Albany Herald

Cracks and broken pavement at the intersection of Mercer Avenue at Jefferson Street illustrate the need for roadwork planned for the area.

ALBANY, Ga. -- The Albany City Commission tentatively approved $4 million in Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax VI funding Tuesday for the resurfacing of 16 streets that Public Works Director Phil Roberson said had been deemed highest priority based on daily traffic count.

The funding, with an additional $660,000 in anticipated Local Maintenance Improvement Grant money that comes with a 30 percent city match, would allow work to start as quickly as 30 days on thoroughfares ranging from Westover Boulevard in the northwest part of the city to Oglethorpe Boulevard in the heart of downtown and to MLK Jr. Drive on the southside.

"The roads on our list have reached a point where they need to be resurfaced before we have more serious problems," Roberson said. "Where we pay roughly $200,000 a mile for resurfacing, it can cost as much as $1 million a mile to do major reconstruction. With the help of our Engineering Department, we prioritized our resurfacing list based on average daily traffic count and on the kind of traffic that's on each road."

The 16 streets on the 2012 list cover 18.5 miles of collector streets and another 1.5 miles of secondary residential streets.

City commissioners discussed the roads listed, as well as present and future funding options, before voting to approve the list. As is usually the case, much of the conversation revolved around money.

"We have fiscal challenges (in planning road repairs), but ignoring the problem won't make it any better," City Manager James Taylor said. "If we get the opportunity, we will redirect funds for street repairs. Right now, that's about the only option we have; maybe we'll have to stop tearing down buildings.

"We will continue to go after any available state and federal funding, but we have to remember our roadway system is crucial."

Roberson said the 20 miles of resurfacing and repairs don't put much of a dent in the city's 460-mile road network.

"To adequately keep our network in proper repair would take $4 million a year," the Public Works director said. "Currently, our allocations are around $560,000 a year. We're only at about 15 percent; we need 10 times that.

"In our line of work, we're never going to get caught up. And these improvement projects are so expensive. But we can't worry about the politics; we have to be apolitical. We go where the need is."