four years ago began installing a 36-inch water main in New Canaan, leading to road closures and detours on the eastern side of town. The final stretch of that project will see construction crews install the pipe on South Avenue—a state road, Route 124—from Harrison Avenue to Farm Road, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. Typically, a construction company would allow some time between when the pipe is installed and the road is patched, and a full milling and repaving of the same road, Mann told the Board of Selectmen during its meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. (Usually, road projects are completed in two stages, where crews wait a season to a year before repaving in order to allow the road to settle, Mann said.)

Yet the company now said it plans to install the pipe this summer and immediately repave starting in September, he said.

Government

Town Approves Contract for Re-Paving of 15 Roads

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Town officials last week approved an approximately $2.8 million contract with a Norwalk-based company to pave 15 local roads this year. First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 during the May 5 Board of Selectmen meeting to approve the $2,771,497.25 contract with FGB Construction. “We listen to residential comments, complaints, and each one gets a visit,” Public Works Director Tiger Mann told the selectmen during their regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “So if they say that they had a problem on that road, each one gets a visit. The road gets visited, we take a look at it and see, and then we adjust our list accordingly.”

The roads to be paved are: 

Brookside Road
Brushy Ridge Road (from Garibaldi to Brushy Ridge)
Buttery Road
Carter Street
Comstock Hill Road
Dabney Road
Davenport Ridge Road
Grove Street (from Pine to Richmond Hill)
Hickok Road
Jelliff Mill Road (from Ponus Ridge to Springwater)
Nursery Road
Parade Hill Road (200 feet from Oenoke Ridge)
Ponus Ridge (from Winfield to Four Winds Lane)
Rosebrook Road
Silvermine Road

Mann said that FGB is holding its unit prices to last year’s level—a fact that Murphy Carroll said was surprising given “all the price shocks with oil.”

Mann responded that there aren’t many contracts out right now.

Government

Park Street, Playhouse Lots Repaved; Town Seeks To Slow Speeding Motorists

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With the successful repaving of the Park Street and Playhouse Lots finished, town officials say they’re now looking for a way to slow down motor vehicle traffic whizzing down the access road that runs down to Main Street. The town is “going to try to tackle some of the speed now because people are shooting through the boulevard quickly,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “We’re going to look to try to put some speed humps or speed bumps on the way just to calm them down a little bit as they come through Town Hall,” Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held Tuesday at Town Hall and via videoconference. The comments came during Mann’s general update on DPW projects to the Board. The long-awaited repaving projects have seen wider car stalls painted into the parking lots.

Board of Selectmen

Town Approves Contract To Repave Dunning Road, Gerrish Lane and Part of Summer Street

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Town officials on Tuesday approved an approximately $290,000 contract to repave three New Canaan roads. 

The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously to approve a contract for the repaving of Dunning Road, Gerrish Lane and the southern half of Summer Street, between Lakeview and East Avenues. 

The work will be paid for by Aquarion, which broke up the roads while installing water mains last year, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. The contractor is expected to do the work in May “right after these parking lots here,” Mann told the selectmen at their regular meeting, referring to the Park Street and Playhouse Lots (a month-long job expected to start April 15), as well as the long-awaited repaving of Pine Street. “Once he [the contractor] mobilizes, he wants to stay, finish what he’s got,” Mann said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “Once we get this, I’ll talk to him about his timing.”

First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 to approve the $293,650 contract with Norwalk-based FGB Construction. The Board asked whether Aquarion’s check to the town will include $26,500 in contingency funds built into the project estimate (the plan was to bill for $267,150 and have the water company hold the contingency), whether the transactions could be set up so that the contingency fee is set aside separately, such as in escrow, and then Aquarion is reimbursed for anything left over (yes) and whether the three roads in question have any striping (no, just stop bars).

Board of Selectmen

Town Approves $485,000 Contract To Replace Sidewalks on Butler, Danvers and Whiffle Tree Lanes

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Town officials on Tuesday approved an approximately $485,000 contract with a Shelton-based company to replace aging sidewalks on Butler, Danvers and Whiffle Tree Lanes. The old asphalt sidewalks in the “South of the Y” neighborhood are at least 30 years old, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “There’s no new installation, just the replacement of existing sidewalks,” Mann told the Board of Selectmen at its regular meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. 

“It’s basically phase two of the project of the behind the Y,” he said. “We did Putnam [Road] last year. And then that was approximately $500,000.”

Selectman Steve Karl, a 25-year resident of the neighborhood, said sidewalks there are “all sunk and they’re all broken up and everything.”

“But I will say, Sunday when the weather turned two, I think it was two weeks ago when we had that really warm Sunday, I walked the neighborhood and I counted at least 56 people using the sidewalk, the new sidewalks that were there,” Karl said.