Commission looks at secondary road plan
By Steve Herring
Published in News on May 13, 2012 1:50 AM
State highway officials explained the secondary road improvement plan for Wayne County for the coming year at a meeting of the Wayne County Board of Commissioners earlier this month.
DOT District Engineer Chris Pendergraph was the only person who spoke during a public hearing on the proposed $1.3 million program.
Pendergraph gave a brief review of the plan that includes widening Wayne Memorial Drive to create left-turn lanes at Tommy's Road. Adding the turn lanes is expected to cost about $225,000.
Also in the plan are:
* $250,000 to pave seven-tenths of a mile of Dobbs County Courthouse Road between the dead end and Main Street.
* $300,000 to pave one mile of Dickerson Farm Road between Union Grove Church Road and Memorial Church Road
* $150,000 to replace crossline pipes on various roads
* $200,000 for preventative maintenance
* $150,000 maintenance fund allotment to supplement the maintenance budget for activities including shoulder repair, spot stabilization, pipe replacement, safety project, industrial access and other activities.
The work is subject to the availability of funding, right of way and environmental review.
Commissioners voted unanimously to ask DOT to schedule a dedication ceremony for two sections of I-795 to be named for former commissioners Andy Anderson and former Congressman Martin Lancaster, both of whom were instrumental in getting the highway built to interstate standards.
The stretch of road from just south of the Pikeville-Princeton Road northward five miles to the vicinity of the Wayne/Wilson county line will be named the W. Andy Anderson Freeway. The section from near the I-795 and U.S. 70 interchange northward about five miles will be named the H. Martin Lancaster Freeway.
In other business, commissioners voted unanimously to support a resolution asking the Legislature to budget a $660,000 match in order for the state to receive $4 million in federal Help America Vote Act funding. The money can be used for poll worker training and technical support, licenses, maintenance and testing of voting equipment and support for early voting sites.