Wednesday, April 17, 2024–2:17 p.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
Floyd County has received a $180,000 grant for safety through the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant Program.
The funds, plus a 30 percent local match will go to pay for the installation of rumble strips on Blacks Bluff Road from the bypass to Highway 100 and on Calhoun Road from the bypass to Highway 53. The strips warn motorists that they are straying from their lane.
“They are going to cut the rumble strips on Blacks Bluff and Calhoun Road next Thursday,” Assistant Public Works Director Ben Brooks told the Floyd County Public Utilities and Transportation Committee on Wednesday. “We will then have a contractor come in behind them and put down thermoplastic striping on those two roads. We are also going to put striping on four other roads – Old Dalton, Woods, Ward Mountain, and Padlock Mountain down in Cave Spring.”
The rumble strips will be cut on about 8 miles in the center and on the edges of Calhoun Road and another three and a half miles in the center of Blacks Bluff. They are similar to the rumble strips on Highway 140 from Armuchee to Shannon. Around 20 miles of roadway will receive the thermoplastic striping.
Another road project, a resurfacing that will use smart mix paving which has a percentage of ground-up tires as part of the aggregate, is also expected to begin soon.
Floyd County was awarded a rubberized asphalt grant from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division for the test paving of about six-tenths of a mile on Terhune Road, according to Floyd County Public Works Director Michael Skeen.
“I expect you will have an agenda item on Tuesday to approve a contract with Northwest Georgia Paving to do the rubberized asphalt project on Terhune Road,” he said. “Those bids came in on Tuesday and Northwest Georgia Paving was the low bid.”
Skeen added that with the LMIG money the county already had for the project combined with the $106,000 grant, the project will come in under budget. The resurfacing could be completed by June. The grant covers the additional setup, additional plant modifications, and the crumbed rubber that goes in.
The aggregate will come from Liberty Tire, which gets tires from the scrap tire collection events held in Floyd County.
In addition to the benefits of finding a new use for old tires — the mix which could use as many as 500 to 600 tires per mile — there are some improvements to the asphalt pavement, adding flexibility and longevity as well as skid resistance.
