Albany Commissioners discuss $234 million sewer plans

ALBANY, Ga. —  After announcing last summer that Constantine Engineering would be conducting an assessment of the City of Albany’s decades-old sewage system, city leaders are now getting a first look at where their infrastructure stands.

Ward 4 Commissioner, Chad Warbington tells us, “This is purely based on the age of our infrastructure. A lot of our infrastructure in the ground is from the 40s and 50s. So it’s going on 70 years old, and a lot of it needs to be replaced, it needs to be upgraded.

At this time, the City Commission was presented with a $234 million dollar plan by Constantine.

While commissioners say that amount of money isn’t in the budget at this time, they’re are hoping to get a better idea on what it’s going to cost the city.

“That was the number we were waiting on to kind of know what the solution is, and that’s just the initial estimate. It could be higher or lower, but it gives us a starting point to know where we’re looking at,” says Warbington.

As they begin to assess how they’ll want to upgrade the city’s infrastructure over the next 10 plus years, it’s an effort that needs to stay a high priority.

Warbington says, “This is going to be a decade or more worth of work. So it’s really important on the front end on what to work on first. And then as commissioners, we’ve got to stay committed to it.”

The decision for the sewers will come when the city commission decides on the annual budget in July.