Guerrera Construction Co. is Likely Metro Center Contractor

First Selectman Ken Flatto expects work to begin on public portions of the Fairfield Metro Center by the end of July, saying Monday night that the town was vetting Guerrera Construction Co. of Oxford to do construction work on the project.

"It's probably going to take another week to finish that due diligence process," Flatto told the Representative Town Meeting. "Our hope is work and mobilization will begin in about three weeks. We're very hopeful a firm will be under way at the site in three weeks; maybe four weeks, but we're hoping for three weeks."

"Our belief is the budget is intact and the bid will be awarded very, very soon," Flatto added.

Guerrera Construction had submitted the lowest of 10 bids to do construction work on public portions of the 35.5-acre Metro Center property at 21 Black Rock Turnpike. Guerrera's bid was $19.97 million, without a bid alternate. With the bid alternate, Guerrera's bid was $20.16 million. The bid alternate is to create a 180-space parking lot by a proposed commuter waiting area.

Flatto said Guerrera Construction, previously hired by the town for $2.561 million to improve off-site intersections to handle heavier traffic, was acceptable to the state Department of Transportation, which is one of three parties involved with building the Fairfield Metro Center. The others are the town and Blackrock Realty, LLC, a private developer.

Construction on public portions of the Metro Center is expected to last 480 days, or 16 months, which would put the completion date in November 2011. Flatto said Guerrera thinks it can finish within that timeframe and may be able to get done sooner.

The Fairfield Metro Center, first announced by town officials in 2000, is a massive project that involves construction of the town's third train station, a motor vehicle bridge from Frank and Timko streets over Metro-North Railroad tracks and onto the property, from 1,300 to 1,500 surface parking spaces for train commuters and, as originally envisioned and approved by town commissions, nearly 1 million square feet of commercial development.

The DOT is building the motor vehicle bridge and platforms for the train station, and Blackrock Realty, LLC would be responsible for building any commercial buildings on the property. Kurt Wittek, a managing director at Blackrock Realty, said last spring that the company planned to build office buildings, a 180-room hotel and retail space.

The public portions of the project that would be done by Guerrera Construction include sitework; grading; utilities; drainage; construction of an access road from the bottom of the DOT bridge, across the property and to Black Rock Turnpike; retaining walls; the surface parking lot for train commuters; remediation and capping of contaminated material; and wetland mitigation, according to bid documents.

STV Incorporated of Stratford was previously hired by the town to inspect construction work on public portions at a cost of $984,770.

The construction work on public portions is being paid out of a pool of money from the town, state and Blackrock Realty. The state put in $19.6 million ($300,000 of which is in services); Blackrock Realty put in $5.2 million and the town has about $5 million left from a $6 million bonding authorization previously approved by the RTM, according to Flatto.