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FAIRFIELD, Conn. The towns elected officials handed Interim First Selectman Michael Tetreau an exhaustive list of 58 questions about the troubles surrounding the Fairfield Metro train station construction project. This week, he released as many answers as he could to the public.
A few members of the Representative Town Meeting and the Board of Finance asked when the station would be done and whether it would cost the town more to have it finished ahead or behind schedule. Tetreau said the contractor working on the project, Guerrera Construction, expects to finish by October.
Guerreras speed will cost the town more money than a delay would have. The contract gives the construction company a bonus of $3,000 for every week ahead of schedule if it completes its work before Nov. 7. If the town forced it to slow down, either through a request or a stall in the funding, Fairfields taxpayers would still have to pay these fees as a penalty.
So how much will the train station construction cost Fairfields taxpayers? The town already paid $6 million in 2003 as part of its original agreement with the Department of Transportation and Black Rock Realty. Tetreau said in his first report to the Representative Town Meeting that the unexpected extra costs would add $2.4 million and $6.4 million to that bill.
Tetreau said in his emails that he was looking into ways to save money after he found out about the unexpected costs of dealing with the contaminated soil found on the site. One idea was using the Department of Public Works to take care of some tasks, as it did with the recently finished Penfield Pavilion. Another was finding a way to keep the contaminated dirt on the site under a cement or asphalt cap, which would save as much as $2 million.
But on Wednesday, Tetreau said he would not have anything more specific than his previously stated range until he hires a project manager to take over and the independent auditors make their report. Some of [the cost] depends on negotiations that we have ongoing, Tetreau said. We hope to keep everybody updated.
Have your own questions about the Fairfield Metro Center project? Send them to gcanuel@thedailyfairifeld.com.
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