Georgia will receive $932 million for transportation under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It plans to spend two-thirds of the money on state projects and the remainder on local requests.
In December, county engineer James Emery identified projects that might qualify for stimulus funding. On March 6, Emery got an e-mail from the state Department of Transportation asking for more information about each project and informing him that the list had to be submitted by 8 a.m. Monday to DOT Commissioner Gerald Ross.
Emery, with input from LaGrange public works director David Brown, worked over the weekend to get it done.
The list includes $25.3 million for the 6.1-mile South Loop project between Roanoke Road and Whitesville Road. The other 18 projects on the list are:
— $2,632,000 for phase two of the LaGrange bypass from New Franklin Road to Mooty Bridge Road.
— $1.25 million for a traffic signal and other upgrades at the intersection of South Davis Road and Upper Big Springs Road. County Commission Chairman Ricky Wolfe has been trying to get that work done for years.
“It took a total meltdown of the U.S. economy to get a light,” Wolfe said Friday at a commissioners’ work session.
— $306,000 for a two-foot widening of Gabbettville Road from Kia Boulevard to U.S. 29.
The other local requests are for 52.4 miles of resurfacing on South State Line, Upper Glass Bridge, West Point, Upper Big Springs, Stovall, Shoemaker, Hammett, Rock Mills, Pyne, Waugh, Ware’s Cross, Lower Glass Bridge, Hines and Willowood roads. More resurfacing will be done through the county’s special-purpose local-option sales tax and the state’s Local Assistance Resurfacing Program.
The county transportation plan’s top priority - widening Hamilton Road from Morgan Street to Auburn Avenue - can’t be done with stimulus money because the more than 100 parcels of right of way have not been acquired, Emery said. Widening of West Point Road can’t be done with stimulus money either because “it’s nowhere near shovel-ready,” Emery said.
Because the goal is to save and create jobs, all the work has to be done through private contractors.
“I hope it works,” Emery said. “We’ve got a high unemployment rate. I love to see it go toward infrastructure because it’s something we need anyhow.”
The DOT has a Web site to provide information about stimulus-funded projects at www.dot.ga.gov/gastimulus.
“This Web site will keep all of our citizens updated on every aspect of the stimulus projects as we move forward,” Ross said. “Georgia DOT is committed to being transparent and good stewards of these taxpayers’ dollars, and we want Georgia citizens to know that we are ready to get projects constructed on time and within the federal guidelines.”
Joel Martin can be reached at jmartin@ lagrangenews. com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 235.
Dont put too much stock into Kia right now because if things get worse they wont be building any cars at all.
The BRAC has nothing to do with Troup County. Muscogee and surrounding counties will be the biggest benefactors in that case.
Light rail is a joke here. There isnt enough support for it and people would much rather drive their cars than use a light rail system. There just isnt a need for it. This isnt New York.
It's time for the county and the cities to work more closely on all sorts of planning, but especially transportation. In fact, with Kia and BRAC happening as discussed in another article, maybe Troup should be working with Muscogee and even maybe Lee County in AL. There's going to be alot of commuting between these areas... maybe even a light rail...?