Jul. 18—The city finally has a start date for the main phase of the Sixth Avenue streetscape project, a Decatur official said.
Dane Shaw, city director of development, said this week that Grayson Carter & Son informed him that it plans to begin the $8.07 million beautification project on July 28.
The city is spending $10 million to beautify the 1-mile stretch of Sixth Avenue between the Hudson Memorial Bridge and Prospect Drive Southeast.
Decatur Utilities and the cable companies have already moved utilities underground in the first phase of the project.
For the second phase of the project, the city is using a $7.15 million bond while adding $918,901 from the general fund budget. With the help of state Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, the city received a $640,000 Transportation Alternatives Program grant from the Alabama Department of Transportation.
This next phase features new sidewalks, landscaping and traffic signals. Cement barriers will be installed that would change traffic patterns and eliminate three left-turn lanes along the route.
Shaw said Grayson Carter plans to work at night so there’s as little disruption as possible.
“They will start with the project that’s funded by the TAP grant we received from the state,” Shaw said.
The grant will fund replacement of the sidewalks along this area of Sixth Avenue. They will start with demolition of the sidewalks, which will require some lane blockage and interruption of traffic flow.
TAP grant funds usually have a deadline in which the grantee must use the money and complete the project, but the city got an extension because several state projects, including the rehab of Interstate 65 bridge, delayed the Sixth Avenue streetscape.
Roadway medians and landscaping, pedestrian crossings and cobra traffic lights, which hang from curved poles over the road rather than power lines, would then follow.
In related news, City Engineer Carl Prewitt reported foundation repairs to the 11 light poles on Hudson Memorial Bridge should take about four weeks.
The City Council approved a $32,700 change order for Shoals Electric Co. to repair 11 pole foundations after the contractor found that the bolts in the anchor slabs were loose, so the poles were not level.
The change order says Shoals Electric will use epoxy and new bolts to tighten and level the anchor slabs.
This will allow Shoals to complete the $1 million project that starts at Market Street Northeast on the south end of the Hudson Memorial Bridge and stretches half a mile to a point just north of Riverwalk Marina. The project does not include the northernmost part of the bridge and causeway.
— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432