Sen. Timothy D. Larson, D-East Hartford, is seeking funding for a Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering study to determine the number of homes affected by crumbling concrete foundations and the potential for the issue to arise in the future.
Meanwhile, Larson has yet to file a bill he announced in November with Sen. Catherine Osten, D-Sprague, that promised financial relief to affected homeowners through municipal bonds.
Larson said the delay in filing that legislation is due to a change in language that would enable towns to provide either a loan or a grant to homeowners, and added that he expects it to be filed next week.
“I don’t want to finish this session without a solution,” Larson said. “Hopefully within a relatively short period of time, we get this kicked off and they start working on it town by town.”
Before CASE can move forward with its study, Larson said funding must be secured and he hopes to find it by the end of the week. This would enable a study to begin “immediately,” rather than waiting until the legislative session is over before beginning.
The study requires $2.2 million over three years, but could cost more depending on what is found, CASE Executive Director Richard Strauss said.
He added that if funding were to be tied to the state budget process, money would not be available until July 1, the start of the next fiscal year.
“If it’s a priority for the state then we’re ready to get started,” Strauss said. “It’s their decision in terms of how they deal with this as a priority.”
The study would focus on specific areas, including the amount of pyrrhotite and other contributing factors necessary to cause a foundation to deteriorate to explain why certain homes are affected while others with concrete from the same supplier are not, according to information from CASE.
It would determine the presence of iron sulfide at other concrete aggregate quarries in the state, determine how many homes have failing concrete, provide a summary of the same problem in Canada, and identify potential remedies other than complete foundation replacement, CASE information says.
A preliminary list of tasks includes collecting property information in towns known to be affected and developing a database. A variety of tests would also be conducted, including obtaining core sampling data from insurance companies and property owners, and determining the water to cement ratio, information says.
Larson said the study also would determine how many homes could be affected in the future.
The issue is expected to spread, considering the concrete supplier at the center of the issue was supplying concrete until May and deterioration often takes more than a decade to surface.
Tests also would include analyzing foundations from that supplier that have no visible signs of failure. Following these tests, the homes would be rated according to a classification system based on their current status. An economic analysis would be conducted to determine the impact to property owners, municipalities, and the state’s broader economy.
All of these steps are expected to take varying amounts of time, from one month to close to three years.
