Friday, August 02, 2019

Oconee County Accepts Bid For Improvements To Mars Hill Road Intersection With Rocky Branch And Virgil Langford Roads

***Construction To Start Soon***

Oconee County commissioners on Tuesday tentatively approved a $702,447 bid by CMES Inc. of Norcross for reconstruction of the Mars Hill Road intersection with Rocky Branch Road and Virgil Langford Road.

The site construction plans call for the addition of right-hand and decel turn lanes as well as left-hand turn lanes on Mars Hill Road, Virgil Langford Road and Rocky Branch Road.

Virgil Langford intersects with Mars Hill Road from the north at that point, and Rocky Branch Road intersects, though not at a right angle, from the south.

When construction is completed, each of the three roads will be four-lanes wide at the intersection, including a through lane, a left-hand turn lane, a right-hand turn lane, and an incoming lane.

The right-hand turn lane from Rocky Branch Road to Mars Hill Road will be shifted to the east, and a mountable island will be installed between the turn lane and the through lane to improve the angle of the intersection.

The intersection will have a signal.

Time Table Of Construction

Relocation of utilities has been underway for months, but actual construction on the new intersection should begin as soon as the documents are signed, according to County Public Works Director Jody Woodall.

The contract with CMES will specify a Nov. 30 completion date, Woodall said.

Site Construction Plans, which were an appendix to the bid documents, were completed by ABE Consulting Inc., 2410 Hog Mountain Road, west of Butler’s Crossing, and dated Aug. 26, 2016, though utility revisions were made March 15 of this year.

CMES was the low among three bidders for the project. G.P.’s Enterprises of Auburn had bid $893,582, and E.R. Snell of Snellville had bid $1,137,739.

Clip From Site Construction Plans Mars Hill Road (Center) Intersection
With Virgil Langford Road (Top) And Rocky Branch Road (Bottom)
Click To Enlarge

Mars Hill Road is a state route, and the Georgia Department of Transportation will contribute $250,000 to the project, Woodall told the Commission.

The remaining $452,447 will come from the county’s fund balance, or reserves.

Commission Chair John Daniell said it will cost another $100,000 for the traffic lights, bringing the total cost of the project to $802,000.

The Board of Commissioners put the awarding of the contract on its consent agenda for final action at its meeting on Aug. 6.

KOCBC Report

The first part of Tuesday’s relatively short meeting was set aside for a presentation by Cindy Pritchard, executive director of the Keep Oconee County Beautiful Commission.

“Three years ago, when I started, I never imagined that I would enjoy talking so much about trash and tires and things like that,” Pritchard said as she began her comments.

Pritchard said the amount of litter on county roads has decreased in each of the years she has been in her position.

She said this is the result of programs such as Adopt a Mile and the work of the county’s Road Department and the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office Litter Patrol Division

“Between the Road Department and the Litter Patrol Division, we pick up furniture, we pick up desk chairs, bikes,” Pritchard said. “We actually had somebody cut a tree and dump the tree on the side of the road right in the right of way.”

Since January, Pritchard said, the county had picked up 1,100 bags of trash off the roadways and 63 tires.

It also collected 1,200 tires as part of tire amnesty program in June that allowed people to bring their tires to the county’s recycling facilities.

Video

The video below is from the July 30 Commission meeting.

Pritchard began her presentation at 1:31 in the video.

Woodall began the presentation on the Mars Hill Road intersection with Virgil Langford Road and Rocky Branch Road at 17:57 in the video.

1 comment:

Zippity said...

Thank you Cindy Pritchard for the great work you do to