Transportation committee approves encroachment agreements for fiber conduit and Housing Authority shoring; DOT outlines sidewalk follow-up

The Atlanta City Council Transportation Committee on Wednesday approved two encroachment agreements that clear the way for private and housing‑authority construction in city right‑of‑way and prompted discussion about how the city enforces sidewalk restoration after utility work.

The committee approved an agreement authorizing Bandwidth Infrastructure Group Georgia LLC to install and attach 2‑inch fiberglass‑reinforced plastic conduit to house micro‑fiber optic cable on and under the Joseph E. Boone Boulevard right‑of‑way at 1141 Joseph E. Boone Boulevard NW, Atlanta, Georgia 30318. It also approved a related encroachment allowing the Housing Authority of the City of Atlanta to install permanent underground soldier‑pile shoring on and under the Herndon Square Avenue and Alonzo F. Herndon Boulevard rights‑of‑way at 464 Cameron Madison at Alexander Boulevard NW, Atlanta, Georgia 30318. The items were presented as legislative items during the transportation committee meeting and were recorded as favorable with a committee vote of 4 yeas, 0 nays.

The approvals were procedural resolutions authorizing the mayor's designee to execute the encroachment agreements on behalf of the city. The items were identified in committee paperwork by the resolution numbers shown to the committee during the meeting.

Committee members and Atlanta Department of Transportation staff discussed recurring complaints about utility contractors leaving temporary asphalt patches on sidewalks after fiber and other work. "In many cases that asphalt is a temporary installation until a second crew can come back that does the actual concrete work," said Deputy Commissioner Leonor Bromberg of the Atlanta Department of Transportation's Office of Engineering. She said inspectors and enforcement staff work with permitting staff to follow up on restorations and that the department is moving toward a new permitting system "because of the mapping of that and the tracking of that. Our current system doesn't support that very well. So we're working on ways that we can log the activities that we have and make sure that we're following up to make that happen." The remarks were made during the committee's discussion of the encroachment items.

Alan Smith, a colleague in the Office of Engineering who oversees permitting, was identified in the discussion as part of the team that coordinates inspections and enforcement, though department staff noted that the enforcement function rests with inspection staff.

No additional funding or schedule details for either encroachment agreement were provided during the committee discussion. The committee record notes the items as favorable; the resolutions authorize execution of the agreements but do not themselves describe subsequent contractor schedules or enforcement actions beyond the general permitting and inspection process described by DOT staff.

The committee concluded its legislative agenda after the approvals and moved to other items on the agenda.