At a meeting last week the town board voted unanimously to award a bid in the amount of $981,300 to Narron Construction Company for extension of Streetscape improvements north on Main Street from Academy to a point near the intersection with Jones Street.
In a separate motion the board voted four-to-one to include in the upcoming phase of the project the burying of utility lines along Main Street as part of Streetscape Phase II.
Commissioner Charlie Adcock, who said he was 100 percent in favor of moving forward on the next phase of the Streetscape, also said he had serious reservations about burying the utility lines as a part of this phase of the project. He said he thought it would be advisable to wait a year or two until all of the utility line burial along Main Street relating to the Streetscape could be done at one time. The project is planned to eventually extend northward to Ennis Street and connect to Broad Street and the Varina business district.
“I hate to vote for something I don’t feel confident about,” Adcock said before voting against the motion relating to utility line burial.
Town Manager Andy Hedrick had recommended the board go with both the Streetscape Phase II and with the line burying now, since the sluggish economic and slowdown in construction work in the area have led to lower than expected bids on recent town projects, including the Streetscape.
He said the savings resulting from lower than projected costs on Streetscape extension came to about $500,000.
He pointed out that voters approved $2 million in bonds for downtown improvements (Streetscape extension) as part of a $19 million bond package in the spring of 2007.
Of that amount the town has committed $240,000 for construction of the Centennial Plaza parking lot at the corner of Main and Academy Streets and $180,000 for design plans for Phase II of the Streetscape. Hedrick said he believes the remaining funds available along with a $200,000 grant the town has received through the office of Congressman David Price will be enough to fund line-burying in Phase II of the Streetscape.
Overhead utility lines were buried along three blocks of Main Street, from Vance to Academy Street, as part of the first phase of the Streetscape.
As proposed, the next line-burying effort would extend along East Academy and West Academy for approximately half a block in each direction to further clear the Main and Academy Street intersection.
Progress Energy will bury the utility lines, working with the town’s contractor and landscape architect Stan Williams who did the Streetscape design. Phone lines are already buried along the route.
The Streetscape plan includes curb and gutter, sidewalks, street lights, benches and landscaping along the route.
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