CT Construction Digest Thursday December 13, 2018

Norwalk council extends bridge consultant’s contract, with conditions
Robert Koch    


NORWALK — The Norwalk Common Council on Tuesday extended Walk Bridge program manager Susan Prosi’s consulting contract with the city through mid-December 2019 after requiring that she provide quarterly reports and other information as requested.
In addition, any further contract extensions will be subject to council approval. 
The one-year renewal came after questions were raised about her diligence keeping some people — particularly Norwalk Harbor Commission and Shellfish Commission members — up to date on how the bridge replacement will impact Norwalk.

“We’ve talked about in committee about there’s no requirement for periodic reports,” said Council Minority Leader Douglas E. Hempstead, a District D Republican. “We thought the council was going to get like a quarterly report or something but when you read ... in here (the contract) there’s no requirements for reports.”

On Dec. 12, 2017, the council hired Prosi, former senior transportation manager for the South Western Regional Planning Agency, as Norwalk’s program manager for the Walk Bridge project. She was to serve as the point of contact between stakeholders, the city and various departments, and be responsible for developing priorities and advocating on the city’s behalf.

Prosi has worked in the Department of Public Works Office but reported to the Mayor’s Office. Her consulting fee has been $100 per hour for an average of 20 hours per week of work.
Speaking to the council Tuesday, Prosi said she’s attended more than 160 meetings concerning the bridge replacement and approximately 230 meetings with Laoise King, the mayor’s chief of staff. The consultant said she’s worked with Lockwood-Mathews Mansion and Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, among others, regarding mitigating the impacts of the project.
“We’d like to get as many improvements undertaken by the state as possible,” Prosi said. “If we can’t avoid the negative impacts, we are looking for ways to mitigate them and to advance enhancements, and the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion is one of the enhancements.”
Prosi noted that the state plans to replace the mansion’s historic fencing as one mitigation measure in the bridge replacement program.

Council President Thomas E. Livingston, a District E Democrat, noted Prosi has been on the job for year.

“By all accounts, it’s working,” Livingston said. “If it doesn’t work, we have a 30-day termination provision so we can terminate it (the contract) at any time.”
Livingston said Prosi has agreed to make a a full presentation on her work to the full council.
“At that point, I’d like to solicit input as to what topics we’d like to cover,” Livingston said.
 For the Norwalk Harbor Management Commission and Shellfish Commission, the harbor is foremost. Harbor Commission Vice Chairman John C. Romano, speaking on behalf of both commissions, asked the council to table action on the contract extension pending answers to questions.
“How does Ms. Prosi determine the city’s needs and interests when she’s interacting with the DOT and Eversource? How does Ms. Prosi intend to treat the recommendations of the harbor and the shellfish commissions? What does she intend to do to help the harbor and shellfish commissions, overall?” Romano asked. “Her contract should be renewed but not until these questions are satisfactory answered, because we need that interaction.”
The Connecticut Department of Transportation plans to begin replacing the 122-year-old Walk Bridge, which carries Amtrak and Metro-North Railroad trains over the Norwalk River, in late 2019 and take four to five years to complete the work. Track-and-signal upgrades are already underway on both sides of the bridge.

Designs unveiled for consolidated middle school in Groton
Kimberly Drelich 
 
Groton — Architects this week unveiled design plans for the approximately 155,000-square-foot new consolidated middle school proposed at the former Merritt Farm property near Fitch High School.
Superintendent Michael Graner said the Permanent School Building Committee and a group of educators, from teachers to administrators of both middle schools, worked hard with the architects to ensure the design for the new middle school meets the needs of both the arts and humanities program currently at Cutler Arts and Humanities Magnet Middle School and the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math program at West Side STEM Magnet Middle School.
At a Board of Education Committee of the Whole special meeting Monday, also attended by members of the Town Council and the Permanent School Building Committee, representatives from The S/L/A/M Collaborative, the architecture firm, and Arcadis, a design and consultancy firm which is assisting the town with the school projects, gave a presentation on the plans that the Board of Education is slated to vote on next month.  
"We’re really happy this middle school will become a part of the Fitch campus and really allow you to share resources between those two very important schools in your district," said Amy Samuelson, senior associate at The S/L/A/M Collaborative, as she pointed out the site of the future middle school on the corner of Fort Hill and Groton Long Point Roads.
The proposed middle school building nestles down into the hillside, so the second floor serves as the building entrance on the east side, while the lower level floor is the building entrance from the west side, she said. They are connected by a main concourse.
Samuelson said two entrances are proposed for the site. One will be through the Fitch High School parking lot, a configuration that allows for the potential sharing of buses. Buses will enter through the high school driveway and proceed to the middle school site and pull up at the entrance at the second floor of the middle school building.
For the second entrance to the site, drivers will proceed a little way up through the shared driveway with Ella T. Grasso Technical High School and then take a route up to the new middle school site, she said. Parents will be directed from the Fort Hill Road entrance and will drop off at the lower level entrance to the school.
The site will include a full-size field for athletic events, a smaller field and a softball field, Samuelson said.
The building calls for an academic wing, along with features such as makerspace and engineering labs for STEM programs, spaces for art, graphic arts and A/V production, a black-box theater that can be configured in different ways to accommodate performance and seating needs, a cafeteria space developed "as the heart of the building," a library/media center with flexible furniture and acoustic ceiling clouds, and a physical education department that includes a movement studio, fitness room and full-size gymnasium, according to the presentation.  Superintendent Michael Graner said Fitch students will be able to use the black-box theater, while middle school students may want to use the high school's theater.
Samuelson said the interior of the building will be set up with a warm wood tone and neutral colors for the floors and walls of the building, with splashes of color. Each floor will have a representative color that will make it easy for people getting on and off the elevator or the stairs to identify the floor.
Assistant Superintendent Susan Austin said students from West Side STEM Magnet Middle School are working on designing a STEM outdoor classroom space.
After the presentation, architects provided answers to questions they were asked, including explaining the building's security features and that there is room for expansion if the town's middle school student population increases in the future.
The Board of Education is anticipated to continue discussions on the plans on Dec. 17 and vote on them on Jan. 7.
Permanent School Building Committee Chairman Bob Austin-LaFrance said the project is within budget and on schedule. After the Board of Education approves the plans, the committee then would certify to the town that the plans meet the educational specifications no later than Jan. 10. A meeting with the state for final plan review is slated for Jan. 15.
"We expect to hear back from the state no later than the 25th of January, and if that’s the case, then we’ll be able to go out to bid as soon as we get that word from the state," Austin-LaFrance said. He added that the building was designed to be as flexible and usable as possible within budget.
The initial work with site preparation is slated to begin in mid-March, and the school is anticipated to be completed by July of 2020 for opening in the fall of 2020, Graner said.