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Costs soar for Oxbo Road project

Roswell council OKs additional $3 million

By CHAMIAN CRUZ chamian@appenmedia.com ROSWELL, Ga. — The Oxbo Road realignment project, set to resume construction over the next 30 days, will carry a hefty new price tag.

The Roswell City Council agreed to spend an additional $3 million for the project at its April 11 meeting, in hopes of completing work by the end of 2023.

The additional funding includes a blanket right-of-way agreement for $270,000, as well as a change order with E.R. Snell Contractor Inc. for $2,730,000, to be funded by TSPLOST 1 – the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax approved by voters in 2016.

In November 2021, the City Council deferred voting on a contract with E.R. Snell for a fraction of that amount, $616,802, saying city staff needed more time to determine what properties the city had control over and was ready to work on.

Now, with the additional payment, the total project cost will climb to $18.4 million, which is more than double the original estimate of $7 million in 2016.

Included in the new contractor payment is a $100,000 incentive to complete the project by October 2023, and a penalty if it is not.

The project, proposed more than a decade ago, was intended to solve a host of safety and mobility problems by eliminating the staggered intersection at Ga. 9 and converting the portion of Oxbo Road near Mimosa Boulevard into a twoway street.

It also called for new turning lanes and a traffic signal on Ga. 9 and Oxbo Road, among other improvements. Once finished, it should connect to the Roswell Historic Gateway, another planned transportation project, that will run along Atlanta Street.

The Oxbo Road project was expected to be completed by July 2021. However, interim Director of Transportation Dan Skalsky said the project was delayed due to property acquisition and utility problems and slow construction. He said the city needed to acquire 25 parcels for the project.

An independent investigation conducted by the law firm Jarrard & Davis last year also concluded that extreme mismanagement by city staff and the city attorney led to significant delays and millions of dollars in cash settlements.

One settlement was with the owners of Roswell Hardware Company in February 2021 for temporary use of property on South Atlanta Street and Oxbo Road. The city agreed to pay the White family $2.5 million after it failed to provide them a pad-ready relocation site for their hardware store by the deadline of Oct. 25, 2020.

The city purchased the White family’s property for $3 million in 2017 because it included right-of-way needed for the project. The investigation later found the property had not been properly appraised according to state law before the city began negotiations, which happened several more times throughout the project’s history.

Skalsky said construction for the Oxbo Road project stopped in 2021, with just 33 percent completion.

He said the city had three options to move forward. It could either complete the project as soon as possible, modify the design or stop the project. But, Skalsky said, because it is funded by TSPLOST, state law requires the city to complete the project as intended.

Skalsky said he didn’t believe it was in the city’s interest to change the project because it had already spent “a good bit of money” and it did not have an active designer on the project. He explained the design was primarily being done by city staff.

“It’s just not our best opportunity to influence the cost or the direction of the project without incurring additional risk,” Skalsky said. “Once we’re in construction – this is just something I’d like everybody to keep in mind – it’s extremely important to keep that contractor moving or we’ll add to our current risk exposure.”

Still, Skalsky said, significant traffic enhancements were added to the project to appease residents who have spoken out over the years about potential problems they foresee, like reduced lane widths along Oxbo Road, textured pavement from Mimosa Boulevard to Ga. 9, median islands at Pleasant Hill Street and Oxbo Road, enlarged landscape buffer and textured crosswalks on Oxbo Road.

After Skalsky’s presentation, resident Frederic Guyonneau asked what was going to be done to hold those responsible for the project’s errors accountable now that taxpayers were paying the price. He also demanded to know who was actually benefitting from the additional roads and requested that something be done to fix Atlanta Street, which has deteriorated since construction for the Oxbo Road project began.

Another resident, George Vail, remained adamant the project was never a “Roswell project” to begin with, but a way to move East Cobb commuters to Ga. 400 and back.

Resident Denise Hannahan described the project as a warzone.

“We’ve been dealing with the transportation department since this project started, and right now, we are still living in a warzone,” Hannahan said. “I mean, it’s just a mess over there …. I think this whole project needs to be readdressed and relooked at because the way it stands now, it’s not what people want. It’s a travesty.”

Councilwoman Christine Hall made the motion to approve the funds, which was seconded by Councilman Peter Vanstrom. It passed 4-0, with councilmen Marcelo Zapata and Mike Palermo absent.

The move is part of the city’s “Oxbo action plan,” which is intended to solve the issues outlined in the Jarrard & Davis investigative report.

CHAMIAN CRUZ/APPEN MEDIA Construction on the Oxbo Road realignment project is set to resume in late April or early May. Interim Director of Transportation Dan Skalsky says construction stopped in 2021, with just 33 percent completion. Shown is the view from Pleasant Hill Church on Pleasant Hill Street in Roswell as of April 11.

We’ve been dealing with the transportation department since this project started, and right now, we are still living in a warzone.”

DENISE HANNAHAN Resident