“It’s really bad news” and goes against the DOT’s verbal commitment, county engineer James Emery said Wednesday after reviewing a letter from interim DOT Commissioner Gerald M. Ross.
Monday’s letter was in response to a meeting Ross had with county commissioners on April 23.
Ross said the haul routes - Bartley, Webb, Webb-Bartley, Shoemaker, Gabbettville, Warner and Davidson roads - could be submitted to the state for funding under the Local Assistance Road Program in fiscal 2010. The state didn’t award any LARP funding statewide in the current fiscal year, but Ross said he expects some next year provided Gov. Sonny Perdue signs the budget and motor fuel revenues aren’t funneled somewhere else.
“I do not anticipate any other funding to be available to repair these routes in the near future,” Ross said.
Emery said the haul routes “shouldn’t have anything to do with LARP.” He said the DOT verbally promised to fix the roads at a public hearing on the interchange project about two years ago.
“We followed up with a letter of understanding,” County Manager Mike Dobbs said, and the DOT wrote back acknowledging the commitment.
The county normally submits a request for 10 to 12 miles of LARP funding and the state approves six to eight miles. The haul roads amount to 17 miles and “I’m sure LARP funding would not be large enough to pave all of them,” Emery said. “… We won’t get half of the 17 out of LARP.”
Emery said the work will cost more than $1 million and it can’t be put off for long because “the roads just keep getting in worse shape.” County crews patch potholes and place asphalt on long sections just to keep the roads passable. Davidson Road is “terrible,” he said, Gabbettville Road is “very bad,” and parts of Bartley and Webb-Bartley Roads are really bad.
Emery had hoped the state would fix the roads as part of the interchange project, adding, “It’s typical to include repairs of haul routes around a real large construction project when roads have to be damaged to build the project.” He said the county plans further discussions with the DOT on that issue.
Emery said the project could be financed with the county’s special-purpose local-option sales tax, but “that’s not the right way to pay for a project like this.” He said the county may go after federal stimulus funding, although only Bartley and Shoemaker roads would be large enough to qualify.
Troup County also wants the state to improve the intersection of U.S. 29 and Gabbettville Road because of all the expected traffic when Kia gets into full production with 2,500 employees. Ross said there’s no money for right of way, but he’ll ask the DOT district office in Thomaston for an intermediate solution that wouldn’t cost as much. He said the district office has concluded that a traffic signal isn’t warranted at the intersection.
The intermediate solution might be something like a turn lane at one of the approaches, Emery said.
Nor does the state have money to widen West Point Road to Upper Glass Bridge Road or beyond. Right-of-way acquisition had been scheduled for the current fiscal year, but now it’s been moved out five years until fiscal 2014.
Ross said there’s no money for intersection improvements at South Davis Road at Upper Big Springs Road, but the district office will check on intermediate solutions. Emery said the district office has “suggested we scale back the design slightly and do it as a 100 percent locally funded project” at a cost of $620,000 for construction and $382,000 for utility relocations.
“It would set a new precedent to pay 100 percent local funds for a state route project,” he said. “We want to respond to that and continue the discussion.”
Emery said “we were about a week away” from 50 percent state funding when then-DOT Commissioner Harold Linnenkohl retired in November 2007 and state-aid projects came to a halt.
Ross said the DOT plans to designate the $25 million costs of phase two South Loop construction as a priority for the next round of federal stimulus funding later this year. But Emery said it had always been a state-funded project and now the DOT is treating it like a local request for stimulus money.
If the county doesn’t get funding for any of the other $12.4 million worth of projects on the stimulus list, “I’ll kind of feel like we did not receive anything,” he said.
The South Loop, however, will become a city and county highway upon completion and “that’s the way they’re looking at it,” Emery said.
If the South Loop takes up the whole local request, “I’ll feel like we didn’t get anything,” Emery said.
“It is good news that the project is going forward and we have found funding for it, even if it’s stimulus money,” he said. “We don’t care how they fund it.”
Joel Martin can be reached at jmartin@ lagrangenews.com or 706-884-7311, Ext. 235.
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