Pine resurfacing starts Sunday

ALBANY — The city of Albany’s six-month resurfacing plan is set to move onto some major arterial roads as the Independence Day holiday approaches.

Assistant City Manager Phil Roberson confirmed Wednesday that Oxford Construction Co. will begin work on the resurfacing of Pine Avenue Sunday. Crews will work at night so as not to disrupt traffic.

And when the Pine resurfacing is completed, shortly after the Fourth, work will begin on Palmyra Road.

“Oxford is 65 to 70 percent finished with the current six-month contract they’re working under,” Roberson said. “So they’re on track to complete the work that’s in this contract by their target date of Sept. 12. Then we’ll do another six-month contract in January and begin work on the next cycle.”

The plan devised by Roberson, City Manager Sharon Subadan, city Engineering Director Bruce Maples and other city staff will, for the first time perhaps in the city’s history, provide a continuing, multiyear opportunity to bring all city streets up to satisfactory standards.

“We started during this cycle with the streets that, after our audit, were rated very poor,” Roberson said. “That’s about 40 percent of the 550 lane miles that we have in the city. During my time with the city, this is the first time we’ve had a multiyear project lined up that will allow us to bring all of our streets up to where we want them to be.

“I give credit to Ms. Subadan and to our City Commission. This is the first time in my career I’ve seen such an infrastructure-centric SPLOST plan.”

Roberson noted that annual LMIG (local maintenance and improvement grant) funding provided through a state formula and SPLOST VII funds will allow the city to plan resurfacing projects throughout the six-year life of the SPLOST.

“This plan provides a certain number of dollars every year for the project, which we’ll need to improve our streets,” he said. “And, the plan is, we’ll replenish the funding with each subsequent SPLOST as needed.”

Roberson said Oxford crews will work on Pine from 6:30 p.m. Sunday to 6:30 a.m. Monday and repeat that process Monday night into Tuesday morning. No work will be done on Pine during Tuesday and Wednesday in observance of the July 4th holiday.

Work will resume Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and “should be completed in five days.”

“The process will be similar for Palmyra,” Roberson said. “It’s important to our citizens that we disrupt traffic as little as possible.”

Roberson said Oxford recently completed resurfacing on Greenoch Avenue in northwest Albany’s Ward 5 and is currently preparing manhole and curbs on Sunrise in east Albany near Dougherty High School in Ward I and on Longbow in the Indian Creek subdivision in Ward IV.

“Like I said, we’re trying to take care of the streets that are in the worst condition first, but we are eventually going to get to all of our city streets,” Roberson said. “I think this long-term, multiyear project shows that the city’s management and the city commission have heard the citizens and are working to improve infrastructure citywide.”