LAFAYETTE, Ga. - For the first time, Walker County Commissioner Shannon Whitfield made a large withdrawal from his transportation sales tax fund to fix what he argued is one of the state's most dangerous roads.
Whitfield awarded a contract to Talley Construction on Thursday night, promising to give the company about $584,000 to pave 4.4 miles of Nickajack Lane and Nickajack Road. The roads run up Lookout Mountain from Flintstone. Whitfield said the paving is part of a $1 million project with the Georgia Department of Transportation, whose representatives told the county that the road was one of the most rundown in the state.
County spokesman Joe Legge said the road averaged about 20 crashes every year from 2014-16.
"That was at the top or one of the most dangerous roads in the state of Georgia, as far as a county road," Whitfield said during his county commission meeting.
He will pay for the project with transportation special purpose local option sales tax funding. Residents approved of the 1 percent sales tax in November, with 70 percent of the vote. The tax took effect in April. Since then, Whitfield said, the county has received about $300,000 in the T-SPLOST fund each month.
Whitfield commissioned a study of every county road to determine which ones have the most traffic, as well as which ones are in the worst shape. He expected the study to be finished in the next 30 days and will use the data to choose which roads to pave first.
But he is proceeding with the Nickajack Road and Nickajack Lane paving because he already knows they will be toward the top of the list, he said. Whitfield met with local department of transportation representatives last year to see what funding could be available for infrastructure projects. Legge said the state agency committed to providing $400,000 for the project if the county handled a significant portion of the bill as well.
This is a five-phase overhaul, Whitfield said. The county already fixed damage from a previous rock slide nearby on the mountain and repaired the shoulders of the road. Next, Talley Construction will pave the roads. Then workers will install a new guardrail, put a new treatment on the road, install new signs and put down a permanent stripe. (Talley Construction will lay a temporary stripe during the paving process.)
Whitfield believes the project will be finished in the next six months.
Also on Thursday, residents on Browns Hollow Road told Whitfield they are worried because the county school district stopped bringing a school bus down their street last week. Browns Hollow Road is off Halls Valley Road in the southern end of the county, near the border with Chattooga County.
Eight families live there. Whitfield said the county has used chipseal, a mix of asphalt with aggregate usually used on rural roads infrequently traveled, on the road over the last two decades.
"It's not been maintained," he said. "And since it's not been maintained, it's become catastrophic."
Since June, county workers have filled potholes with hot tar. The road has improved, resident Misty Nix said during the public commenting portion of Thursday's meeting. But there are still several potholes.
"It's too bumpy," Nix said. "[The school bus driver has] busted tires. The front dash has been rattled loose. She's lost some mirrors."
Walker County Schools Superintendent Damon Raines said the work on the road thus far "did not adequately address the overall condition." The bus driver previously stopped at three homes on the half-mile-long road. The transportation department has told those families that they will pick the children up at a nearby, smoother county road.
Whitfield said they will continue to fill in potholes. He expects the project to cost just $3,000.
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.