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Albany commission approves downtown streetscape change order that adds lighting and design alternates; city’s share of poles cost about $420,000
Summary
The commission adopted a resolution to accept change order No. 3 to the downtown streetscape project (a GDOT grant-funded project), which adds design alternates and a lighting schematic; a GDOT photometric review increased the pole count to 212, adding an estimated $2,120,000 in construction costs, of which the city’s share was cited at about $420,000.
The Albany City Commission on Jan. 26 approved change order No. 3 for the downtown streetscape project, a component of a downtown master-plan implementation funded in part by a Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) T grant the city won in 2019.
Project staff (Miss Gaskins) summarized the change: the original grant scope included seven streets and two alleyways, and change order 3 would add two alternate sidewalk treatments (a patterned "wavy" sidewalk and a fish motif that references the Flint River Aquarium), lighting schematics and other amenities identified in subsequent design work.
Staff and the city manager said a GDOT photometric study recommended additional light poles to meet safety and illumination standards; "those 212 poles have been added to the construction budget at a cost of approximately $10,000 each," staff said, adding that the change order increased the construction budget by about $2,120,000 and that the city’s share of that increase is roughly $420,000.
Commissioners asked about earlier change orders and whether the scope was now stable; staff said the pole-count increase stemmed from the photometric study and that one of the questions for the commission was a design preference between the sidewalk alternates. The mayor expressed a personal preference for the "wavy" sidewalk pattern but staff said the resolution simply adopted change order 3 and identified the alternates for later implementation as funding and design choices are finalized.
Outcome: Commission adopted the resolution to add the design alternates and lighting changes to the project. Staff said they would provide an accounting of prior change orders and a project-history summary for commissioners who were not present at the project’s earlier phases.
