Widening project is behind schedule
Another two months to go.
Tito Sanchez, with Meadow Creek Landscaping Services, works on landscaping along Ronald Reagan Drive near the Evans post office. The project will be done in two months.
Photo by Jim Blaylock
That's the projected time frame for having work completed on a turn lane that's being added to Ronald Reagan Drive in Evans, officials say.
Kevin Lear, the director of the county's construction and maintenance department, said the project, which began in April, is about three months behind its original completion date but that most of the work is now complete.
"It (the delay) wouldn't be due to the contractor but the weather more than anything," he said.
Still, Lear said, "We may have to have the contractor mill some of the asphalt back out that wasn't put in quite the way it should ... So we may have to do a little bit of removal and put it back, but not much."
He said a traffic signal at Washington Road and Ronald Reagan Drive also must be reconfigured before the center turn lane on Ronald Reagan can be used by motorists.
And Lear said the project isn't the only one planned for Ronald Reagan Drive.
On March 8, bids will go out on a project to have improvements made at the intersection of Ronald Reagan at North Belair Road, according to Lear.
"That won't mess up anything we've done (so far), but it will add turn lanes to that intersection and put a traffic signal there," he said, adding that the work will take about seven months to complete.
Bids also will go out March 8 for a center turn lane to be added to Washington Road from Ronald Reagan Drive to Fieldstone Way.
"Within a month or two we should have road work signs going out and that road being widened down past Wal-Mart, and it will be resurfaced and striped," he said.
Lear said the work shouldn't hinder motorists much.
"Most of the time they'll keep two lanes on both sides (of Washington Road) going,'' he said. "So they shouldn't see too much interruption of traffic."