Asheville RAD overhaul $26M over budget

Joel Burgess | The Citizen-Times

Show Caption Hide Caption Changes in Asheville's River Arts District A quick history of how Asheville's "RAD" went from post-industrial grittiness to tourist haven.

ASHEVILLE - An overhaul of the River Arts District meant to transform an industrial-era hodgepodge of roads and buildings into a multimodel system of traffic circles, greenways, bike lanes and sidewalks is facing a $26 million cost overrun.

That's after bids came back in May more than 50 percent higher than anticipated in March 2015, when the project was estimated at $50 million, city officials say.

Project managers said skyrocketing local land and construction costs are to blame.

"Staff had to look at and analyze the bids to make sure they were correct because they were so high," Stephanie Monson Dahl, Asheville's Riverfront Office director, said Thursday.

The high costs will likely mean three planned greenways around the River Arts District, or RAD, will be cut from the initial overhaul. Protected bike lanes and a sidewalk on Lyman Street would also be taken out of the main project, along with scaling back or possibly delaying projects meant to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety directly to the north and southeast of the RAD.

In the wake of the proposed cutbacks, local bicycling advocates are raising safety concerns. Mike Sule, executive director of Asheville on Bikes, on Wednesday wrote a letter to city officials urging them not to postpone building "critical pieces of infrastructure."

"As you adjust priorities, public safety must be your primary criterion," Sule said.

2015 budget

The initial $50 million estimate included nearly $17 million directly from federal transportation and economic development departments, $4.7 million in federal transportation money controlled by the state, $600,000 in state clean water and other monies, $1.8 million in hotel tax money and $300,000 from Buncombe County.

The city planned to add $26 million.

Prior to the bids being released, the city revised the total figure by $6 million, raising the total overhaul cost to $56 million.

The biggest piece of the funding is to go to the RAD Transportation Improvement Project, known by city officials as the RADTIP.

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Those changes center on an approximately 2-mile strip of land on the east bank of the French Broad River. That area starts in the north near the intersection of Riverside Drive and Hill Street and runs south to the intersection of Lyman Street and Amboy Road. It is the heart of a region populated by artists following the decline of industry there.

Other projects are planned to spur off of that center, giving better connections to drivers, walkers and bicyclists from surrounding areas.

Meanwhile, hundreds of millions in past and anticipated private investments have already transformed pieces of the region around the river. That includes a combined $140 million New Belgium Brewing put into a giant, new beer-making facility on the west bank of the French Broad plus its Enka distribution facility, and $6 million more it has planned for a water treatment plant along the river.

There is also the mixed-use residential and commercial RAD Lofts project which when built would cost $58 million, according to estimates last year.

What will move ahead

The city plans to move forward with 2.2 miles of the French Broad River Greenway East Bank.

It also wants to construct planned amenities such as 1.5 acres of botanical gardens with an experimental water quality demonstration garden, Asheville's first boat ramp and a 1-acre community plaza with a children's play sculpture, said Assistant City Manager Cathy Ball in a June 15 memo to the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority, the body that controls the hotel tax.

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"The ... features in this re-scoped project will help this section of the River Arts District become a more warm, welcome and creative environment," Ball said.

Road, stormwater, parking, sidewalk and pedestrian lighting construction is still planned. Two roundabouts would go in, one at a five-way intersection with Clingman Avenue and Lyman, Roberts and Depot streets. Another would be where Lyman takes a sharp turn to the east at the former 12 Bones restaurant. A rerouted Riverside Drive would swing out west closer to the river to join the north side of the circle.

Funding rules mean the federally backed projects still in the plan would have to be started by Aug. 1 and finished by 2020.

What gets bumped

Projects getting pushed out of the funding are:

French Broad River Greenway West Bank. A half-mile of this paved path for walkers and cyclists has already been finished in front of New Belgium from Craven Street in the north to Haywood Road in the south. When completed, the greenway is intended to continue south to French Broad River Park and total 1.2 miles. (Estimate before May bids: $3 million.)

Town Branch Greenway. This would stretch 0.7 miles in and around the South French Broad neighborhood from Phifter Street in the northeast to Depot behind the Grant Center in the southwest. (Estimate before May bids: $3.2 million.)

