Troup County officials went to the state Department of Transportation this week to plead for road improvements around the Kia Motors plant in West Point.

The state built a $100 million interchange at Interstate 85 to serve the plant, but arterial roads need to be upgraded to avoid major traffic congestion, commission Chairman Ricky Wolfe said. He said more than 4,000 people will be working for Kia and three suppliers at the site when the plants open late next year.

Specifically, the county wants the DOT’s help for intersection improvements on U.S. 29 at Gabbettville and Webb roads, and a 2-foot widening of Gabbettville Road, which will become a major thoroughfare because it intersects with the four-lane Kia Boulevard.

Wolfe said he hopes the projects get done before Kia starts production, although the DOT didn’t make any commitments at Tuesday’s meeting.

Wolfe said county engineer James Emery “did a good job of expressing our needs” at the meeting with DOT Deputy Commissioner Buddy Gratton, Chief Operating Officer Kevin Clark and Darryl Van Meter, who was project manager for the Kia interchange, scheduled to open next month.

All five commissioners were at the meeting, along with County Manager Mike Dobbs, state Reps. Randy Nix, Carl Von Epps and Vance Smith, and District 3 DOT board member Sam Wellborn of Columbus.

Emery told the DOT that it’s great to have an interchange, but it’s not adequate to solve all the transportation needs because there’s not good connectivity to county roads and U.S. 29.

“I just reminded them of the need for a second phase of projects,” he said.

Emery said the DOT agreed to honor the previous administration’s commitment to repair haul routes that are being used during construction of the Kia plant, including Bartley, Webb, Webb-Bartley, Shoemaker, Gabbettville, Warner and Davidson roads.

“I have a pretty good feeling about them standing behind the commitment that was made to fix these roads,” he said.

The state has long planned to widen U.S. 29 from LaGrange to Upper Glass Bridge Road, but with Kia in the picture, the widening should be extended at least to Gabbettville Road, if not to Webb Road or all the way to West Point, Emery said.

The DOT announced at the meeting that it will delay a construction contract for the second phase of the South Loop from February to July of next year because of financial problems. The first phase, from Pegasus Parkway to the Callaway South industrial park, remains on schedule for completion next summer. The second phase will extend across U.S. 29 to Roanoke Road.

About 80 percent of the right of way has been acquired for phase two, although the DOT has been slow to reimburse the county for buying the property. The county was prepared to address the issue at Tuesday’s meeting, but received a reimbursement check for $902,193 a week ago to go along with previous checks for $763,890 and $1,092,256. An estimated $3.2 million still has to be reimbursed.

The county has been using its reserve fund, which averages about $12 million, to buy the right of way.

“We’ve not been getting reimbursed as timely as we had expected,” said county finance officer Stewart Mills. “In these uncertain times, it’s not a good thing. We want the money readily available in case we need it.”

He said the county has lost an estimated $15,000 to $20,000 worth of interest income because of the delays.

On a positive note, Emery said the DOT will provide 12.5 miles of paving this year for LaGrange, Hogansville, West Point and the unincorporated area under the Local Road Assistance Program or LARP.

“We were concerned they wouldn’t fund anything,” Emery said.

He said the first LARP contact called for only 8.31 miles, but the contract was revised to allow the county to do paving with its new equipment.

“We talked about creative partnership ideas” at the meeting, Emery said. “The county has certain capabilities, and the district staff has certain equipment and capabilities. It may be that we can work on these types of projects and get them done with a lot of in-house work as opposed to contracting them out. It saves money and it’s more an issue of finding money for materials.”

Joel Martin can be reached at jmartinlagrangenews. com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 235.