The excavation of a hillside along River Road to carve out space for a commercial building has turned into a “nightmare” for a neighbor after part of the hill collapsed.
John Wardowski lives at the end of Turner Road, a short, private road overlooking River Road.
His home now overlooks a cliff, after a rock-blasting mishap swallowed the “buffer zone” between his property and the construction site.
“I never envisioned a 45-foot vertical drop straight down,” he told members of the Shelton Planning and Zoning Commission March 12, adding that if anyone slipped off the edge of the property it would mean “certain death.”
Shoreline Blasting, the company hired to do the blasting work, did not return calls for comment.
Background
Bishop Management owns land at 781 – 785 River Road, underneath Wardowski’s property. The company also owns the Connecticut Sports Center, across the street on River Road.
In 2011, the company won approvals from the Shelton Planning and Zoning Commission to change 781 – 785 River Road’s zoning from residential to commercial.
That paved the way for the developer to build a retail building on the site, the construction of which required the blasting of rock ledge.
But, in December, after extensive blasting and material removal had taken place, the side of the “rock cut” collapsed — and carried with it a 25-foot buffer zone meant to separate Wardowski’s property from the retail property.
The collapse left Wardowski’s house perched precariously at the edge of a steep cliff.
Shelton Planning and Zoning Administrator Rick Schultz slapped a stop work order on the troubled project in December. The stop work order was revised in January, requiring the developer to propose a remediation plan.
The city’s Planning and Zoning Commission hosted a public hearing on the corrective plan March 12.
Schultz laid the blame on the developer’s failure to do adequate test borings on the hillside, which would have revealed that it contained lots of loose rock and gravel and was not solid bedrock as the developer thought.
Wardowski said the blasting company’s own seismic monitoring data show the blasting contractor set explosive charges that exceeded the limits set by town and state regulations.
Wardowski said the data show ground vibrations of about four inches per second, although the regulations’ limit is two inches per second.
Wardowski’s neighbor, Gabriela Kirnagova, said the dynamite blasting damaged a water service line under Turner Road.
She said she discovered that the water pipe was broken when she received a $2,000 water bill, and Aquarion, her water company, told her she had to fix it at her own expense.
The two residents say they have had trouble getting a response from the blasting company’s insurance company.
“Just to try to get someone out to the house has been an absolute nightmare,” Wardowski said.
Great Wall Of Shelton?
In order to restore the land that collapsed, James Swift, Bishop Management’s civil engineer, presented a plan March 12 calling for a nearly vertical retaining wall to be built.
Joan Flannery, a member of the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission, asked how the developer planned to stop Wardowski’s house from falling into the excavation pit.
Bishop Management partner Joe Grasso promised that would not happen.
“This wall will last well over 100 years,” he said.
Swift said the plan would put the house about 28 feet from the edge of the pit, although the original plan was for about 40 feet (the 25-foot buffer, plus Wardowski’s 15-foot side yard).
The other commissioners were concerned with the aesthetic appearance of the retaining wall.
Grasso said that could be improved by dying the concrete or planting ivy to grow on it.
The commission voted to authorize Bishop Management to begin work on the retaining wall, but they must seek additional approval from the commission before actually pouring concrete.
The commission will take the issue up again at its April 9 meeting, when it will review the plan for the fence and vegetation screening at the top of the retaining wall.
Blasted Past
After the public hearing, while the commission was deliberating on the stop work order, commission member Virginia Harger said she was surprised that something like this could happen in Shelton.
Blasting along Lane Street in Huntington Center about a decade ago damaged a number of residents’ private wells.
In response, Shelton rewrote its blasting regulations, and they became a model for revisions to the state regulations.
Meanwhile, Wardowski said he hasn’t contacted a lawyer — yet.
“They’re saying they removed the land and they can’t put it back,” he said of the missing 25-foot buffer strip. “They’re going to put part of it back.”
He doesn’t think that’s good enough, especially if it leaves a 45-foot vertical drop just a few yards from his back door.
