When Lowndes County supervisors passed their Fiscal Year 2013-14 budget in September, they set aside an extra $500,000 for road repairs.
Tuesday, they approved which roads will receive work this spring and summer. The county will make improvements to 64 roads. Last year, the county made improvements to 33.
Road manager Ronnie Burns said he and supervisors provided their input on which roads in each of the five districts were in the greatest need of repairs. Last year, the road department spent $1 million-plus on road work.
He said once bids are accepted, crews generally begin working in April.
“There are no roads we’ve got that are really unpassable. All of them are in good enough shape and we haven’t got one someone would have a hard time going home on,” Burns said. “We keep them in good shape, but what we’re doing now is just overlaying and sealing and trying to take care of the ones we’ve got with the money we’ve got to spend.”
Thirty roads will be resurfaced. Nineteen will be resealed.
Seven gravel roads will receive double bituminous surface treatment (DBST), meaning crews will remove gravel from the unpaved roads and prepare a dirt surface so they can apply two layers of tar and rock on top of each other. Taylor Rae Lane, McKenzie Drive, Brenda’s Way, Marilyn’s Place, Colby Lane, West Minnie Vaughn Road and Barnett Circle are on that list.
Eight roads in the county will be milled. Milling is the process of grinding off the top layer of asphalt on a road and replacing it with a new surface, whereas overlays simply consist of a new layer of asphalt going on top of an old one. The roads slated to be milled are Lawrence Street, Hunnington Drive, Sir Henry Drive, Fountaindale Drive, Old Swan Lane, Kings Path, Monticello Circle and Oxford Street.
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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