Avondale Estates, GA — The Avondale Estates City Commission, at its Oct. 25 regular meeting, approved two contracts with Southern Premiere Contractors for up to $116,718 to repair a stormwater pipe on Lakeshore Drive, as well as another contract for up to $108,000 for stormwater repairs on Dunwick Drive.

The repair on Lakeshore Drive is an emergency repair the city needs to make to a deteriorating stormwater pipe.

The pipe is located near the intersection of Lakeshore Drive and Majestic Circle and is in an easement between two homes. There’s about half a pipe left in the area, Capital Projects Construction and Maintenance Director Kristen Moretz said at the Sept. 27 city commission meeting.

“We found a contractor who will go in by hand to line the pipe and put reinforcements underneath, so we don’t have to cut down trees or tear [anything] out,” Moretz said. “This is not a concept redesign. This is just putting this pipe back.”

The contract for Dunwick Drive is phase one of stormwater work to be completed on the street. In phase one, the pipes would be lined, and the catch basin would be replaced with a larger basin to capture more water. Construction is estimated to take about four to six months.

“It is a cast-in-place water-based pipe lining. It is non-invasive. No one’s homes need to be dug up…The pipe capacity for one of those pipes grows significantly just from being able to do that,” Moretz previously said. “Over time, we have corrugated steel pipes and the joints become less stable, there’s erosion underneath. That fixes that problem.”

There are two other phases to the Dunwick Drive. Phase two still has to be designed, but the city has a quote from an engineer for the design.

“Phase one and the engineering costs will be absorbed in the current capital program. Phase two and phase three are what we are building into the 24-25 program,” City Manager Patrick Bryant said at the Sept. 27 city commission meeting.

In other business:

– The city commission will also be considering a contract with Dewberry for $17,000 to design a stormwater solution for Hess Drive and Wiltshire Drive.

“The next two areas that we want to look at are on Wiltshire and the Hess corridor,” Bryant said.

Now that the city has its hydrologic model, it can get a “better sense of what are causing conditions and what are potential solutions to contain those conditions,” Bryant said. “This presupposes that these projects will become a part of our capital program, but we feel very strongly that these are two areas that we need to design concepts for because we know that there are issues on both.”

– The city commission held the first reading of a few ordinances during the regular meeting, including an ordinance to create the greenspace advisory committee. In order to create the greenspace committee, the commission will also have to amend the tree ordinance to dissolve the tree and lake boards.

The committee would be five members – with the option to add honorary members and subcommittees as needed – and they would serve two-year terms. The honorary members would be non-voting members, the committee could bring in another area of expertise.

“They will be looking after a lot of things, and they will have the right to form subcommittees if they need to, so if there’s special projects or information or something that they need more expertise on, they will be able to form subcommittees in order to do so,” Commissioner Lisa Shortell said.

The committee would be responsible for helping with public education and outreach related to greenspace. They would provide recommendations and reports to the city manager related to greenspace initiatives and Lake Avondale. The committee would make recommendations to the city commission on proposed memorials or special matters. They’d be called to help with community-wide planting and landscaping events.

“This goes to both the city manager and [the city commission], which is comments and review of city parks and recreational needs and design, as well as any improvements to other parks,” Assistant City Manager Shannon Powell previously said.

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