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Board aims to speed up road repairs
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| By: ADAM NORTHAM, DAILY LEADER Staff Writer |
November 03, 2009 |
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Lincoln County supervisors ratcheted up their plans for repairing Industrial Park Road Monday, agreeing to raid their own district road and bridge funds to pay for a quick fix project for the crumbling city street.
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The five supervisors will contribute $1,000 each from their district funds to allow county engineering firm Dungan Engineering, PA, to carry out a limited smoothing project to the most-deteriorated portions of the road between North Jackson Street and the Cliff Givens Bridge. Supervisors are hoping Brookhaven aldermen will match their contribution to repair the road, which serves the heart of the city's industrial community.
"It's a city road, a county road - we're all tied in together," said Brookhaven Mayor Les Bumgarner following Monday's county board action.
The mayor plans to ask the city board for a matching $5,000 contribution during Tuesday night's meeting.
"It's important to the success of Brookhaven," Bumgarner said. "A lot of the damage is being done by the trucks that go out there. We feel somewhat responsible for it, and it's always good to work together."
The leveling job is intended to stop the badly battered road from rutting further until a $500,000 repair project gets under way in spring 2010. Supervisors have given the sinking stretch their full attention, voting Monday to scrap existing plans for repairing Zetus Road to ensure the remainder of their federal Surface Transportation Funds are applied to Industrial Park Road.
The vote was 3-1, with board president the Rev. Jerry Wilson absent and District Five Supervisor Gary Walker voting against the reordering of priorities. Walker has spent much time and resources preparing work for Zetus Road, but the board believes Industrial Park Road to be the more pressing project, due to its importance to large employers like McLane Southern and the Wal-Mart Distribution Center.
Dungan Engineering, PA, Principal Jeff Dungan said the Office of State Aid Road Construction required the Zetus Road project's cancellation in order to move the IPR repairs up the list. Without canceling the Zetus project, Dungan said the county could afford only minimal patching to IPR while waiting for STP funds to build up, which could take two or three years.
Walker's objection wasn't the only one. District Three Supervisor Nolan Williamson initially opposed the contribution of $2,000 for the IPR quick fix, agreeing only after the total was halved. With oil companies' heavy trucks and equipment using roads like Pricedale Drive, District Three has plenty of repair needs of its own, he said.
"I could put everybody's budget on one road and still not maintain it because of those trucks," Williamson said. "If you don't do anything to the base (of IPR), this is just putting a Band-Aid on it. It will be wallered back out in six months."
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©The Daily Leader 2009
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