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West Point has negotiated an intergovernmental agreement with the Georgia Department of Transportation to help with the resurfacing of Kia Parkway and Kia Boulevard at a much lower cost to all local parties than originally anticipated.

Troup County, as well as the cities of LaGrange, Hogansville and West Point, had set aside $4 million in SPLOST funding to resurface Kia Parkway, Kia Boulevard and to complete separate repairs to the Kia Parkway Bridge over Long Cane Creek. West Point was able to negotiate with GDOT a $1.5 million cost for the repaving portion of the project.

The $1.5 million will come from the countywide SPLOST VI funds that were set aside, with the state paying for the rest of the project. That leaves $2.5 million of the SPLOST VI funds to pay for the bridge repairs.

Mayor Steve Tramell said GDOT will be handling the resurfacing. He said the project should be starting very soon.

“We’re thrilled that GDOT has agreed to come along and step up to do this for us. It’s something that we knew we couldn’t afford on our own and having the SPLOST and GDOT’s help in getting us across the finish line,” Tramell said.

County Engineer James Emery said the repairs needed to repair the bridge are primarily due to erosion of the creek banks under the bridge.

Emery explained that Long Cane Creek is a meandering creek. When the bridge was first built, it was primarily under one of the spans of the bridge but in the years since it was constructed, it has started to meander more in one direction, which has begun to undermine some of the steel columns that are encased with concrete. The encasements are now undermined and repair work is needed to protect those columns long-term.

“There’s not any imminent danger there. It’s just more of a maintenance repair that needs to be done to ensure that the bridge will be good long-term,” Emery said.

West Point City Manager Ed Moon said they don’t know how much the bridge repairs will cost as they have never had a firm estimate.

“We really don’t know what the whole scope of the work will be at this point,” Moon said.

Commissioner Lewis Davis said the deal was helped by a chance encounter between Kia executives and GDOT officials.

“I want to thank the city of West Point for having made this go along. I also want to acknowledge from what I understand, a lot of the GDOT part wouldn’t be happening if it were not for KIA executives seeing the head of GDOT in the airport and talking about the need of this road,” Davis said. “I want to thank Kia and their executives for helping us with this because this is a big deal to not only the City of West Point but to all of Troup County.”