Work To Widen Great Island Access Road Delayed

DARIEN, CT — Work to widen the access road (23-A) to Darien's Great Island has been delayed after the town received zero submissions for the project.

The work is needed to accommodate two-way traffic. Components include new curbing, landscaping, a new retaining wall and other improvements. The town hoped to begin construction this month to have the road open by July 1.

Director of Darien Public Works Ed Gentile gave an update to the Great Island Advisory Committee last week. The meeting was held at Darien Town Hall and broadcast on Darien TV79.

Overall, 16 contractors responded to a Request For Qualifications (RFQ) for the project, and six were chosen as finalists to submit consultancy proposals.

The finalists toured the site, according to the April 12 newsletter from the town, but there were ultimatley no submissions made.

Gentile said he reached out for feedback from contractors as to why there was no interest.

One of the main reasons was "time constraints," Gentile said.

"I thought it was reasonable, but I gave them a tight window to do this work, one to open the roadway and two to finish the job," Gentile added.

Other contractors simply couldn't fit the project into their schedule, Gentile said.

"With your approval, I'd like to give [contractors] an extended period of time to get this road built. As a matter of fact, I want to almost give them until Thanksgiving," Gentile said. "By the time I get this out to bid, and the bids back, we're talking maybe the end of May, and then working through the summertime then fall, depending on when the contractor is available."

The bid will also be opened up to more people throughout the state, Gentile explained.

"We're going to go on the state portal and see if we can get some feedback. I thought we had a good pool in this area, but I don't want to have no bids again so I'm going to open this up to some companies that can actually handle it upstate," Gentile said.

Gentile also said some contractors viewed the retaining wall component "as a risk to them liability-wise."

"Structurally, the contractor didn't want to take the risk themselves or hire a PE (Professional Engineer) themselves to do it," Gentile said, adding that he's contacted a couple of structural engineers about the wall.

"I'm going to get the wall designed now and put that in as part of the package to eliminate that risk from them and take that in as part of the local structural PE license," Gentile said.

Watch the full GIAC meeting on demand here.