A pair of long-awaited road projects are moving forward in Morgan County.
Work has already begun on the widening and resurfacing of the Concord-Arenzville Road. The seven-mile-long project will stretch from the overpass at Route 67 north through Concord to the Morgan County line.
Morgan County Highway Department Director Matt Coultas gave an update to the Morgan County Commissioners this morning. He says progress on the project has been moving at a good pace so far.
“The contractor last week finished up the binder course which followed the shoulder widening that was accomplished the prior week. Right now they are waiting on the subcontractor to come in and do the center joint material fabric placement so that they can come back and do the final surface course on top of that.”
Coultas says with the rain forecast into this week, it could push back the subcontractor for the center joint material which is not scheduled to begin until Friday.
The commissioners also approved a contract for Phase 3 construction for the Murrayville Road project. Coultas says K.E. Vas was the winning bidder for the work, and they are currently working on the Concord-Arenzville Road project.
He says the preliminary work is moving right along now that it is through the bid letting process. “We’re just waiting on the state to get contracts back to the awardable contractor and then we will have our pre-job meeting I’m sure here in the next few weeks. Then that project should kick off as shortly after the Concord-Arenzville Road project is complete since we have the same contractor for that project as well.”
Coultas says the complete Murrayville Road project will not be finished this year, however. He says some culverts need replaced along the western section between Murrayville and route 67 and new materials won’t be available until late this year.
Work will begin at Route 267 and continue through Murrayville ending somewhere near the grain elevator on the west side of town. The full resurfacing of the five miles of road is expected to be completed in the spring of next year.