What’s up with the construction in front of the Springer Opera House?

If you’ve traveled down 10th Street in downtown Columbus lately, you’ve probably noticed the construction happening in front of the Springer Opera House.

Georgia Power crews have been working on the project for a couple of weeks, and even shut down the road between Second Avenue and First Avenue on August 16.

The work is part of a $10 million investment Georgia Power is making to improve service reliability in the downtown area, spokesman Robert Watkins said. The work that started earlier this year should be completed by the spring of next year.

“We are putting our high-reliability network in downtown,” Watkins said. “The beauty of this system is if you lose power or have a transformer blow, the backup will kick in and the customer will never see it.”

The utility company has workers installing the system near the Springer and the Synovus Centre. The work in front of the Springer was the most visible because a large crane was been brought in to put underground pieces of the new system in place, Watkins said.

Parts of downtown have been on the high-reliability network, but the new work will greatly expand the high-reliability network, Watkins said.

This story was originally published August 16, 2018 at 1:33 PM.