Lower Cartecay bridge approved for Department of Transportation replacement

News
pool

ELLIJAY, Ga. – It has been several months since Gilmer County’s budget session where the Board of Commissioners set aside contingency funds in their capital budget with the idea that they would not be there this year unless they could find funding to replace the Lower Cartecay Road bridge.

Good news came during the county commissioners meeting when Chairman Charlie Paris officially announced that Gilmer County has been accepted into the Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) program it has been applying for. This means that the DOT will come and replace the bridge along with numerous others across the state.

The original estimate that Gilmer received to replace the bridge was $1.2 million. With this program, Gilmer will be responsible for pairing 50 percent of the costs to obtain additional rights of way, which is a “minimal cost” as Paris stated in relation to the original estimate.

Post 2 Commissioner Travis Crouch asked if the county could do any preliminary work to fast track the project. Gilmer will be in contact with the DOT to see if they can prepare any work ahead of time.

The one “catch” in this approval is that it will fall into the state’s schedule, meaning it still could be some time before Gilmer sees the bridge replaced.

This is actually the second bridge the county will have on the program as the bridge near Turniptown on Vanilla Lane has previously been approved some time ago. The commissioners discussed flipping their priority for the two bridges in effort to move Lower Cartecay up the list to an earlier replacement.

Chairman Paris spoke with FetchYourNews privately about the issue saying that if we had not gotten into the program, we still wouldn’t be able to begin replacing it this year due to our budget. We would still need over $700,000 next year just to begin the project.

Speaking on the relief he feels the approval gives Gilmer, Paris stated, “It’s a pretty big impact for us, and it will impact us for several years.”

1 Comment

  1. Brenda Newton March 9, 2018 at 11:02 pm

    I don’t see why we should spend much needed money to rebuild Lower Cartecay bridge when we have several routes to take from each side of the bridge. I live on Lower Cartecay and I do just fine going in either direction of Aaron Road or Old Clear Creak from my end. The traffic on Lower Cartecay is dangerous when the bridge is open. It will be even worse when a new bridge is open. There will be larger and heavier trucks allowed up and down Lower Cartecay. Our roads in Ellijay are in much more need of money for repairs. I can’t tell which lane I am in at night due to faded lines. The potholes are terrible. The speed limits of 55 around town are way too dangerous. Hwy.52 and Hwy. 282 are prime examples. These intersections around town are suicidal. We need to spend money on figuring out how to make them safer. My daughter got sideswiped the other day by someone coming out of industrial Blvd onto 52 bridge There is traffic coming from five different directions between 515 and Hwy 52. There are way too many teenagers having wrecks in this town not to mention adults.

Leave a comment

Back to Top