Grants rev up road work in North Georgia

photo Cars drive on Crittenden Avenue Saturday afternoon in Chickamauga, Ga. The stretch of road is part of 27.9 miles of road in North Georgia that will be resurfaced by the Georgia Department of Transportation.

CATOOSA/WALKER WORKRinggoldInman Street from state Route 151 to Highway 151Shady Place from High Street to Tiger TrailWilliams Street from High Street to Tiger TrailFort OglethorpePatterson Place from Patterson AvenueRocky Ford Road from South Cedar Lane to Musket TrailChickamaugaCrittenden Avenue from West Eighth Street to just south of Jewell StreetRossvilleCliff Trail from Georgia Terrace to Leinbach RoadEllis Road from McFarland Avenue to City ParkWalker CountyBowen Lane, from Ross Road to North Marbletop RoadFriendship Road, from Ross Road to North Marbletop RoadHamilton Drive, from Friendship Road to the dead endLee School Road, from state Route 151 to state Route 1Park City Road, from state Route 2 to Hogan RoadSouth Jenkins Road, from Lyle Road to North Longhollow RoadVittetoe Road, from Johnson Road to North Longhollow Road

The Georgia Department of Transportation will spend $1.7 million to resurface 27.9 miles of local roads in eight counties in Northwest Georgia.

One street to get a makeover is a stretch of Crittenden Avenue in Chickamauga.

"Every little bit helps. Paving's getting to be pretty expensive, so that's wonderful news," said Chickamauga City Manager John Culpepper.

"It was getting bad," he said of the avenue, which gets a lot of truck traffic from the Shaw Industries plant. The city has been repaving Crittenden as money became available, Culpepper said.

Funding for the road work comes through the state Transportation Department's local maintenance and improvement grant program, which is funded by state fuel taxes. The department determines how much money a community receives based on its population and how many miles of roads it has.

"The locals send us a list of their roads that need resurfacing, and we help them preserve the integrity of these streets," transportation department spokesman Mohamed Arafa said.

Talley Construction Co. Inc. of Rossville submitted a low bid of $937,555 to resurface 18 city streets and county roads totaling 15.5 miles in Catoosa, Dade and Walker counties.

In Chattooga County, Colditz Trucking Inc. of Blairsville, Ga., submitted the winning low bid of $448,897 to resurface 7.5 miles of various county roads and streets in Summerville and Menlo.

Colditz Trucking also submitted a winning low bid of $325,881 to resurface 4.9 miles of county roads and streets in Cherokee, Fannin, Gilmer and Pickens counties.

Whitfield and Murray counties do their own road paving, using the state grant funds, so their projects aren't put out to bid by the state, according to David Huff, assistant administrator of the road program.

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