Downtown deck and other trans plans running behind

ABH reports on the delays facing the proposed downtown parking deck as well as the Pulaski Greenway and other projects:

A new downtown parking deck, delayed by negotiations with developers to form a public-private partnership, is running two years behind schedule.

Most of the 33 projects in Athens-Clarke County's $122 million of sales tax-funded construction projects are already done or will be completed on time, but the deck is one of a handful that have fallen behind.

If planning and construction went as originally planned, the deck at the corner of West Washington and North Lumpkin streets already would have opened; now it is scheduled to be finished in August 2011.

Nine other sales tax-funded projects - trails along Pulaski Creek and an unused East Athens railroad; police headquarters renovations; a computerized police dispatch and record-keeping system; a bridge to East Athens Community Park; bridge repairs; Solid Waste Department offices; a new Sandy Creek Nature Center wing; and a diversion center - also are running behind, SPLOST program manager Don Martin told commissioners at a work session Tuesday.

The delays are not unusual and are for "very valid reasons" such as negotiating with railroad companies to buy land, Athens-Clarke Manager Alan Reddish said.