Metro Center Construction Work Goes Out to Bid Today

The town today solicited bids for an estimated $24 million to $26 million worth of construction work at the Fairfield Metro Center, a project by the town, state and a private developer that envisions the town's third train station, a rail commuter parking lot and nearly 1 million square feet of commercial development on 35.5 acres at 21 Black Rock Turnpike.

"That one is for the actual construction," Town Engineer William Hurley said this afternoon of the second bid to be posted. "We have two of them going on - one is for the inspection and one is for the construction."

Today's bid solicitation follows an earlier bid solicitation for a consultant to oversee and inspect the construction work and another bid solicitation, from February,  for a contractor to improve off-site intersections to handle heavier traffic.

The town's Purchasing Department said today that a contract for work on off-site intersections had been awarded to Guerrera Construction Co. in Oxford at a cost of $2.561 million. The town was responsible for paying for that work out of an original $6 million funding request approved by town boards, but later received $2.2 million in federal stimulus money for the work. First Selectman Ken Flatto said last week that about $5 million is left of the original $6 million funding request approved by town boards.

Today's bid solicitation involves sitework; grading; utilities; drainage; construction of an access road from the base of a state Department of Transportation bridge, across the property and onto Black Rock Turnpike; retaining walls; construction of the rail commuter parking lot; remediation and capping of contaminated materials on the property, which once was home to a foundry; and wetland mitigation.

Bids for the work are due at 11 a.m. June 2 in Sullivan-Independence Hall, and bidders can attend a non-mandatory pre-bid conference at 1 p.m. Monday in Sullivan-Independence Hall.

Construction is estimated to last 480 days (16 months) and the contractor will be penalized $3,000 for every day work exceeds that length of time, unless the town is responsible for a delay through a change in plans or through suspending work for reasons other than the contractor's failure to comply with specifications for the work.

Bid documents posted today estimate the cost of the construction project at $24 million to $26 million, while bid documents for the inspector's job had listed it at slightly less - $23 million to $25 million.

Work already being done by the DOT includes construction of a bridge from Frank and Timko streets, over Metro-North Railroad tracks and onto the 35.5-acre property; platforms for the train station; and a drop-off area north of the tracks.

The town has $29.6 million available for public portions of the Fairfield Metro Center project - $19.4 million from the state, $5.2 million from the developer, Blackrock Realty, LLC, and about $5 million left over from the $6 million approved several years ago by town boards.

The town is responsible for paying for overages, according to an agreement between the town and DOT, so the bid openings June 2 for the construction part of the project should give town officials a good idea if the town has enough money available for the work.

The town is opening bids for the inspection part of the project at 11 a.m. Monday in Sullivan-Independence Hall and plans to interview two to four finalists for that job beginning at 9 a.m. May 20 in Sullivan-Independence Hall.

It became necessary for the town and state to do public portions of the Fairfield Metro Center that had been the responsibility of Blackrock Realty when Blackrock Realty ran into financial difficulties and TD Banknorth, which had loaned Blackrock money, began foreclosure proceedings against the developer.

TD Banknorth withdrew its foreclosure action on April 29 after the state agreed to pay $19.4 million toward completing the public portions of the project, and town and state officials, including Gov. M. Jodi Rell, announced that a deal had been reached to get the project finished.