Town: Several Paving Projects To Finish in About One Week

Town officials say the expect in about one week to finish several paving projects throughout New Canaan.

Recently, the town finished repaving Main Street from Lakeview Avenue to Maple Street, as well as Park Street from Bank Street to Elm, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. Mead Street has been done with new sidewalks, as have long-planned projects on Mortimer Street and Lockwood and Brinckerhoff Avenues, he told members of the Board of Selectmen at their July 12 meeting.

“We will work through the next phase of paving shortly—that is, Vitti Street, Soundview Lane, Cross Street and Ferris Hill Road will be done shortly, and a portion of Cherry,” Mann said at the meeting, held in Town Hall and via videoconference. 

The town also is sealing an additional 19 roads and putting on a micro thin overlay, Mann said—work that’s done now because “during this time, right after July [starts], people are gone,” he said. 

The update came as the selectmen approved a different contract for new and improved sidewalks in New Canaan, following a request for information from Selectman Nick Williams. He asked specifically about Route 123. 

Mann said that the first course of finishing Route 123 has been set down though state officials did shorten the length of the repaving work due to budget constraints, meaning it will be finished next year.

“I spoke to the DOT last week, everything that they had cut out of the budget this year—the piece on 106, 124 and then the second stretch on 123—are all slated for next year,” Mann said. “The prices are quite high throughout. As you know, oil is a little bit up so everything is costing a little bit more. So I think that they just couldn’t come forward with what they needed to do and they needed to make cuts. And what they cut was probably the better portions of the road to cut.”

Williams asked whether the bumps on Route 123 will be eliminated. Mann said yes, “you won’t feel them as you go.”

He also asked about Church Street. Mann said that Church received gas from Eversource in 2019, meaning it’s slated for repaving in 2023.

“I’ve asked Eversource numerous times to go back out and police that area and take care of any issues, and just sent them a note at end of last week as far as four locations the highway department noticed there, to ask them to take care of on Church Street specifically,” Mann said. “Right now we’re seeing an upsurge in ‘Call Before You Dig’s’ for gas installation.” 

He referred to inquiries that are required regarding the location of underground utilities before putting in gas service to a house.

“We’re seeing uptick in those service installations now to point where Park Street, they did one the day before we paved,” Mann said. “That’s the nightmare, is that the day before they paved I had allowed them to come in and do a new homeowner who had only been in the house for 10 days to come in and do a gas installation and get them off the street and use what’s called a ‘flowable fill’ inside to the trench to make sure it didn’t settle. So that’s the nightmare, is that as we try to come forward to repave, people are still trying to come forward and [hook up].”

Asked whether the town can prevent people from doing that, Mann said, “We can ask. In our MOU we have the right to slate a moratorium but at the same time all that does is hurt the resident with not allowing them to hook up for two years post-paving. That’s in the MOU if we want to execute that, that’s fine, but then it tells the resident, ‘You can’t hook up for two years.’ Which I don’t necessarily want to be in that situation where I tell a resident ‘no.’ ”

Williams said, “Putting aside someone who has just moved in, but if you have been in town and had due notice, and you suddenly decide at the last minute to execute a trench maybe they should pay for it.”

Mann said the town is looking at that possibility.

“Eventually they’re going to have to anyways, but we are looking at instituting these additional measures to then mitigate any problems which will allow them to hook up, but you have to do these additional measures so that we won’t have an issue,” Mann said. He added, “That is what we are talking about now with Eversource, to allow a resident to hook up but then still protect the town’s investment on the back side now that we have repaved the road.”