Wednesday, August 9, 2023–6:30 p.m.

-David Crowder, WRGA News-

City of Rome officials have the preliminary plans from Pond and Company for the River District streetscape project in hand, and now some big decisions need to be made.

On Wednesday, the Rome Public Works/Traffic and Transit Committee heard that the project’s total cost could be in the $8 million range.

$2 million was included in the 2017 special purpose, local option sales tax package for the streetscape, meaning the city would have to find a $6 million funding source. The construction estimate from Pond and Company is $2.6 million. Additionally, Georgia Power has estimated the cost of moving the overhead utilities underground at around $3.2 million. The original estimate for utility relocation in 2017 was around $213,000. There is also a cost associated with converting some of the older buildings. According to Engineering Services Director Aaron Carroll, Georgia Power’s methodology, rules and regulations have changed in the last six years.

“Every new connection to Georgia Power will have a meter,” he said. “They are done with unmetered connections. So, their rules have changed immensely since that SPLOST passed.”

Carroll added that Georgia Power has indicated that they can have the work done within a year, once the city signs the contract committing to the conversion.

“Their recommendation is that we not start any of our hardscape work until their work is done, because we don’t need to do anything, like sidewalks, two or three times, Carroll said. “So, we’ve got a lot of big decisions that need to be made here and then we need to find a funding source.”

Carroll noted that the Second Avenue widening project is also about to get started, and it has a completion date of July 2026. He told the committee that he needs some direction as to which way to go.

Assistant Rome City Manager Meredith Ulmer told the committee that a phased approach to the streetscape project may be a solution.

“If you decide that you still want to do underground utilities, then you might want to do that first and do a phased approach with everything else,” she said. “If you want to scale this project back, that would make it cheaper. We definitely don’t have $8 million that we can pull out of our hat.”

According to Rome Public Works Director Chris Jenkins, the SPLOST referendum did not specify that the utility location must be underground.

The streetscape project stretches from the bridge over the Oostanaula River, northward along Fifth Avenue to West Third Street, where a roundabout is envisioned. Avenue A would be realigned and brought in perpendicular north of the roundabout. The project then continues up North Fifth to West Fourth. It picks back up on West Third and proceeds westward to Second Avenue.

The NOVA project, a massive residential and commercial development is already underway. That project has recently undergone a redesign, according to Carroll.

“They’ve pushed the building and some improvements back and they are showing some angled parking along their frontage on West Third,” he told the committee.