Q Ave. Re-Do Becomes a Re-Deux

Mayor DeStefano allayed fears of traffic-and-accident-weary Quinnipiac Avenue residents with a new strategy to get repairs moving — by splitting the project in half.

The project, at least ten years in the gestation, runs from Clifton Street on the north to Judith Terrace south of Ferry Street. It envisions major traffic-calming measures, such as roundabouts and medians, as well as a rebuilding of sidewalks and retaining walls.

It could not be undertaken, DeStefano explained to a filled-to-capacity room at the Pilgrim Church on East Grand Avenue Thursday night, until the re-opening of the Ferry Street Bridge. In those six years the cost has increased, largely due to the astronomical rise in oil-based construction materials, from an initial $6 million to close to $11 million.

Click here for more details on the design and high level of community involvement in the project.

A second anxiety palpable among the avenue’s residents is that the Grand Avenue Bridge would have a sudden and catastrophic breakdown, as the Ferry Street Bridge experienced. The nightmare scenario: all the avenue’s re-do funds would have to be diverted to emergency bridge repairs.

City Engineer Richard Miller (pictured on the left), who was part of the mayor’s technical entourage, allayed that fear. The bridge is in fair condition, he said. While steps would need to be taken to plan for its repair, work could proceed first on the redo of the avenue. The design of the re-do is complete and awaiting DOT approval in Hartford, expected at the end of September.

“So as to the avenue,” said the mayor, ​“I suggest that we divide the project in to two main phases. The first larger phase would be a rebuild from approximately Ferry Street north to Clifton. That would cost about $8 million. The second phase, the avenue toward the south from Ferry, would include the relocation of the Buckeye Company pipeline, would cost approximately $3 million.”

The expenses related to Buckeye, whose pipeline over an abandoned railroad bridge just east of the avenue would need to be removed, have presented a problem that may take time to resolve; the company’s pipeline, carrying jet fuel, runs the whole length of Quinnipiac Avenue, some three to four feet under the surface.

With Buckeye in a phase two, work could begin on about three quarters of the re-do

Also at issue:Buckeye, as well as some 69 property owners along Quinnipiac Avenue, are obtaining rights of way and in some cases property takings (usually slivers of land only), that the state requires before work can begin.

Robert W. Ike of the State Department of Transportation said that 41 of the 69 are in hand, and the balance could be by the spring of 2009. He fended off attacks by some residents that DOT was slow out of the gate to obtain the requisite permissions.

However by relegating Buckeye to a phase two, and expediting the outstanding rights of way for the first phase, the mayor suggested bids to do the work might go out as early as the summer of 2009. In a very nuts-and-bolts problem solving style that impressed the Fair Haveners, the mayor suggested that the city’s portion of the right of way fees due residents, which Ike said was also contributing to the delay, would be solved within 30 days.

The money for the reconstruction of the avenue is coming from some $6.7 million in the Council on Government (COG) budget, which the mayor would ask to be divided into the next two fiscal years. ​“I’m frankly not worried about where the balance will come from,” he said. ​“I’m reasonably certain I can find it from COG,” he said, ​“and other sources.”

This was music to the ears of people like Tyler Gagliardi (standing with Miller at the re-do’s design). It was his truck that was crushed by a speeder on Quinnipiac Avenue last Friday. ​“I’m a blue collar guy,” Gagliardi said. ​“If the mayor hadn’t come up with this plan, I think I would have tossed a few eggs his way.”

Melissa Stahl said she was pleased too. She lives on Quinnipiac at Clifton, near the north end of the re-do project. ​“I sent in all our papers, and the state is going to rebuild all our sidewalks, which is great since there aren’t any there. They’ve washed out in the rain. And for that they give is about $700. Listen, it’s a great deal, and I’d happily give the $700 back to the state to move this along.”

“If only Buckeye,” quipped the mayor, ​“had the same generous spirit.”

Chris Ozyck, the avenue’s chief activist and in many ways one of the godfathers of the re-do, also liked what he heard. ​“We got some of the answers we were seeking, and we pointed out gaps, like the delay in the rights of way, that mayor is attending to. Most of all I sense they are as eager as we are to get this project done. The point is: just begin! The longer you delay, the more it costs, and if they just begin, they have to finish it!”

The mayor said he would return in 30 days with a schedule in writing reflecting the discussions. Interim measures to improve the deteriorating sidewalks and to prevent drag-racing, a perennial hazard, will also be presented at the next gathering, scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 23.

He also committed to requesting, as one of his priorities, $800,000 from the state for a design study of what needs to be done with the Grand Avenue Bridge — repair or reconstruction. That project, which he guesstimated might begin in 2013, could cost as much as $20 million.