Not Again! Who’s Accountable?

The repair was supposed to take only a year. Now three years into the closure of the State Street bridge, and $20 million in added costs later, the state has announced it won’t finish the job until at least the summer of 2015— prompting one state legislator to offer to try for ​“disaster relief” for businesses near New Haven’s public-works ​“money pit.”

That latest news — at once almost too familiar and shockingly frustrating to people in Goatville and Cedar Hill — emerged at a public meeting Tuesday night.

The bridge, which crosses the Mill River underneath I‑91, has been closed for repair since October 2010, cutting off beleaguered business owners, travelers and neighbors from a main thoroughfare in town.

Since that time, seemingly everything that could go wrong with the project, has gone wrong.

Not only has the repair timeline expanded fivefold, so has the cost. What was to be a one-year, $5 million project, is now expected to be a 5‑year, $25 million project. Click here, here, here, here, and here for full background on the can of worms.

“This is probably the worst project, with this type of impact and delays, that I’ve ever seen,” said Brian Mercure, an engineer with the state Department of Transportation. He made the latest reopening estimate to a group of about 20 displeased neighbors at the meeting Tuesday evening at East Rock Community Magnet School.

Mercure, who said he has 30 years in construction, referred to the bridge repair project as ​“a perfect storm” and a ​“money pit.” 

Neighbors called for ​“accountability” and asked what the state will do to compensate them for lost business and increased crime.

“What’s the penalty to the state?” asked Larry Cohen (at right in photo), who owns 1040 State St., known as the Star Supply building.

State Rep. Roland Lemar said he plans to look into some kind of business assistance program modeled after those that follow natural disasters like super-storms Irene and Sandy.

“I think people deserve to be pissed off,” he said. ​“I think we have to create something brand new.”

Anatomy Of A Disaster

Mercure (pictured) laid out the litany of snafus and complications that have turned a relatively simple bridge repair into an epic, interminable struggle of man against mayhem, a morass of malfunctions fueled by an ever increasing quantity of taxpayer dollars.

The trouble began immediately at the commencement of the project. In May 2009, workers discovered that a water main was in the way of construction. That 42-inch-diameter pipe had to be relocated. That took a year.

The state closed the bridge in October 2010. Workers soon found that an I‑91 support footing was in the way of a planned cofferdam — a temporary dam to create a dry area to work. This setback, like all the others, required a redesign of the plans and a renegotiation with contractor, CJ Fucci. That again significantly lengthened the project timeline.

Next, when workers tried to build the eastern part of the new bridge’s substructure, they found contaminated groundwater that had to be treated. That halted the project yet again.

When workers went to work on the west side, they uncovered contaminated groundwater there as well. Workers began pumping the water out to treat it. They realized eventually that they were pulling groundwater through contaminated soil.

“The volume of water went out of this world,” Mercure said. To handle all the contamination, the state brought in special filtering equipment, then decided the whole project needed to be redesigned. In all, the state spent $12 million on water treatment.

The state began driving piles — supports — for the bridge. Bedrock is deep at the site, so engineers rely on friction from the soil to support the bridge. But tests kept showing that the piles weren’t long enough, didn’t have sufficient friction to support the bridge.

Workers rammed piles 215 feet deep before they found enough friction. Mercure said that’s ​“the longest pile I’ve ever driven in my life.” As a comparison, he said, the piles for the Q Bridge are 160 feet deep.

As they were driving piles, workers found that the water main and the footings for I‑91 had settled three inches. All the pounding on the piles had begun to shift the supports holding up the highway.

“We had to stop working,” Mercure said. ​“We needed to think of a new way.” Workers began meticulously measuring the position of all footings. They would then drive piles, stop, check the measurements to make sure nothing had shifted, then continue driving. The process slowed the project significantly.

Then the state performed a different test on the piles and determined workers didn’t need to go to 215 feet after all. Just to 140 feet down.

The piles on the west side were completed this year. The state then determined that the piles on the east would be too close to the I‑91 footings, requiring yet another re-design.

On the east side, the state will use ​“micro-piles,” which require less pounding. The first test piles will go in next month. If micro-piles don’t work, the state will have to do another re-design, Mercure said.

Disbelief

“We started our business the exact moment you shut down the bridge,” Carla O’Brien (pictured) told Mercure. She was at the meeting with husband Eric O’Brien, with whom she owns Crossfit New Haven, on the east side of the bridge.

“We’re seeing higher crime” due to the diminished traffic, Carla told Mercure.

“We’re seeing the same thing,” Mercure replied. He said the state has had to increase security at the job site.

“Why can’t the state pay for our security?” said Cohen.

Mercure suggested Cohen contact the state’s economic development department.

East Rock developer Bob Frew said his tenant Chestnut Fine Foods might go out of business because the bridge project has eliminated passing traffic. ​“Who’s liable?” he asked.

Mercure referred him also to economic development.

Cohen tried again. ​“Who’s accountable?” he said, calling the project a ​“disaster.”

Mercure said the state keeps track of all design problems as it goes. ​“We add it all up at the end.” The state is avoiding a fight with the project’s design contractor while the project is still incomplete, Mercure said.

“They don’t believe that you’re going to get it done in a year,” Lemar told Mercure.

“My credibility is shot,” Mercure said. ​“I agree with you there.”

Carla asked if the state might install a temporary crossing, just for pedestrians, before the bridge is reopened to cars.

That idea was shot down by acting City Engineer Larry Smith. ​“There’s no money in the budget for that,” he said.

Carla later said she doesn’t understand how the state can pay $12 million for water treatment but can’t put in a temporary footbridge.

The state did agree to install more lighting around the perimeter of the work site, and to provide regular status updates through a weekly email.

As he left the meeting, Cohen said he doesn’t believe the bridge will be done when the state says it will.

The O’Briens said they don’t believe the new timetable either.

Outside the school, Lemar spoke of his plan to try to secure assistance for people affected by the man-made State Street bridge disaster, the way the state helps people affected by natural disasters. ​“That’s what I’m going to get started on.”