Reconstructing a busy Bartow County, Ga., interchange and widening two sections of an important south Georgia economic development highway are among some $85 million in new transportation infrastructure improvements announced by the Georgia Department of Transportation.
Rebuilding the crowded U.S. Highway 41/S.R. 3 interchange with U.S. Highway 441/S.R. 61 will cost $31.5 million and require department contractors to construct a total of nine bridges—six permanent structures spanning U.S. 411/S.R. 6, a rail line and Pettit Creek as well as three temporary detour bridges for traffic to use during construction of the project. Work is expected to continue through December 2017, conducted by C.W. Matthews Contracting Co. Inc. of Marietta.
In Brooks and Colquitt counties in southwest Georgia, contractors will widen more than 11 miles of S.R. 133, a 66-mile Governor’s Road Improvement Program (GRIP) corridor stretching from Albany to Valdosta. The Brooks work—on a 6.7-mile section—will extend from Pauline Church Road to Troupeville Road. It will be done by Reames and Son Construction Co. Inc. for $20.7 million and is to be finished by June 30, 2016. The $15 million Colquitt section is on 4.4 miles between the Moultrie Bypass/S.R. 35 and Hawthorne Drive. Reames will perform that work also with a targeted completion date of July 31, 2016.
The GRIP program was begun in 1989 and is designed to insure that virtually all Georgia communities have close access to four-lane state highways and also to the Interstate Highway System.
Other projects announced today include:
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A $5 million bridge on S.R. 36 over the Flint River between Upson and Talbot counties; and
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A new $4.4 million overpass in Gwinnett County that will widen and carry Walther Boulevard near Lawrenceville over S.R. 316. The new overpass will feature a center turn lane, bike lanes and a sidewalk.
Since January, Georgia DOT has awarded 80 major construction contracts across the state valued at more than $421 million. However, the department’s ability to continue maintaining and growing the state’s transportation network will be severely restricted beginning next month unless Congress acts immediately to provide necessary federal funding.
