A heavily used trail in New Canaan’s most popular park is set to see major improvements.
The Board of Selectmen last week approved an $87,880 contract with Norwalk-based company to reconstruct the pedestrian trail that runs parallel to South Avenue from the main entrance to Waveny to Farm Road.
The new trail will be made of a “mixture of pea stone and a three-eighths-inch stone which gives us that nice look and that nice feel on every other trail that we’ve done with the [Waveny Park] Conservancy,” according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. He referred to a nonprofit organization that works to keep up and improve the park.
“So now this is our [the town’s] stretch,” Mann told the selectmen during their March 25 meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “So we’re looking to do this as well in the same material. It should last us 10 years plus with, and then with maintenance, we shouldn’t have an issue. Just top dressing from there on.”
First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of the contract with AJ’s Landscaping.
Mann said the company is a new vendor for New Canaan that has “done nice work in the towns of Wilton and Darien.”
“He’s been bidding our trail work for the past year or so, and looking at other work,” Mann said. “And the trail work that we did in the fall, he was very close. If he had changed one of his numbers, he would’ve won that bid. He tightened up his bid. He’s very excited to be working with us and for us. And we have no reason to believe that he won’t do a good job.”
The work will take about three to four weeks, Mann said. Once that stretch is done, the town will look to redo the trail that runs left/south inside the gate as park visitors enter Waveny from the main South Avenue entrance, he said.
“And then that’ll tie into the area that the Waveny Park Conservancy is looking at doing along the Merritt Parkway,” Mann said. “They’re looking to do along the Merritt Parkway trail. Then we’ll have that entire frontage of trail reestablished or reconstructed.”
The selectmen asked how long the new trail should last (the existing one lasted 10 years though that wasn’t the same mixture of stone), whether there will be irrigation work as part of the project (only at some of the crossings) and whether park goers will be able to use the walking trail as the work goes on (yes).
Murphy Carroll asked Mann whether he was comfortable that a new contractor for the town would ensure New Canaan is getting its usual high-quality product.
Mann said DPW would “ensure that we get the same product.”
Referring to AJ’s Landscaping, Mann continued, “He understands exactly. He watched the other construction go in.”