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Construction began in Wilton, Conn. to mitigate flooding at the high school sports complex damaged by Hurricane Ida. A $1.425M grant will fund a retaining wall and drainage system. Phase one targets the football field, with phase two starting post-July 4th. Project aims for Oct. 1 completion.
Mon February 03, 2025 - Northeast Edition
A construction project aimed at mitigating problems with flooding at a Connecticut high school's sports complex began Feb. 3, the Norwalk Hour reported.
Wilton's Public Works Director Frank Smeriglio brought forth the initial plans for the project in April 2022 after Hurricane Ida damaged Wilton High School's turf football field and new track the year before, a project that had cost the town $1 million to complete.
In 2023, Wilton municipal officials received $1.425 million as part of a federal Housing and Urban Development grant to build a concrete retaining wall to prevent flooding from the stream behind the school's sports complex. In addition, the funding also would pay for the cost to install a drainage system designed to divert water from the stream to nearby Cider Mill Pond, according to the proposal.
Then, the track at Wilton High School's Veterans Memorial Field was damaged again last summer after torrential rain and widespread flooding devastated parts of Connecticut and resulted in three deaths. The Wilton town board approved $175,000 in September to repair the track while the bidding and approval process for the project continued.
A few days prior to the construction's kickoff, Smeriglio told the Hour that the town had already started to mobilize on the project.
"We've all been concerned about getting this started as soon as possible before we have another major rain event," said Joshua Cole, a member of the Wilton Board of Selectmen at its Jan. 21 meeting.
Dayton Construction in Watertown, Conn. secured the bid for the flood mitigation project at the session.
According to the Hour, Smeriglio told town officials that the bids were higher than expected, resulting in a decrease in the contingency budget, which covers any incidental costs accrued throughout construction. The funding proposal shows a cut from $200,408 to $63,670 in the amount allotted for contingencies, the newspaper reported.
"Contingency is an issue with any project," Smeriglio said, but added that he always tries to give the town board an idea of what to expect when it comes to extra costs.
Despite the higher-than-anticipated figures, Dayton Construction held the lowest bid, he told Wilton officials.
"This is the first phase [of the project]," he noted, "but we have to finish in time for the high school sports season."
The initial part of the flood mitigation at Wilton High is scheduled to be completed by March 15 and will include the installation of a retaining wall and berm adjacent to the football field, Smeriglio told the Hour in an email.
"We also plan to conduct utility test pits to locate existing utilities needed for Phase Two work," he wrote.
Construction on that phase of work is slated to start just after Wilton's Fourth of July celebration. It will include installing an elliptical drainage pipe on the north side of the field that will connect the stream to Cider Mill Pond, Smeriglio said.
The town's proposal calls for the entire project to be completed by Oct. 1.
Questions posed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) slowed the permitting process for Phase Two, but Smeriglio said Wilton town leaders have time before the start of that work to go through the federal agency's queries and supply it with answers.
He admitted, though, that the USACE requires "so many environmental permits."
But the USACE, along with several other agencies, Smeriglio said, is responsible for environmental protection and its questions have focused primarily on the location of the pipe to be installed in the second phase of work at the high school sports complex.