Metro Center Bids Come In Under Budget

Bids to do construction work on public portions of the Fairfield Metro Center came in under budget today, with the lowest bid, from Guerrera Construction Co. in Oxford, at $19.97 million, not including a bid alternate. With the alternate, Guerrera's bid was $20.16 million.

A total of 10 bids were opened at 1 p.m. in a first-floor conference room in Sullivan-Independence Hall. The highest bid, from Giordano Construction Co. in Branford, was $31.62 million, not including the bid alternate. With the alternate, Giordano's bid was $31.75 million.

"We're going to have a railroad station," Town Attorney Richard Saxl said to Town Fiscal Officer Paul Hiller after the bids were opened.

First Selectman Ken Flatto was reluctant to discuss the bid results because town officials hadn't analyzed them to ensure required work was included in all of the bids received. But Flatto said, "We're pleased we got a lot of bidders."

"This definitely appears to be a very competitive bidding environment, which we hope portends well for the project," Flatto said. "It would be premature to make a comment until the Purchasing Department looks at the budget and the unit pricing."

Flatto said the estimated construction budget was $22 million to $24 million, not including a contingency of 10 percent.

Flatto said he hopes the town will award the bid in about three weeks to the lowest qualified and responsive bidder, and it would then take about a week to draw up a contract.

Construction work identified in the bid documents involves sitework, grading, utilities, drainage, construction of an access road from the bottom of a state Department of Transportation bridge to Black Rock Turnpike, retaining walls, a parking lot of 1,300 to 1,500 spaces for rail commuters, remediation and capping of contaminated materials, and wetland mitigation.

The only bid alternate was paving for a 180-space parking lot by a proposed commuter waiting area building, according to town consultants.

Guerrera Construction, the apparent low bidder on the construction work, was awarded a contract a few months ago to improve off-site intersections by the Fairfield Metro Center property at a cost of $2.561 million.

STV Incorporated of Stratford was awarded a contract to inspect construction work at a cost of $984,770.

The Fairfield Metro Center would include the town's third railroad station, a parking lot for rail commuters and nearly 1 million square feet of commercial development. The DOT already is building a bridge from Frank and Timko streets, over Metro-North Railroad tracks and onto property owned by Blackrock Realty, LLC, the private developer. The DOT also is building train platforms.

Flatto said the DOT needs to review the bids opened today.

It became necessary for the town to assume control of construction work on public portions of the site - and for the state to contribute $19.4 million toward funding that work - after Blackrock Realty ran into financial problems. Blackrock Realty agreed to pay $5.2 million toward construction work on public portions of the Metro Center project.

Construction is expected to last 16 months.

The bid results for construction work on public portions, from lowest to highest, were:

Guerrera Construction Co.: $19.97 million (without the bid alternate); $20.16 million (with the bid alternate.)

Empire Paving: $20.84 million (without the bid alternate); $21.04 million (with the bid alternate.)

Manafort Bros Inc.: $21.43 million (without the bid alternate); $21.68 million (with the bid alternate.)

Cherry Hill Construction Inc.: $21.89 million (without the bid alternate); $21.99 million (with the bid alternate.)

Middlesex Corporation: $21.97 million (without the bid alternate); $22.25 million (with the bid alternate.)

Loureiro Contractors Inc.: $22.26 million (without the bid alternate); $22.47 million (with the bid alternate.)

Waters Construction Co.: $22.96 million (without the bid alternate); $23.23 million (with the bid alternate.)

Viking Construction: $25.94 million (without the bid alternate); $26.16 million (with the bid alternate.)

O & G Industries, Inc.: $26.34 million (without the bid alternate); $26.51 million (with the bid alternate.)

Giordano Construction Co.: $31.62 million (without the bid alternate); $31.75 million (with the bid alternate.)