Drought good for road work

GAINESVILLE - The drought may not be good for much of anything else, but its good for road work in the Gainesville area.

"We are slightly ahead of schedule on almost all of our projects," according to Teri Pope, Communications Officer for the state Department of Transportation Office in Gainesville, "because we haven't any any rain. It seems the little rain we've gotten has been on the weekends or after we've quit work (for the day)."

Pope discussed the current and future road projects in the 21 counties the Gainesville office serves.

Pope says this is the busiest year ever for the office. The two major projects, of course, are the reconstruction of the Oakwood interchange and the Georgia 316/I-85 interchange in North Gwinnett.

Pope, appearing on Northeast Georgia This Week on WDUN NEWS TALK 550 (like AccessNorthGa.com a division of Jacobs Media Corp.), said the widening of Dawsonville Highway/Georgia 53 west of Gainesville is about ten percent complete. At the other end, utility relocation continues on Winder Highway/Georgia Highway 53 and work will probably begin in about two weeks on clearing land for the widening of the road itself.

"We'll probably begin on the far end of the project, from Tanner's Mill Road up to Martin Road," Pope said, because the utility relocation has been finished in that area.

Pope said there are more than 200 projects currently underway in the 21 counties the Gainesville office serves . They range from minor shoulder repairs to the upgrade of traffic signals to the interchange projects in Oakwood and North Gwinnett.

Outside of Hall and Gwinnett counties, she said, the busiest place for the Gainesville office is probably Jackson County. Pope said there are four major projects underway there, two each on U.S. 441 and U.S. 129.