The Golden Leaf Foundation, a North Carolina nonprofit, approved an additional $207,656 for the city of New Bern\u2019s Elizabeth Avenue culvert replacement civil infrastructure project because of projected increased costs, bringing its total funding for the project to $457,656.<\/p>\n
Golden Leaf receives a portion of its funding from the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement with cigarette manufacturers. The organization mainly focuses on increasing economic opportunity in the state\u2019s rural and historically tobacco-dependent communities.<\/p>\n
The state of North Carolina appropriated $25 million to Golden Leaf for a Flood Mitigation Program. The program was established in January 2022 after the N.C. General Assembly agreed to allocate more funding for public infrastructure projects that reduce community flooding.<\/p>\n
Colleen Roberts, public information officer for the city of New Bern, said a drainage study conducted by the city in 2019 identified Elizabeth Avenue, near H.J. MacDonald Middle School and East Rose Street, near J.T. Barber Elementary School, as high flood-risk locations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe drainage study was done after witnessing the effects of Hurricane Florence in 2018,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cWe want to make sure that we are prepared in case a storm like that happens again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project in New Bern involves demolishing the existing dual culvert crossing underneath the part of Elizabeth Avenue in the Forest Park and Derby Park neighborhoods and replacing it with a proposed aluminum box culvert.<\/p>\n
Work on the project also will include erosion and sediment control to help prevent pollution and water line replacement, which involves removing and replacing outdated underground pipes that deliver treated water from the city\u2019s main water line directly to residential properties.<\/p>\n
Roberts said the city was unprepared for how much the project would cost after an inspection, which led to the request for additional funding from the Golden Leaf Foundation.<\/p>\n
Residents in surrounding neighborhoods can expect dewatering, or the temporary removal of water from the area around the construction site, new traffic regulations during construction that could cause rerouting and delays, as well as selective demolition.<\/p>\n
Roberts said that with Golden Leaf\u2019s approval of the additional funding, the city can finally move forward with the project. Although officials are unsure of the construction timeline, they will begin by contacting the project\u2019s low bidder, the contractor or vendor that submitted the lowest price proposal to complete the project, this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Golden Leaf Foundation, a North Carolina nonprofit, approved an additional $207,656 for the city of New Bern\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[10],"tags":[104,305],"class_list":["post-113500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bern","tag-bern","tag-local"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/117069707099940967","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}