Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023–12:09 p.m.

-David Crowder, WRGA News-

Floyd County is looking at an aggressive road paving schedule for the coming year.

Public works director Michael Skeen told the Transportation Policy Committee on Wednesday that the county has a $1.2 million Local Maintenance Improvement Grant allotment that would pave about 12 miles.

In addition, there is a special purpose, local option sales tax money that would bring the total to about 35 miles, depending on weather and scheduling.

“We’re going to hit some of our neighborhoods, continuing some like Sherwood Forest,” Skeen said. “Then we are going to be working in Riverside. Wood Glen is another one, and Garden Lakes. We’re doing that with our state LMIG money. With SPLOST, we are going to be doing some of our longer collector roads like the north end of Old Dalton Road, and another section of Blacks Bluff.”

A list of most of the proposed projects can be found on the public works section of the county’s website.

Funding for Dykes Creek Bridge project moved up

State and federal funding for the replacement of the bridge over Dykes Creek on Kingston Highway will be available sooner than anticipated.

On Wednesday, the Transportation Policy Committee voted to approve the change to the Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Transportation Improvement Plan, moving the funds from 2024 to 2023.

The removal of the existing bridge and proposed bridge construction will be staged to maintain traffic on site during the work, utilizing a temporary detour bridge to the south of Kingston Highway.

The start date for the project has not been determined.

Rome to dedicate new transit buses Jan. 31

A dedication ceremony will be held later this month for five new Rome Transit Department buses.

RTD director Kathy Shealey spoke about the low-floor Gilig buses during Wednesday’s Transportation Policy Committee meeting.

“We have them in and they look great,” she said. “We have new designs on them, and we’re excited.”

The dedication ceremony will be on Jan. 31 at 2 p.m. at the Midtown Transit Station.

Shealy added that free ridership will continue throughout 2023.

Since the program was implemented, ridership has increased by 50%.

“A lot of people think that sometimes people might just be getting on and riding around, but that’s not the case,” she said. “We require anyone on the bus to be going to a destination.”