Albany Bridge, Underpass Projects Near Completion
Tuesday, March 24th, 2015
If, as expected, the Albany City Commission votes tonight to approve just short of $100,000 in SPLOST V funding for lead-based paint removal and repainting of the East Broad Avenue Underpass, the project will take a big step toward a completion date that will coincide — or beat — the state’s planned reopening of the Broad Avenue bridge downtown.
City Engineering Director Bruce Maples said Monday the state is sticking to its planned reopening date “at the end of June” for the bridge that was closed in February of 2009 when inspectors found it to be structurally unsound. If the bridge work is indeed finished on schedule, the city’s work on the underpass that Albany City Commissioner Bobby Coleman and Dougherty County Commissioner Clinton Johnson declared an “eyesore” while pushing to have the area refurbished should be completed in plenty of time to be part of a planned grand reopening.
