State Stiffs Town Out of $240K on Bridge Replacement

Fairfield taxpayers are on the hook for $240,000 because the state cancelled funding for a bridge replacement program - after a bridge in Fairfield's Southport neighborhood was built.

Town Fiscal Officer Paul Hiller said $240,000 is owed to a contractor for replacing two spans on Harbor Road over Southport Harbor and that the project initially was to be fully funded by federal and state grants. The federal government was to reimburse 80 percent of the cost, while the state was to reimburse 20 percent.

"We had signed agreements to that effect," Town Public Works Director Richard White said of the bridge replacement, which was first approved by the Representative Town Meeting about 12 years ago.

But the state cancelled funding for the program in 2009 after the bridge replacement was finished - but before town officials and the contractor had negotiated and settled a bill for work that wasn't foreseen when the project was first approved.

"The state changed the rules of the game, and we are short, basically, that amount of money," Hiller told members of the town's Board of Finance Thursday night.

Hiller said state Sen. John McKinney, R-Fairfield, had tried to get the $240,000 but it wasn't there and all avenues had been exhausted to get it.

Board of Finance Chairman Tom Flynn said, "My first inclination, upon hearing this, is it involves a bait and switch."

White said the state's cancellation of funds for bridge replacements not only pertained to future bridge projects but to those "already in the pipeline."

"They retroactively changed the program. We pleaded with our state legislators, certainly to the DOT [Department of Transportation] people, that we didn't think it was fair at all that projects in the pipeline would be affected by this," White said. "The $240,000 is what we're going to be short because the state grant isn't coming forward."

McKinney and state Reps. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, and Kim Fawcett, D-Fairfield, weren't immediately available Thursday afternoon to comment.

While the Harbor Road bridge was finished by 2009, the town and contractor at the time were still negotiating payment for a major change order that had been approved by the state. That change order was the result of the contractor discovering that bedrock in Southport Harbor was seven feet lower than anticipated. Contractors had to cordon off a section of water in the harbor in order to replace the two spans, which are separated by the Tide Mill Building, a structure that houses offices. "It's a big difference when you're at one level in the water and you have to construct seven feet below that," White said.

White said the $240,000 that had been negotiated was much lower than the contractor wanted. "He had a much larger number. It was two and-a-half times the amount we settled for," he said.

First Selectman Ken Flatto initially included the $240,000 under a list of capital improvement projects to be bonded that totaled $4.4 million.

But Board of Finance members said the $240,000 should be removed from the list and dealt with separately.

"I just think it's a separate conversation," board member Kevin Kiley said.