GZA wins contracts with four Connecticut municipalities to provide climate adaptation and resiliency services

GZA has recently been awarded contracts for climate resiliency projects in four Connecticut towns—Fairfield, Groton, Old Saybrook, and Stratford—to provide a range of climate adaptation, resiliency, sustainability, and hazard mitigation plans and studies.

The new contracts expand GZA’s growing role advising local communities on all aspects of natural hazard risk management, resilience, and climate adaptation, which included GZA’s winning pre-qualification in 2020 from the Connecticut Institute for Climate Resilience and Adaptation (CIRCA) as a consultant for the Resilient Connecticut project. GZA has completed more than $20 million in natural hazard consulting services since 2010, including Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Multi-Hazard Natural Hazard Mitigation Plans, FEMA Flood Mitigation Assistance grant applications for municipalities, coastal and riverine flood modeling in multiple watersheds.

GZA President and Chief Executive Officer Patrick Sheehan said: “GZA brings unique strengths to natural hazard consulting, particularly through combining deep technical and information management expertise with planning capabilities to deliver clients detailed, actionable strategies. Our assessments, plans, and experience with the complexities of grant-approval procedures enable cities and towns to compete for and win federal and state funding to improve their resilience to flooding, storms, rising sea levels, and impacts of climate change.’’ 

GZA has also developed a proprietary, scalable Community Resiliency Risk Management web-based mapping app using Esri Enterprise software that makes detailed natural hazards information readily accessible for public officials and community stakeholders to act on. 

Connecticut communities that have engaged GZA in recent weeks include:

• Fairfield, through the CIRCA Municipal Resilience Grant Program, for Benefit Cost Analysis of multiple climate resiliency projects
• Groton, for a resiliency and sustainability plan for the Downtown Mystic village
• Old Saybrook, through the CIRCA Municipal Resilience Grant Program, to develop a 60% Conceptual Design plan for Back River shoreline stabilization, including marsh edge stabilization and scour protection and a conceptual design for a “living shoreline” solution, a construction cost estimate and technical report, and advisory services for pre-permit application consultation with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• Stratford, a CIRCA-funded Resilient Connecticut Phase III flood mitigation and resiliency assessment and implementation plan for the Town’s South End district, being performed in partnership with Dodson & Flinker of Florence, Mass., and American Translation Partners Inc. of Buzzards Bay, Mass.