Decatur, GA — East Lake Drive in Decatur will soon see some improvements. The Decatur City Commission, at its March 7 meeting, approved a project budget of $17,000 and awarded a contract to T&J Industries for street repair and paving on East Lake Drive.

The contract was awarded in the amount of $9,976. The work will be completed in the 500 block of East Lake Drive. The city anticipates the work to start next week and last two to three days.

“The location coincides with an existing 18-inch diameter reinforced concrete storm water pipe,” Decatur Senior Engineer Cara Scharer said. “Video inspection of the existing storm water pipe was completed previously, and no immediate concerns related to the pipe were observed. However, the pavement in the area of the pipe is failing and must be repaired.”

In other business:

— The city commission approved a change order to increase the city’s contract with Magnum Paving, LLC, by about $281,000 and the total project budget is now $1.75 million for additional work to the city’s annual local road paving and sidewalk project.

The additional scope of work includes general sidewalk repairs on South Candler Street from East College Avenue to the city limits, which is about 2.5 miles of sidewalks. This work will also include repairing gaps in the sidewalk that were caused by water and sewer line repairs and replacement done by DeKalb County.

“We worked for a long time trying to get the utility that was responsible for the removal of the sidewalk to get the sidewalks put back. That has not happened to date,” Assistant City Manager David Junger said. “It would be our plan to proceed with getting all of the sidewalk issues repaired and then potentially seeking some reimbursement back from the utility for those.”

The additional work also includes adding curb ramps on Gordon Street at Third Avenue, and repairing the asphalt and put in a curb and gutter at Winn Way at Pinehurst Street to support the edge of the pavement.

— The city commission also approved a change order to its contract with Autaco Development for multiple unforeseen utility conflicts that were discovered while doing the original scope of work, which included removing and replacing an 18-inch storm pipe on Sycamore Drive.

The work has been completed, although it took longer than the city expected.

The original approved contract amount was $28,800 and the project budget was $40,000. The change order increased the contract amount to $55,800 and the project budget is now $65,000.

“During the repair of the pipe, we visited and provided numerous onsite inspections, reviewed the utilities that were encountered during the excavation process that required a lot more additional time, hand digging, a larger excavation area,” Junger said. “We had to make point repairs to sanitary sewer lines, laterals coming from homes as well as connections to the sewer mains.”

The city and contractors had to go under an 8-inch natural gas line, another metal gas line they believe to be abandoned, and two unidentified lines, so it turned into a real project, Junger said.

The city commission will meet again on Monday, March 21, at 7:30 p.m. at Decatur City Hall, 509 N. McDonough Street, and via Zoom.

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