City has nearly $12 million in resurfacing projects underway

ALBANY — A resurfacing project improving Albany’s streets continues to run ahead of schedule as the city plan to repair nearly 150 miles of roadway rated as “very poor” unfolds.

This week workers with contractor Oxford Construction Co. put new pavement down on Boynton Lane, a short residential street off Westgate Drive, and did preparation work on 10th Avenue off Slappey Boulevard.

The company also started an unrelated project at the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport.

The resurfacing is part of a $6.4 million outlay to fix 32 miles of Albany’s streets in most need of repair. In all, this second phase of a plan to eliminate streets in such poor condition covers 49 streets.

“They’re about 60 percent complete,” said Stacey Rowe, Albany’s acting superintendent of Public Works. “At the beginning of Phase 2, we had 146 miles of very poor streets. After Phase 2, there will be 114 miles of very poor streets.”

Local and state funding — including the 1% transportation local option sales tax dedicated to road projects — will pay for the work, which includes streets all over the city. Dougherty County voters approved the additional penny tax by a narrow margin in March. Collection of that tax began July 1.

In addition to the transportation sales tax dollars, funding for the resurfacing work will come from other sales taxes being levied and local maintenance and improvement grant funds. The contract was awarded to Oxford, with a six-month window for completion that began on May 20.

Among the more heavily driven streets on the list are Stuart Avenue from Palmyra Road to Ledo Road, Whispering Pines Road from Slappey Boulevard to Dawson Road, and Pine Avenue from Davis Street to Slappey.

Workers will work on those streets at night to prevent traffic disruption during the daytime, with that work scheduled to take place in September, Rowe said.

On average, it takes about $192,000 to resurface a mile of street in the city.

An equally ambitious project is under way at the airport, where workers this week began resurfacing the 6,001-foot main runway. Initially, the city planned to do about $1.4 million worth of work patching the runway that was last resurfaced more than 22 years ago.

“Basically it was just time,” city Transportation Director David Hamilton said of the work. “Over the years, the runway started having cracks and little holes, so we were constantly doing a lot of repairs.

“The FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) determined damage was so severe we needed to resurface it.”

A federal grant is paying for 90 percent of the $5.4 million project, with the state of Georgia and city each picking up 5% of the cost.

Next on tap is the south apron and secondary runway, then work is planned for the general aviation terminal and hangar.

File Photo: Alan MauldinAlanMauldin[email protected]
File Photo
AlanMauldin[email protected]