The Carroll County Board of Supervisors met in a special-called meeting Tuesday morning in Carrollton to discuss their emergency road and repair fund. The funding will come from $250 million that has been allocated by the legislature during a special session earlier this year.
Shane Correro with Willis Engineering said the money would be divided between the 82 counties, which should equal to $3 million per county. Correro told supervisors they had to come up with nine projects, and the projects will be awarded based on funding, bus routes, and high traffic.
“We’ll send this list, and they may choose to do one project and not the other,” he said. “I wish we could get all of them funded.”
He said right now the top priority is a County Road 87 in Supervisor Rickie Corley’s Beat 5.
“We’ve been working on it since 2013. We have the right-aways signed. It’s been designed. It’s shovel ready.”
Correro said the project is estimated to cost $2.7 million.
The second priority is County Road 215 in Supervisor Terry Brown’s Beat 2. Correro said it’s another shovel-ready project that is estimated to cost $600,000 to $700,000. He said it’s another project that’s been in the works and should receive second priority.
Others on the list are County Roads 104 in Beat 2, 69 in Supervisor Jim Neill’s Beat 1. Neill said Brown’s should be above his because it’s a bus route, but both roads get traffic in and out of Jefferson.
County Road 150 which is split between Supervisors Dill Tucker and Claude Fluker, 176 in Beat 3, 81 in Beat 1 and rounding off the list are County Roads 144 and 31 both in Beat 4.
Chancery Clerk Sugar Mullins asked Correro when he thought bidding for the projects would begin.
“We’ll know if we’ve been awarded the money or not in mid-January, and they’ll start after that.”
He said for those further down the list, right-aways have to be signed and the projects have to be designed, but for the first two projects, they’re ready to go.
County Road 87 is a heavily-traveled road. Correro told Corley when the work began the road will close, and those who use the road will be detoured around. However, for those who live on the road or have property on the road, they’ll still be able to access it.
