Sidewalk work to start on Dean Ave.
♦ GDOT crews also are adding turn lanes on U.S. 27.
Work is set to start June 11 on the installation of sidewalks along Dean Avenue where foot-traffic has worn a path in the dirt.
“It will be from East 20th Street to Pick O’ Deli (Cafeteria),” Rome Public Works Director Chris Jenkins said. “About 2,400 feet.”
The sidewalk project is funded through a Georgia Department of Transportation safety grant and a little extra budgeted from the city of Rome’s Community Development Block Grant program.
Rome City Manager Sammy Rich asked the department to work with the municipal arborist to add trees or landscaping if possible.
The announcement came during the Transportation Policy Committee meeting in Rome, where project updates are provided by city, county, federal and state transportation officials.
Jenkins and Floyd County Public Works Director Michael Skeen both said they have crews installing highly reflective thermoplastic striping to the edges and center lines of numerous roads — another GDOT safety project.
County crews also are contracted to lay down a seal on the tar and gravel cemetery road in Cave Spring next month.
Skeen added they’re finishing up the sidewalk project in the Riverside community and expect to move to Lindale in June or July. The projects, which include some curb-and-gutter work and wheelchair ramps, are funded through the 2013 special purpose, local option sales tax.
GDOT District Engineer DeWayne Comer said a contract to install RCUT medians on the bypass at Black’s Bluff Road is on track to be awarded before the end of the year.
“We have the design; we’re getting the cost-estimate now,” he said.
The Restricted Crossing U-Turn medians are aimed at reducing T-bone crashes as motorists on Black’s Bluff attempt to cross the bypass. Instead, they’ll be funneled to the right and around a barrier to get to the other side.
“We put them in Paulding County after they had three fatalities in eight months,” Comer said. “People were just pulling out in front of traffic.”
The RCUT medians will be funded under GDOT’s Quick Response program, which allocates additional road money for projects that can be done quickly and for under $200,000.
The recent extension of left turn lanes on the Ga. 1 Loop at Old Calhoun Road, for $120,684, and at State Mutual Stadium, for $109,515, were part of that program.
Comer said several more turn lanes are under construction on U.S. 27 — at Hawkins, Winkle, Primrose, Little Sand Mountain and Perry roads and at the Armuchee Village Shopping Center across from the Georgia State Patrol post.
Also underway are right-turn lanes on Ga. 20 at Biddy Road Spur and Ga. 53 at the North Broad Extension. The projects range from about $66,000 to $112,000 each.