Borst: Contractor Conflict May Have Worsened Flooding At Bridgeport Hall

By John Voket

Public Building and Site Commissioner Robert Mulholland said it appears “the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing” after hearing a report from First Selectman Joe Borst about a lack of coordination between separate contracting crews at Fairfield Hills, that Mr Borst said contributed to water intrusion into the basement of the future town hall.

During a review of progress at Bridgeport Hall, the future site of centralized municipal offices at the town-owned campus, the first selectman and town project representative William Knight discussed the apparent failure to communicate between workers prepping Greenwich Hall for demolition, and a second crew of town contractors charged with demolishing and filling tunnels used when the complex served as a state hospital.

Mr Knight said most of the standing water had been pumped out as of Monday, December 16, but silt from the runoff still had to be removed. He said the flooding was the result of “problems between the work going on at Greenwich Hall, and what’s going on [at Bridgeport Hall],” Mr Knight said.

“The work going on at Greenwich Hall has affected the amount of water coming into the building,” he continued. “There doesn’t seem to be any coordination between Claris, there’s also work that’s happened that shouldn’t have happened.”

“What else is new,” Mr Borst asserted.

Claris Construction is the construction firm for Peter D’Amico and the Newtown Youth Academy. In an arrangement with the town, Mr D’Amico agreed to retaining Claris and handling demolition of neighboring Greenwich Hall, and the construction of permanent parking and a greenway between what will be new town offices at Bridgeport Hall and his massive indoor recreation complex.

Mr Knight explained to the Public Building and Site Commission that Standard Demolition, a town contractor, was in the process of supporting the installation of utility infrastructure and restoration of the roadways.

“Standard [demolished] their part so they could put in the base for the road. They blocked off the tunnel and started waterproofing it. As soon as they started waterproofing it, Claris decided to tear it down,” Mr Knight said. Then, he said, intense rains fell subsequent to the removal of waterproofing, which caused the tunnel to fill up with water. The overflow of water runoff from the Greenwich Hall site flowed across Second Avenue and into the basement at Bridgeport Hall.

Site commission chairman Robert Mitchell said he wanted a representative from the Fairfield Hills Authority, Claris Construction, and the town’s project management to meet to determine how future coordination can be achieved among the numerous contractor crews working in the area.

Previous Conflicts

Town public works director Fred Hurley, who is overseeing or coordinating most of the work ongoing at Fairfield Hills, told The Bee that conflicts are inevitable “when you have three or four independent contractors on the same site, with restricted responsibilities but no overall responsibility for the entire site.”

Mr Hurley admitted the several inches of rain falling in a matter of hours after the waterproofing was removed by Claris crews would have caused some water intrusion into Bridgeport Hall regardless, and that in the future “everyone needs to work better together.”

While Mr Hurley could not pinpoint the total cost of the waterproofing and masonry work that was done and subsequently demolished within two days time, he said the expense was already factored into the contract.

“There was no added expense, but maybe we could have gotten a credit for it if we knew Claris was going to begin its work so soon,” Mr Hurley said.

He said the issue involved a “lack of cooperation between town contractors” who were subs for the project management firm O&G Industries, and Claris, the firm working on the Newtown Youth Academy and Greenwich Hall demolition. But Mr Hurley added that such conflicts are commonplace.

“I’ve seen it before on almost every public and private job I’ve ever worked on either with subs or the general contractors,” Mr Hurley said.

Contacted by The Bee, Claris Construction owner Phil Clark and company superintendent Fernando Goncalves took issue with the contention.

“This is the first we’re hearing about it,” Mr Clark said. “If it was such a big deal, don’t you think someone would have told us.”

Mr Goncalves said the only tunnel his contractors have done work on was on the opposite side of the street from the Bridgeport Hall site, and occurred behind a retaining wall that was built. Claris denies ever demolishing or removing any waterproofing, or any wall or masonry materials that would have contributed to flooding, Mr Clark insisted.

Voids Under Flooring

Mr Mitchell then turned his attention to the discovery of voids beneath some of the slab flooring at Bridgeport Hall, a condition that may have existed since the original concrete was poured when the building was constructed 70 years ago. He said areas of the slab will have to be removed and more than 3,000 square feet of the floor stabilized.

The change order to handle this extra work is estimated at about $60,600.

Mr Mulholland voiced his strong contention that the voids should have been discovered, and the leveling and filling should have been factored into an original bid.

Mr Mitchell countered that the situation may or may not have been developed, and that he would not have seen it if he was going out doing specs ahead of putting the project out to bid. Mr Mulholland maintained that the voids under the flooring should have been developed in the specs.

“This is basic construction here, especially in renovating a building this age,” he said.

Since there is almost no contingency money left on the town side to cover the extra work, the commission wants to gather more information to determine whether or not the issue should have been developed by the project manager.

“They should have known it,” Mr Mulholland said. “The contingency set up by the general contractor or manager is for omissions and mistakes they make. This subject is an omission in specs and has to come out of their contingency.”

In other Bridgeport Hall business, Mr Borst also reported to the Legislative Council this week that on Monday, December 22, a team from the state Department of Public Health will arrive on site to begin testing building materials for asbestos content. The testing will determine whether the level of asbestos in certain areas of both Greenwich Hall and Bridgeport Hall is sufficient to warrant hazardous materials treatment, or if demolition materials can be treated as general construction waste.

During his report to the council December 17, Mr Borst said town representatives went to Hartford to work with a high ranking deputy commissioner at the state health department to fast track testing and the processing of results because construction crews are ready to begin demolition work inside the buildings.