New state budget will keep construction crews busy in Metro Atlanta
Not everybody was happy with the way the 2015 General Assembly session ended Friday morning, but contractors, road-builders and the people who supply equipment to government and school facilities scored big this year, particularly in metro Atlanta.
The budget Gov. Nathan Deal will sign contains $1.1 billion in borrowing for construction and equipment purchases - for everything from a new library in Marietta and new human services building in Lawrenceville to equipment for the new Georgia Film Academy, which will train students to work in the state’s booming film industry.
The bond package also includes $100 million to replace and repair bridges across the state and $75 million for transit projects.
The package is the largest since then-Gov. Sonny Perdue pumped up borrowing during the Great Recession in hopes of creating badly needed construction jobs.
But the General Assembly’s bond package wasn’t the only boon to contractors and related companies. Lawmakers also approved a transportation funding bill that could pump another $900 million or so a year into road and bridge projects, providing big business for road contractors.
Two of the biggest road contractors in the state are in metro Atlanta: C.W. Matthews Contracting of Marietta and E.R. Snell Contractor of Snellville. C.W. Matthews has traditionally been the Department of Transportation’s biggest contractor, and E.R. Snell is usually in the top two or three. C.W. Matthews was paid $181 million for DOT road-work in fiscal 2014, according to the state’s Open Georgia web site. That was down from previous years, but the company’s work is likely to pick up now that the transportation funding bill has passed.
Meanwhile, the separate bond project lawmakers approved includes a lengthy list of K-12, college and other government construction and equipment projects.
They include:
- $271 million for k-12 school construction. Much of that will go to growing school systems in metro Atlanta.
- $28.5 million for a new human services building in Lawrenceville
- $23 million for a World Congress Center parking deck near the new Falcons stadium. The legislature included $17 million to start the project last year.
- $11.5 million to build an academic building at Georgia Gwinnett University
- $9 million for a wholesale cooler warehouse at the State Farmers' Market in Forest Park
- $6.68 million to expand the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's morgue in DeKalb County
- $4.9 million to plan, design, build and equip a classroom building addition at Georgia State University
- $4.9 million for an English building renovation and addition at Kennesaw State University
- $2 million for a branch library in Marietta
- $2 million for a library renovation and expansion in Cumming
- $700,000 to design a student services building at Atlanta Metropolitan College
- $9.5 million for construction at the Future Farmers of America/Family, Career and Community Leaders of America Center in Covington.
- $1.5 million for a new library in Villa Rica
- $1.4 million to fund renovations at Clayton State University
- $500,000 to design the expansion of labs at Georgia Perimeter College's Alpharetta campus
- $5 million to modernize and expand Georgia Tech's chilled water system
- $10 million to relocate Lanier Technical College facilities
The University of Georgia also got big money in the bond package. Lawmakers approved $43 million for the second phase of a business facility at UGA, $17 million for a center for molecular medicine, and $3.3 million to buy equipment for a new science center.
About the Author
James Salzer has covered state government and politics in Georgia since 1990. He previously covered politics and government in Texas and Florida. He specializes in government finance, budgets, taxes, campaign finance, ethics and legislative history
