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 existing cable guiderails on Nursery Road are to be replaced with a DOT-favored model. Credit: Michael Dinan
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.
It’s the second similar project in about one year in New Canaan. New guiderails went in on Greenley and West Roads last summer.
During the meeting, Selectmen Beth Jones asked whether the project had gone out to bid and if not, why not?
Zagarenski said: “We have been using Eagle and Guardrail successfully for the last few years and they have held their unit prices, so we are able to verify their cost and they have been holding their cost, and we are happy with their performance.”
Jones responded that “every once in a while, we should still send out to bid again just to see if there is somebody else that will give us an even better price.”
First Selectman Rob Mallozzi and Selectman Nick Williams agreed. The board voted 3-0 to approve the contract.