City of Albany work on Jefferson Street sewer to shift south beginning this week

ALBANY – After months of detours in the area around Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, contractors will pull up the barricades as the project separating sewage and stormwater moves south on North Jefferson Street.

“They’ll start moving the barricades Monday from Society down to Seventh Avenue that have been around Phoebe,” Albany Assistant City Manager Bruce Maples said.

The project was move south Monday, with the work shifting to extend from Society Avenue south along Jefferson Street to Broad Avenue.

Motorists can expect detours in the area while the work is ongoing on Washington and Jackson Streets. East-west traffic will be open for cross traffic when active construction is not occurring at an intersection.

The sewage/stormwater project that requires installing new pipes is part of work required by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division for permitting the city’s sewage system. The city is under a June 2025 deadline to achieve 85% separation or face daily fines.

So far separation has been achieved in all of east Albany and in other sections of the city. Maples said he could not immediately give a figure for the percentage completed for the entire city.

“We’re doing everything we can to meet that deadline,” he said. “Our goal is to do as much as we can to meet our permit requirement.”

The concentration of work on Jefferson Street is due to the upcoming resurfacing project that is in the works for the Georgia Department of Transportation. Jefferson Street is part of Georgia Highway 91, which is maintained by the state, and the work in Dougherty County on the project will extend from the Lee County line south to Oglethorpe Boulevard.

“Everything we’re doing is to beat the DOT schedule,” Maples said. “We’ve got to be out of the way. We’re out of the way for the Third Avenue Basin that we just finished on Jefferson Street with the separation so we are out of the way of the DOT. We still have some work in some of the other basins.”

The state agency has notified the city that it expects to let bids on the resurfacing project in May, and it will be a few months after that occurs before the contract is awarded and work actually begins, Maples said.

“They haven’t told us when they’re actually going to start paving,” he said.

The overall sewage project, expected to cost more than $100 million, also includes improvements to the city’s water treatment plant.

File Photo: Tara Fletcher