DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — At Tuesday’s DeKalb County Board of Commissioners meeting, more than $100 million in contracts was approved for water system improvements and repairs.
Commissioners voted to approve funds to fix the county water system, a priority for the county following a series of notable water main breaks and other infrastructure issues over the past year.
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In February, the commission approved a series of annual water rate hikes for residential customers to fund infrastructure projects for the water system.
The rate hikes were approved as a 10% increase per year over 10 years, doubling the rates from before the increase took effect.
The county partnered with the Urban League in August to provide water bill assistance for residents as the first 10% bill increase took effect.
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At the Tuesday meeting, funding was approved across multiple agenda items and contracts with several businesses, with the largest item approved being a $64 million contract with eight companies to perform on-call engineering services and other related activities.
Tetra Tech, Inc., Brown and Caldwell, Inc., CDM Smith, Inc., Stantec Consulting Services, Inc., Arcadis U.S., Inc. Hazen and Sawyer, Carollo Engineers, Inc. and Gresham Smith were all awarded the $64 million contract together, with each firm to get $8 million for the work.
Another $21.5 million was approved for sewer system and sewer line rehabilitation through Dec. 31, 2027 and $16 million was approved for sewer rehabilitation and line cleaning, as well as inspection services.
A separate $363,000 was approved for design and engineering services for sewer relief projects at Shoal Creek, related to a consent decree with the county for designing and upgrading “numerous trunk sewers to address seven repeat sanitary sewer overflow areas” in DeKalb County.
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