"They quit the night work at my insistence," Town Administrator Tom Landry told Daily Voice on Wednesday.
It's a state project, on a state road, and the Connecticut Department of Transportation hadn't filled in Landry on the logistics in advance. Nor are they required to.
Usually, the DOT has progress meetings on projects once a month, and Landry gets the minutes. "I didn't know anything about it," he said, regarding the overnight work.
On Monday night, workers began construction that will ultimately replace two culverts on Weston Road, where it crosses Kettle Creek. They worked from about 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., and the plan was to keep up that schedule through at least Thursday night.
But Landry got complaints and agreed those hours were unreasonable. He estimated that perhaps 20 houses are within a couple hundred yards of the worksite.
He got in touch with the project supervisor, who explained the DOT's reasons for wanting to do the work overnight. Landry said that he was quite clear about his position, telling the supervisor, "I really don't care; you can't do that."
Landry said the project supervisor was agreeable to changing the plan.
One possibility was that the work would close one lane at a time, which would be more inconvenient to drivers.
John Lee, an engineering supervisor for the DOT, confirmed to Daily Voice that the construction would now be daytime-only, though the hours weren't set yet. He thought they might be between 7 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Landry said he'd be fine with it running even later, if necessary.
"We'll explore different ways to handle traffic," Lee said. "We're going to try to shift the traffic, instead of closing a lane, if possible."
He also confirmed that the DOT would be paying for local police officers' time, as they were on scene to alleviate traffic and safety issues with the project.
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