Apr. 23—The city is moving forward with the engineering on the second phase of the Church Street Northeast reconstruction.
The City Council recently hired Garver Engineering to do the engineering and design on the reconstruction of the portion of Church Street between Sixth Avenue and Somerville Road for an estimated fee of $115,118.
The agreement with Garver says the company will do a corridor study, field surveys and roadway plans for this 0.7 of a mile portion of Church Street.
“Since they just started the design, it might be next year before the project begins,” City Engineer Carl Prewitt said Monday.
“The plans have to go through the state (Alabama Department of Transportation) for approval since we’re using MPO (Decatur-area Metropolitan Planning Organization) funds.”
Church Street is in Councilman Kyle Pike’s District 2. It is the main route to several industries along the Tennessee River like Alabama Farmers Cooperative, Bunge and Wolverine Tube.
Church Street connects with Point Mallard Drive, so it’s a main route into Point Mallard Park.
“That whole corridor is pretty rough because there’s a lot of traffic, particularly (18-wheeler) trucks that go in and out of those industries,” Pike said. “We would like to get a majority of it redone.”
The city did the first phase of the reconstruction of Church Street from Somerville Road to Riverview Avenue in 2023.
Prewitt said he doesn’t expect the second phase to be as complex. The first phase became complicated when they found there was a water main under the road, and Decatur Utilities had to move it. This delayed completion of the project.
He said he doesn’t think the second phase of the project has any utilities under the road.
Pike was also hopeful that the second phase would go more smoothly.
“This is just a basic rebuild that I don’t believe will be as complicated,” he said.
The second phase is expected to cost about $2 million, with $1.64 million in federal funding offsetting most of the project’s cost. The city’s contribution is $410,000.
— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432