Albany officials outline $17.5 million street resurfacing plan

ALBANY — Albany city officials unveiled and approved a six-year, $17.5 million road resurfacing plan Tuesday that will, as Assistant City Manager Phil Roberson noted, “take the guesswork” out of the city’s attempts to improve city roads.

Roberson and city Public Works Deputy Director Stacey Rowe outlined the plan at Tuesday night’s Albany City Commission meeting whereby the city will use $5 million in Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant and SPLOST VII funding in 2018 to begin Phase I of the six-year program that will target 53 city streets. Roberson said the program will allow the city to pursue its goal of having every city street resurfaced on a 15- to 20-year rotation.

“This program was one of the city manager’s (Sharon Subadan) priorities when she first came here,” Roberson told commissioners. “We’ve typically taken a scattershot approach to our resurfacing program, with no real plan in place. If you approve this, we’ll be taking the first step in creating an annual resurfacing program with the goal of resurfacing every street in the city on a rotating basis.

“These types of infrastructure programs are exactly what the public, the mayor and this board prioritized with the latest SPLOST referendum. We’re excited at the prospect of getting this program started.”

The commission later approved the plan without further discussion.

Rowe narrated a slide presentation that showed some of the obstacles Public Works crews have to overcome in bringing city streets up to the standards desired by taxpayers. During the presentation, he explained how the 53 streets in Phase I of the project were targeted.

“There are a lot of moving parts when you develop a list like this,” Rowe said of the resurfacing list, which includes eight streets in Ward 1, nine in Ward II, six in Ward III, eight in Ward IV, 12 in Ward V and nine in Ward VI. One roadway on the project list, Palmyra Road, from Slappey Boulevard to Seventh Avenue, is listed as a mayor’s project.

In addition to outlining the plan, Roberson gave a rundown on how the $17.5 million project will be financed, starting with a $5 million allocation to begin Phase I.

He noted that the city has $1,617,962 in unused prior LMIG funding and is expected to receive $996,245 in the state-allocated grant for the next year, which requires the city to provide $298,874 in matching funds. The city will use $2,385,793 of the $10 million SPLOST resurfacing allocation to more than cover that total, giving it $5 million to use in 2018.

Over the next five years, the city will utilize the $996,245 in LMIG funding and will meet its required $298,874 local match with $1,522,841 in SPLOST collections for $2,519,087 in annual resurfacing allocations.

Rowe said Public Works’ latest street survey shows that around 35 percent of city streets are rated in “very poor” condition. Utilizing a rotating resurfacing program, he noted, will allow the city to carry out its resurfacing program in the future with a minimum of extensive work required to repair the roadways.

Roberson said resurfacing costs could actually be less over the six years of the program in response to a question by Mayor Dorothy Hubbard.

Ward IV Commissioner Roger Marietta said the program is a direct response to Subadan’s call to focus on street maintenance and concerns expressed by taxpayers in the city.

“I’m sick tonight and probably shouldn’t be here, but I came because I wanted to express my support for this project,” Marietta said. “It makes me proud that we’re answering our citizens’ concerns by focusing on infrastructure.”

The voter-approved $10 million resurfacing allocation is the largest in the city’s history.