Statesboro city officials are recommending a contract with potential fees up to $399,420 with T.R. Long Engineering for project management, surveying and engineering for Phase 2 of the Blue Mile streetscape project. City Council is slated to consider and probably award the contract during the 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19, regular meeting.
"This project will continue the theme of improved drainage, sidewalks, landscaping, street lighting, resurfacing and utility relocation along South Main Street," city Public Works and Engineering Director John Washington stated in a memo.
Like Phase 1, which was substantially complete last December and to which finishing touches were applied after the beginning of 2023, Phase 2 has been projected to cost more than $5 million, including right of way, engineering and construction. Currently, the Transportation-Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or T-SPLOST, authorized by Bulloch County voters in 2018, is listed as the funding source.
The state contributed to funding Phase 1 with a $1.19 million grant through the Georgia Department of Transportation. But the reported total cost was
$5.4 million, with T-SPLOST and the city's fee-supported Public Utilities Department as the main funding sources. In Phase 1, the South Main streetscape was completed from Tillman Road north to the Fair Road intersection.
Roundabout to Grady
Phase 2 will start at Fair Road and extend the streetscape northward on both sides of South Main to its intersection with East and West Grady Street.
This portion of the streetscape will not include but must accommodate the separate, state-proposed plan to replace the sharply angled intersection of Georgia Route 67 (Fair Road) and U.S. Highway 301 (South Main Street) with a roundabout. Plans for the roundabout also include signals and gates for the two sets of railroad tracks that cross there.
The roundabout itself will be a majority state-funded project, recently estimated by the Georgia DOT to cost $8.36 million, including engineering, right of way, construction and utilities.
Not built in '24
Neither the roundabout nor streetscape Phase 2 is scheduled to be under construction in 2024. The GDOT slates 2025 as the year for right of way acquisition, and 2026 for construction, of the roundabout.
When Blue Mile Streetscape Phase 1 was nearing completion one year ago, the GDOT gave an estimated timeline of 2025–2027 for Phase 2, but Washington said then that the city was ready to move forward with planning for Phase 2 in 2023.
The proposal from T.R. Long Engineering does not fix a timeline for the services to be provided by the firm and its subcontractors. But Washington's memo states that the cost of up to $399,420 will be covered under the $485,000 earmarked for the project from T-SPLOST for city fiscal years 2024 (which ends June 30) and 2025 (July 1, 2024–June 30, 2025).
T.R. Long, based in Hinesville, is partnering with a firm called Atlas for project management; Chatham Engineering to coordinate relocation of utility lines from overhead to underground, since that is also part of the Blue Mile plan; River to Tap Inc. for environmental services; and Southern Research Historic Preservation Consultants for any required historical and archeological studies. Whitaker Laboratories will handle soil and bridge-foundation studies and materials testing, the proposal states.
The city issued a request for proposals — not price bids as such — and of the proposals received, city staff members ranked Long's highest on a scoring system for cost, experience, project approach and references, the memo states.
Referring to the prescribed work as the "initial planning and design process," Washington stated that right of way "conflicts" and "utility concerns" are expected to be identified.
A Phase 3 will still be needed to complete the streetscaping of all of the Blue Mile up to the Bulloch County Courthouse as originally proposed by local community leaders such as those in the Blue Mile Foundation.