Bacoate Greenway (formerly Clingman Forest Greenway). At 0.5 miles, this would start in the north at the intersection of Merritt Street and Clingman and Hilliard avenues and end in the south at Clingman Avenue extension. (Estimate before May bids: $3.6 million)

Lyman protected bike lanes, sidewalks. Two-way bike lanes separated from the roadway would run from the former 12 Bones in the north to Amboy Road in the south. Sidewalks would also be included.

Livingston Street improvements. Mini roundabouts, bike lanes and pedestrian safety measures would be added to this "complete streets" project from McDowell to Depot streets.

Changed Riverside railroad/bike crossing. These measures would allow cyclists to safely cross railroad tracks north of Bowen Bridge.

Retaining wall near Hillcrest. The wall would have helped with building a sidewalk near the subsidized housing community north of the RAD.

Bids for the three greenways estimated in January to cost $3 million-$3.6 million each came in at about $4 million apiece, said Monson Dahl, the riverfront development director.

The bids for sidewalks and protected bike lanes that would parallel the French Broad Greenway East Bank came in at $4.6 million.

And the retaining wall near Hillcrest was estimated at $2.5 million.

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Monson Dahl said being bumped from funding didn't necessarily mean those projects wouldn't move ahead — or even that they will be delayed.

As of January the greenway projects had no estimated completion dates. If other funding is found, they could be built in a year's time and completed by 2019 or 2020. The Livingston improvements were meant to be done by 2020, she said.

"To be frank with you, the funding is delayed, but I don't know if the projects will be."

Possible funding sources could include the city's capital improvement funding stream that comes from a 3 cents on the property tax rate. At least one City Council member has floated the idea of using voter-approved bond money.

Construction costs

While construction costs have gone up nationally, Monson Dahl said they've caused a tight pinch in the local market because of high interest in building and fewer resources, including the presence of only two area asphalt plants.

"You just need to look at all the cranes downtown," she said of the demand for construction.

New Belgium said they're dealing with similar issues with the construction of the water treatment plant.

"We have seen an increased rise in material costs and a lack of labor availability in the area," said Gabe Quesinberry, New Belgium's operations support manager. "In turn, we have seen higher costs of capital improvements since we completed the brewery construction."

Safety concerns

Two pieces singled out as safety concerns by bike advocates were the Riverside railroad crossing and the Lyman bike lanes and sidewalks.

Asheville on Bikes director Sule said they shouldn't be delayed because of budget problems.

He suggested the East Bank greenway be widened to 16 feet to cover the missing sidewalk and bike lanes.

Two popular greenway systems, the Swamp Rabbit in Upstate South Carolina and American Tobacco Trail in the Research Triangle Area get more than 500,000 annual users, and the RAD can anticipate similar use, he said.

"Make it safe for all users and do not neglect this part of the plan. Frankly, it should have been built first."

Sule also said the railroad crossing was "responsible for many broken bones, concussions and other injuries to your citizens."

On Thursday, Monson Dahl said changes to the crossing would include a rubber mat, grade improvements and a slight change to the angle of the bike lanes or roadway itself to keep cyclists' tires from getting caught on the tracks.

Sule responded that he applauded the emphasis on safety and trusts the city staff "to research and find a solution that fully addressed the issue" but couldn't endorse the changes without seeing a specific design.

What next?

The next important date will be Tuesday, when the council will officially review and approve the changes. Some are necessary in order to retain federal funding.

The TDA is expected to approve a change in the use of hotel tax money Wednesday.

Cecil Bothwell, the council member serving on the Asheville Area Riverfront Redevelopment Commission, has already begun talking to staff about cost-saving measures.

Bothwell floated the idea of delaying or eliminating the main roundabouts.

He also backed the concept of a wider path on Lyman, possibly paying for it with transportation bond money approved by voters in November.

"We could permanently shelve the protected bike lane associated with the street plan," he said in a Wednesday email to City Manager Gary Jackson and Ball, the assistant manager.

"A delayed protected bike lane could be many years away, and there won’t be a lot of support for a major construction project along there after three years of RADTIP work."