New Albany will begin working on its Rose Run revitalization project this summer.
Improvements to Rose Run Park, a mostly wooded area on the south side of Dublin-Granville Road and east of Market Street, will be part of the project.
The park, which is accessible only by leisure trails, is part of the stream corridor, which runs mostly parallel to Dublin-Granville Road through New Albany until it meets Rocky Fork Creek in the New Albany Country Club, not far west of Greensward and Harlem roads.
The Rose Run project will enable the city to take advantage of the stream corridor and turn it into an amenity rather than a barrier, Mayor Sloan Spalding said.
"This has been something on the agenda for (New Albany) City Council for a number of years," he said.
Adrienne Joly, New Albany's director of administrative services, said the $17 million project is expected to start in late summer and finish in fall 2019. It will be funded through the issuance of bonds, according to an April 17 legislative report to City Council.
Project details
The project will include a 34-foot bridge and promenade that will connect the New Albany-Plain Local School District campus to the New Albany branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library and Market Square, Joly said.
The north landing of the promenade will end in a plaza on the lawn near New Albany Middle School and New Albany High School, and the south end of the promenade will end at a public garden near the library.
The improvements will bridge the gap between the learning campus and Market Street, Spalding said.
The leisure trail near Rose Run will be rerouted underneath the bridge, Joly said, and stepping stones will lead down to the creek. City crews will remove invasive species growing around the creek to create an area with a high tree canopy.
A natural play area, which could include logs, boulders and acrylic mirrors, will be added to Rose Run Park, she said.
Dublin-Granville Road, which runs east to west between Fodor Road and Main Street, will remain two lanes, but the road itself will be reduced in width, Joly said.
Although a 5-mile bicycle-trail loop ultimately is planned, the first phase of the project will create a half-mile segment from Fodor Road to Main Street, she said. The final version of the loop will feature a bike path and an adjoining walkway.
Based on community input and resources, city leaders want to continue the greenway along the stream corridor all the way up to state Route 161, Spalding said.
Status and logistics
Messer Construction will serve as "construction manager at risk" after being approved April 17 by City Council.
Messer is able to start preconstruction services, and when the project is 90 percent designed, council members will have the opportunity to approve the guaranteed maximum price, Joly said.
The design is about 60 percent complete, she said.
The construction-manager-at-risk type of management gives Messer an opportunity to perform value engineering -- that is, a process of looking at the design to see if a more affordable way of achieving that design is feasible, she said.
Joly provided a definition for the guaranteed maximum price in this context as the total maximum amount to be paid by the owner, and it includes the "cost of all the work, general conditions, contingency and (a) fee payable" to the construction manager at risk.
Last fall, City Council entered into a professional-services contract with landscape-architecture firm MKSK and civil-engineering firm EMH&T for construction plans. The design contract cannot exceed $1.4 million, according to the contract.
Thus far, the city has spent $775,000 on the design contract, Joly said.
Bringing in a construction manager early in the design process gives the company an opportunity to help think through access and sensitivity issues because the project is within the village center and close to the school district campus, she said.
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