An effort to accelerate the Broad Street project is going to the Augusta Commission for a decision after Tuesday discussion that saw two south Augusta commissioners decline to support it.
Business owners have raised concerns about the long-awaited streetscape project interrupting their business and taking till October 2028 to complete. The city obtained an estimate of about $13 million to add a night shift of work between Fifth and 13th streets intended to finish the section a year earlier.
“This is one way to really minimize impact and get the project completed,” said Hameed Malik, director of Engineering and Environmental Services.
Two commissioners on the Engineering Services committee which met Tuesday were skeptical.
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“I’m kind of curious why we’re looking to accelerate this” in the midst of the city making changes to the project, Commissioner Don Clark said. Another concern is “what we’re up against with the budget constraints,” he said.
Mayor Pro Tem Wayne Guilfoyle asked how Malik could ask for $178 million in SPLOST 9 projects but was able to additional funds for Broad Street.
“We’re short every which way on that SPLOST package that we could be. I find it odd that you’re able to come up with $5 million off the bat in order to pay for this,” he said.
In addition to the $5 million, the city would reach into future collections of Transportation Investment Act sales taxes through 2029 to fund the project, Malik has said. But Engineering is “constantly” looking for funding for road projects from sources such as the Georgia Department of Transportation. Other sources are likely to turn up, he said.
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Commissioner Jordan Johnson, whose District 1 includes downtown, said accelerating the project addressed timeline concerns raised by business owners in addition to their concerns about parking. In addition, the corridor is home to about 1,400 residents, he said.
If the city “has an opportunity to deliver on a 2027 timeline, we should do that,” Johnson said.
With an August start anticipated for the busiest part of Broad, “I can only imagine the devastation” businesses will feel, he said.
Mayor Garnett Johnson also weighed in. The improvements are requiring “some pains and some ills,” he said. But, “what happens in a year when that accelerated process has not met the deadline,” due to weather or other unforeseen problems.
After Guilfoyle made a motion to receive the report as information, Jordan Johnson made a motion to forward a decision to the full commission without a recommendation. Both motions failed, 2-1, which moves the decision to the full commission.
The committee no longer has chairman and fourth member Alvin Mason since Mason resigned from the commission June 17.
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$1 million change order approved
In another Broad Street decision, the committee approved a $1 million change order for the project. The change stemmed from contractor E.R. Snell discovering bad dirt and unknown water and sewer lines underground.
Despite his concerns about speeding up the Broad Street project, Clark said he is concerned about the amount of work about to begin.
“We are about to definitely plug up the downtown corridor with an overrun of construction,” he said. The city needs to “increase our efforts to get the messaging out.”
Malik said the city is hiring a marketing company that’s “more equipped” to get the word out.
Commissioners spent more than four hours behind closed doors Tuesday and eventually lost their quorum for Administrative Services.
Consequently several agenda items were moved forward to the full commission, including Commissioner Tony Lewis’ planned discussion of the Charter Review Committee and Lawrence Brannen’s request to protect nonviolent felons under the city’s equal employment opportunity policy.
