Duplin highways receive state funds
By Catharin Shepard
Published in News on November 29, 2009 1:50 AM
More than 50 miles of highway in Duplin County will be widened and/or resurfaced in 2010 as part of a $21.3 million statewide improvement project, the governor's office announced last week.
Nine miles of N.C. 411 north of N.C. 41 to N.C. 903 will be widened, while 0.4 miles of N.C. 403 from Spencer Road (S.R. 1734) to the U.S. 117 connector in Sampson County will be resurfaced.
Just over 11 miles in Duplin County between the Sampson and Wayne County lines, 25.2 miles from Teachey to Faison city limits in Duplin County, 2.8 miles from N.C. 403 in Sampson County to Duplin County Line and 3.4 miles of N.C. 111 from Bryan Road (S.R. 1800) to 0.1 miles south of N.C. 41 in Duplin County will be resurfaced and the shoulders reconstructed.
The $8.4 million contract package for the Duplin County work was awarded to Barnhill Contracting Co. of Tarboro.
The work could not come at a better time for these sections of road, DOT maintenance engineer Jerri Parker said.
"It's alligator cracking, it's just coming up. We're making a lot of patching right now," she said.
However, besides minor preparation work on the highway, the widening project will not begin in earnest until 2010, DOT communications officer Steve Abbott said.
"It can begin as early as Jan. 4, it must be finished by Dec. 12," he said.
The contract was one of eight that were awarded for highway and bridge projects across North Carolina. The contracts were awarded by the N.C. Department of Transportation to the lowest respective bidder. Two more projects will be bid out in the near future.
Gov. Bev Perdue's office announced the contracts on Nov. 24. Four of the projects will be funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
"Recovery dollars continue to help us put North Carolinians to work and deliver much-needed transportation projects," the governor said in a statement.
The four recovery projects are located in Alleghany, Halifax, Rockingham and Wilson counties. Work in Duplin, Brunswick, New Hanover, Onslow, Pender, Sampson and Wake counties will not be funded by the program.
The bids received on all 10 projects were about $4.1 million less than the DOT expected.