Mayor Smacks Deadline on Maple Street Bridge Project

Mayor April Capone has told the contractor for the Maple Street Bridge replacement project that if construction is not completed by July 1, the town might seek financial penalties.

Mayoral aide Paul Hongo told the Town Council about the mayor’s ultimatum in response to a question from Councilman Paul Cofrancesco at the Council’s meeting Tuesday.

If the bridge isn’t finished by July 1, Hongo said the town is entitled to penalize the contractor, Old Colony Construction, $1,300 a day, although city officials hope it doesn’t come to that.

He said the mayor and deputy director of town affairs Ralph Mauro believe the bridge can be completed in two months.

Cofrancesco said he was concerned about the slow pace of the bridge project because Maple Street is the direct route to Hays School for emergency vehicles. The Board of Education plans to move the Pathways special education program to Hays School in September, and if the bridge is out of order, there is no direct emergency access, he said.

Capone told the company about the deadline about two weeks ago, and she has since then visited the construction site several times a week. 

"She said, ‘Guys, I need a bridge built,’” Hongo said.

She also plans to visit residents of the Foxon neighborhood to listen to their complaints, said the director of town affairs.

The mayor’s office has received numerous complaints but most residents are understanding and mostly just want to be kept informed, he said. 

Hongo said the major delays for the bridge project were the exceptionally snowy winter and a snafu over the relocation of a major sewer trunk line linking North Branford to New Haven Sewer Authority sewage treatment plants.

The sewer line, which follows the Farm River, must be relocated around the bridge support pilings, but that was overlooked when the new bridge was designed, he said.

And the oversight wasn’t discovered until last fall, about two months before the original completion date.

Hongo said the contractor submitted a change order in October, but the Connecticut Department of Transportation lost track of it when its leadership was changed by the incoming Malloy administration after the election.

The bridge replacement is a town-sponsored project, but the state will reimburse East Haven for 80 percent of the cost.

However, the involvement of the state DOT and the New Haven Sewer Authority have added two additional layers of bureaucratic red tape that seems to be complicating every decision.

Hongo told the Town Council that Capone doesn’t believe there is a good reason for the extended delay because it is a state-funded project.

"Everybody knows they will get paid," he said.

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