Generations of Athens officials have pieced together the city's central infrastructure for more than two centuries, from dirt roads to a Great Depression-era storm water system to modern city buildings.
Time, nature and the increasing speed of life have worn on many of those pieces faster than the city has found funding to keep up, according to interviews with more than a dozen city officials and hundreds of pages of public records. Buildings, streets, pipes, wires and other components have been left deteriorating throughout the city or outdated compared to new regulations, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act.
It's showing its age
but surprisingly given our soil type and the age of some of the structures I'm surprised we don't have more problems
Service-Safety Director Ray Hazlett said.
Much of the deterioration can be traced to the city's clay-on-bedrock foundation, which shifts with heavy water saturation and frequent weather changes. The infrastructure and buildings eventually have problems as they begin to deteriorate with age, but the soil in Athens just helps it fail faster
he said.
The shifts exacerbate Athens' city-on-a-hill syndrome ' the variety of challenges that plague construction and repairs on rolling topography. Those challenges pop up with many local development projects, such as the proposed Summit at Coates Run off Richland Avenue and even in older neighborhoods.
Take the area between Franklin and Woodward avenues on the north side, city officials said. There, a few of the least stable houses have been torn down and uneven roads extend in front of many homes that require extra bracing.
I don't know of any houses there that have a level floor
Mayor Ric Abel said.
Stabilization also has been a concern in city buildings, especially the Columbus Road fire station. The city paid about $137,000 to alleviate structural deficiencies, especially toward the back of the building, which rests on concrete columns. Engineering reviews from 2003 and 2005 found the building was leaning and that its supporting beam and pillars were cracked.
Behind the times
Other city structures, such as City Hall on East Washington Street, show their age not through crumbling materials but through outdated design.
We've recycled this building so many times it's unreal
Abel said, explaining that the property has served a number of purposes in its 133-year history.
Different city offices have floated in and out of the space in that time, both before and after a major renovation in 1968. The Athens Municipal Court replaced an opera house that occupied the upper level during the early 1900s, and other tenants have left their mark on the first-floor layout, Abel said.
Updated d+
'X' millions is just a hit
he said. To us
it would put us out of business.
He doesn't keep a running total of how many ramps have been updated ' or not ' but every major street-paving project since 2001 has included replacements to any nearby ramps. Last year, about 30 ramps were replaced during projects along High, Lancaster and West Union streets.
Officials also have ramps and push-button door openers in city buildings.
We are trying to be compliant as much as we can
as quickly as we can
