In action taken during their January 18 meeting, the Alpharetta City Council approved a contract with Excellere Construction for sidewalk repairs and the replacement or addition of wheelchair accessible ramps at 39 locations. The contract is valued at $498,000.
The contract is focused on areas within the Downtown District along Haynes Bridge Road and Georgia Lane. The project will include demolition, removal and disposal of debris, construction of 5,700 linear feet of new sidewalk panels and updated ramps, sodding or grassing, and replacement of traffic loop detection infrastructure. Weather permitting, all work should be completed within 120 days of authorization for the contractor to begin work.
The City maintains 228 miles of concrete sidewalks throughout Alpharetta, with more than 80% of all sidewalk sections rated as being in “good” or “fair” condition. Sidewalk sections are rated “good” if there is no vertical displacement and minor cracking in less than 25% of the segment. Sidewalks rated as “fair” display vertical displacement of less than one inch and cracks in 26% to 50% of the segment. The remaining 20% of sidewalks are classified as either “poor” or “very poor”.
Alpharetta prioritizes its sidewalks across four tiers that help to focus on providing safe pedestrian access to parks, schools, businesses, and other amenities. The tiers are:
Tier 1: Downtown and Arterials
Tier 2: Non-Subdivision Roads Within ¼ mile from a school, park, etc.
Tier 3: Subdivision Roads
Tier 4: All Other Roads
Within each of these tiers, sidewalk sections are then evaluated and assigned the good, fair, poor, or very poor rating.