Problems heating up for DOT

As the Courant is reporting, the problems for all involved in the I-84 debacle continue to worsen as lawsuits are beginning to fly (by Edmund H. Mahony)...

A contractor hired to inspect improvements to I-84 ignored a report that the work was being done improperly and with substandard material, according to a suit the state filed Tuesday to recover the millions of dollars it expects to lose on the disastrous highway project. In the suit, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal named the state Department of Transportation's two primary contractors on the I-84 job - the now-defunct L.G. DeFelice Inc. and the Maguire Group Inc. - as well as several of their officers and employees.

And along with the fact that this debacle happened in Cheshire, there appears to be a Washington connection, as well as another Cheshire twist...

Blumenthal claims that a Maguire supervisory inspector, William Fritz, was told by a DeFelice worker that DeFelice was doing "substandard work," some of which involved unacceptable materials, such as unapproved drainage pipe."

Defendant Fritz, aware of the defects and aware of the use of substandard materials, told the worker to go away and not to advise him any further of any deficient work," according to the suit.

Fritz, who has resigned from Maguire and is now Clinton's first selectman, denied participating in such a conversation.

"I don't remember ever saying that and I wouldn't," Fritz said. "Come on, that's bizarre." Fritz said he cannot explain how so many construction lapses - lapses his team of inspectors were paid to catch - went undetected.

"I don't know. I've been asked that question many times," he said.

Do you see the Washington connection? Repeat after me... Al-ber-to Gon-za-lez!

As for the Cheshire twist, according to the Clinton DTC (click here and scroll down), their website includes a photo with the description "Democratic First Selectman Candidate William "Willie" Fritz, his wife, Sondra, mother, State Rep Mary Fritz." And never to be left out of a photo, AG Blumenthal is forever captured in a photograph with, apparently, the man who he is now suing! Oh boy... our politics do get juicy!

No, no, no... in all seriousness, the alleged poor performance of William Fritz is not meant to reflect on Rep. Fritz or AG Blumenthal in any way. I just thought it would be worth doing a little fact-finding as, a few months ago, someone anonymously mentioned here that the I-84 inspector was Mary Fritz' son. And, apparently, that statement was true. However, while this shouldn't reflect on them, if I were a Clinton resident, I'd certainly be asking lots of questions of my 1st Selectman.

And while that covers the article in today's Courant, they also ran an editorial in which they state

Not only will the installation of about 300 defective storm drains go down as one of the worst highway construction failures in state history, it followed other contracting irregularities at the DOT that have raised concerns at the Federal Highway Administration. The federal agency largely funds those projects. The misdeeds include an alleged scheme to rig contracts for repairing highway cracks and another plot to rig contracts for the renovation of the New Haven train station.

And I thought that Rte 42 was a messed up job!

Near the end, the editorial just about says it all when discussing the reluctance on the part of the DOT to comply with the Feds' new requirements for a formal plan to remediate the problems:

it is shocking to hear DOT nabobs - their credibility in tatters - respond that a formal plan isn't necessary because they have already measured the harm.What makes the DOT's reluctance to cooperate with the Federal Highway Administration all the more shocking is that DOT officials have yet to offer a plausible explanation for their own failure to conduct the oversight that might have prevented the disaster.

Unfortunately, the editorial left out one small piece: DOT Commissioner Ralph Carpenter needs to go, then the real house cleaning needs to start.

Tim White