Stonington — The Board of Finance on Wednesday awarded a $338,445 bid to Suchocki & Sons, Inc. of Preston to repair the South Anguilla Road Bridge.

The five bids for the work ranged from $322,334 to $396,000, with the low bid coming from Old Colony Construction of Clinton.

After the bids were reviewed and reference checks were completed by consultant WMC Engineers of Newington, the bid was awarded to the second lowest bidder, explained Town Engineer Christopher Greenlaw.

In a memo to the board, Greenlaw wrote that Old Colony Construction, “has a performance history of extended project timelines and schedules that would drive increases for construction, admin[istration], and inspection at a minimum.”

He also said the town’s bid documents state that it reserves the right to not select the lowest bid.

In a report compiled by WMC, Old Colony was reported to have the necessary experience and that the references provided by the company all confirmed that the company’s work was of acceptable quality.

“All references agreed that the projects all took longer to complete and were behind schedule for various reasons, some legitimate, but many not in their opinion. For one project, originally scheduled to be completed in one year, the project has taken over two years. This required additional time and costs for construction administration and inspection,” the report stated.

Jay Costello, co-owner of WMC, told the board he called multiple municipalities that had undertaken similar bridge work in the past four to five years. Of the five municipalities that returned his calls, a number of issues that would drive up costs were reported, including a large number of change orders, higher than typical administrative costs and numerous Requests For Information.

Old Colony Managing Member Michelle Murano Neri pushed back against the claims, initially presented at the Dec. 1 Board of Selectmen’s meeting.

In a December 2 email she wrote, “OCC takes exception to their (WMC) comments found in the meeting minutes,” and added that the company takes pride in the quality of its work and has done work for the town in the past which resulted in a recommendation for future projects.

Board Member Michael Fauerbach asked Greenlaw if he had confirmed any of the claims in the WMC report, and Greenlaw said he had spoken with a municipality and corroborated the information.

The work Suchocki & Sons will perform includes milling and repaving the road, building new guide walls and installing new guide rails which will extend onto the shoulder before and after the bridge.

Additionally, a membrane will be laid under the new roadway to keep road salt and water from getting into cracks and crevices in the concrete substructure where it can cause deterioration, which Greenlaw said will help extend the life of the bridge by another 20 to 25 years.

“Although this is one of our better bridges overall, like anything else, it’s a 1940’s bridge. We want to try to get 75 to 100 years out of our bridges,” he said, adding that spending the money to repair and protect the bridge now, will save money in the long run.

Design plans call for one-way alternating traffic on the bridge during construction, but there will be some parts of the project which will require closing the bridge and using a detour. Installing the protective membrane may see the bridge closed for two weeks. Greenlaw said during other portions of the project, he hopes detours will only be during work hours, allowing the bridge to be reopened at night.

Greenlaw said the work, which could take up to four months, should begin by March 15.

“We want to spend our capital funds as best we can within the appropriate year. We’d like this work to commence as soon as possible,” he said.