Spider Webb fix is in
City officials add a temporary drive during road work connected to the Main Elementary project.
Rome Public Works crews cut and paved a driveway between two lots, giving Thankful Baptist Church parishioners a second exit for emergencies while Spider Webb Drive is closed.
The move ended a monthslong debate about safety as roads in the area are shifted to accommodate the new Main Elementary under construction at the north end of Spider Webb at Watters Street. Original estimates for a fix went as high as $250,000. Public Works Director Chris Jenkins said the cost is about $1,000.
“It’s really just in-kind money,” he said. “We used Street Department labor to clear and grade it, and millings — ground-up asphalt from previous paving projects.”
Jenkins said County Manager Sammy Rich negotiated an agreement with the property owners to allow a temporary drive between the lots that connects to an existing curb-cut on North Broad Street. Cars leaving the church are now able to make a right onto the main road in addition to using Spider Webb to come out behind the Dairy Queen.
Rich said it would be up to the owners if they want city crews to scrape off the asphalt after the school is built and the relocated Spider Webb reopens to traffic.
Meanwhile, the city’s Spider Webb Drive project hit an impasse when Atlanta Gas Light Co. officials said that they would charge a little over $100,000 to move their lines out of the existing right of way.
Jenkins said Georgia Power Co. and AT&T are moving their lines at no cost, under the franchise agreement allowing them to use the publicly owned strip of land along the road.
City Attorney Andy Davis is reviewing the issue.
“We’ve asked him to find out why they think we should have to pay for that,” Jenkins told members of the Public Works Committee Wednesday. “Atlanta Gas Light is part of Southern Co., like Georgia Power, so why the difference?”
Crews also are waiting for Parker Systems to move its fiber optic lines to the new right of way.
Rome City Schools has about $11 million earmarked in the 2017 education local option sales tax package to build a new Main Elementary on the campus at 3 Watters St. State law bars the use of ELOST funds for anything outside of education, so the cost of relocating Spider Webb Drive falls on the city government.
School officials said the foundation is poured and contractors are working on the back section to give crews time to finish the road. The facility is expected to be ready for the 2019-2020 school year.