Statesboro’s city government plans to spend more than $1 million in state and local funding on street resurfacing projects in 2021, the third consecutive year this will have happened since Bulloch County voters approved a tax known as T-SPLOST.
City Council back on Dec. 1 approved a list of 31 street segments, totaling 6.37 miles and including streets in each of the five council members’ districts, for resurfacing next spring. The budget for this totals $1,063,686, including $772,000 from the Transportation Local Option Sales Tax, or T-SPLOST, and $291,686 in state money from an annual Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant, or LMIG, through the Georgia Department of Transportation.
The state grant requires a 30% local funding match. But the amount of local sales tax revenue Statesboro has budgeted for resurfacing far exceeds the less than $90,000 required.
T-SPLOST “has been the key to providing the City of Statesboro with the funding necessary to adequately address our resurfacing needs,” Assistant City Manager Jason Boyles said in a reply email Thursday.
More than 58% of Bulloch County voters in a May 2018 referendum approved the 1% tax specifically for transportation projects and equipment. Starting that October, it made the total sales tax on nonexempt items in the county 8%, including the 4% state tax and four 1% local options taxes.
Over the five-year run of the tax, Statesboro was allotted 43% of the funds, for a projected total of more than $20 million, and the county government 51.3%, projected at more than $24 million. Smaller shares were “frontloaded” to Brooklet, Portal and Register so that they got more of their money sooner.
With about $4 million a year in T-SPLOST to Statesboro originally anticipated, the city is also spending portions on other projects such as intersection improvements and sidewalk installation. A one-time $450,000 was set aside for development of a city bus service. But the city so far is allocating on average about $700,000 of T-SPLOST revenue annually, in addition to the state grants, for resurfacing streets where existing pavement is deteriorating.
Divvied by district
Each of the five council districts will have from 1.03 miles to 1.58 miles of streets resurfaced this year, so more than one mile but less than two miles in each. While using a rating system for which streets are most in need of repair or repaving, the city’s engineering staff also apportions the projects among the districts, as shown in a color-coded chart provided to the mayor and council.
“We look throughout the city and we try to divide those by district based on the mileage and based on the cost so that each district can get an equal share of the funds that were allocated from the grant and then also from… the T-SPLOST funds,” Statesboro Public Works and Engineering Director John Washington said about the previous season’s list in January 2020.
The same approach was used for the 2021 list. By projected cost, this year’s shares in the repaving are $226,460 for District 1, $235,633 for District 2; $219,721 for District 3; $197,781 for District 4 and $208,851 for District 5. These add up to about $25,000 more than the budgeted amounts from the two funding sources, but a competitive bidding process will determine the actual costs.
“Staff will be letting bids soon and anticipates starting the resurfacing project in early spring 2021 with completion by the end of spring or early summer 2021,” Boyles said Thursday.
Targeted streets
The 31 street segments targeted for repaving range from 2/100ths of a mile to a little over one-half mile in length.
Streets where some resurfacing is scheduled include, in District 1, Valley Road, Woodrow Circle, Preetorius Drive, Duke Road, Montgomery Drive, Marsham Drive, Wilton Drive, Kingwood Avenue and Irwin Drive; in District 2, North Foss Street, Adrian Court, Greene Street, Lee Hill Drive, West Altman Street, Whispering Pines and West Cherry Street; in District 3, Park Avenue, Old Register Road and East Inman Street.
Others include, in District 4, Southern Court, Pinewood Court, University Court, University Place, Hollis Street, Henderson Street, Dumbarton Drive and Greenwood Avenue; and in District 5, Briarwood Road, Pine Needle Road, Oakleaf Drive and Wood Valley Circle.
The longest and most expensive project will be the repaving of Park Avenue, southbound, for 0.52 mile from Savannah Avenue, projected to cost of over $130,000.
For several years the city has paid an analytics contractor, Roadbotics, to assess the condition of streets.
“We use the information from Roadbotics, in conjunction with field assessment by our engineering staff, to evaluate and prioritize the streets to include on our resurfacing list,” Boyle said.
Not paving dirt
These are resurfacing projects, not new paving. But Statesboro apparently has only one unpaved city street left.
“To my knowledge there is only one public street in Statesboro that remains unpaved, Anderson Street,” Boyles responded to a question. “We will not be utilizing funding appropriated for resurfacing to improve this street.”
Another unpaved road section, a segment of Central Street near the intersection of Brannen Street with Fair Road and South Main Street where the railroad crosses, is property of the railroad company and not a public street, he said.
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January 02, 2021 at 07:33AM
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Statesboro budgets over $1M for 2021 street resurfacing list - Statesboro Herald
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