Friday, November 14, 2014

Construction Of Mars Hill Road Scheduled To Begin Next Week, Georgia Department Of Transportation Announced

Clearing To Begin Wednesday

Construction work on Mars Hill Road is scheduled to begin next week, according to a press release issued this afternoon by the Gainesville office of the Georgia Department of Transportation.

Crews are to start delivering equipment and materials to the site at the beginning of the week, and clearing along Mars Hill Road in advance of construction will start Wednesday at State Route 316, weather permitting.

Barber Creek Bridge To Be Replaced

Georgia DOT and Oconee County will hold an information session on the project from 6 to 8 p.m. on Dec. 1 at the Oconee County Civic Center, 2661 Hog Mountain Road, west of Butler’s Crossing, according to the news release.

Layouts of the project will be available for review, and GDOT engineers, Oconee County Public Works staff as well as staff from G.P.’s Enterprises, contractor for the project, will make a presentation and answer questions, according to the release.

Davis Quoted

“I am excited this project is starting up,” Oconee County Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin Davis is quoted as saying in the news release. “Long term, this project will improve traffic congestion and safety on the corridor benefitting our entire county.”

The project will widen Mars Hill Road and a section of the Oconee Connector from SR 316 to Hog Mountain Road at Butler’s Crossing.

The new road will have four 12-foot-wide lanes with a 20-foot-wide grassy median. It will also have 4-feet-wide bike lanes and 5-feet-wide sidewalks in each direction.

The existing bridge over Barber Creek, built in 1944, will be replaced with two bridges carrying two lanes of traffic in each direction.

Contract Awarded In July

GDOT awarded the $26.4 million contract to G.P.’s Enterprises Inc. of Auburn, Ga., in July.

The expected completion date for the 3.3-mile-long project is March 31, 2018.

Oconee County Public Works Director Emil Beshara told the Oconee County Citizen Advisory Committee for Land Use and Transportation Planning of the county’s intent to hold an informational meeting on the project at the Committee’s meeting in August.

The county completed right of way acquisition for the project just this week, though one prominent land owner at the corner of SR 316 and the Oconee Connector has yet to agree on the price for the acquired right of way.

6 comments:

Beanne said...

Going to be a big road, but grateful for the bike lanes and sidewalks.

Xardox said...

Finally it's a go.
Been in the works for a couple of decades, when it should have been done.

Anonymous said...

Are these planners out of their minds? A 20 foot wide grassy median?That's a 316 lookalike road connecting 316 to Butlers Crossing. This is laughable overkill! I completely agree that Mars Hill needs some work, but this is absurd! Are we trying to recreate Snellville in Oconee? That place, my hometown, is an absolute dump now precisely because of rectal/cranial inversion plans like this.

Jon said...

About time! Thankful for sidewalks.

Anonymous said...

grateful for sidewalks, seriously missing in Oconee, but has anyone thought about the bottleneck that will become Butler's Crossing. No way to widen that area to 4 lanes ++

Anonymous said...

This is the end my friends. Your local politicians are turning Oconee county into Central Florida. Good luck with that. I'll watch from the comfort of my Normal Town home. I hope the school systems are worth it, white flighters!