CTC OK’s Road Paving Program

WINNSBORO (July 21, 2016) – The County Transportation Committee (CTC) gave approval last week to the 2017 list of roads to be paved, but not before amending that list to include Elbow Circle in Ridgeway and to give the road top priority.

Although there are no homes on Elbow Circle, a fact that earned the road no points in the CTC’s formula for assigning priority for paving, the road is home to Joshua’s Foundation assisted living facility (formerly Willow Springs). The owner of that facility, Errol Muir, appealed to the Committee during the CTC’s July 14 meeting at DOT headquarters on Kincaid Bridge Road.

“The road is an unpaved road,” Muir said. “We have family members who do not want to come there at night because it is a dirt road and it is very dark. I put lights on the street, but they are still afraid of coming down the road, because most of the people that come are elderly and they are afraid of the dirt road. Nothing has been done to that road in a year or so, so now we have holes and it needs to be re-graveled.”

The facility currently has 20 residents, Muir said, and the road gets heavy use. Recently, Muir said, an ambulance ran off the road while on its way to the facility.

Points are assigned to roads based on population density. With no homes on Elbow Circle, the road was overlooked in the most recent survey.

“This road is 1,900-feet long, 16-feet wide,” Bill Coleman, the CTC’s engineering consultant, told the Committee. “I did the survey. I didn’t give it any points because there are no houses on it. If there’s fault, it’s my fault, because I didn’t give it any points, because honestly I didn’t even know what it (the facility) was.”

Muir told the Committee that the facility had been there for 20 years. Joshua’s Foundation took ownership, he said, two years ago.

Coleman said the Committee could justify adding Elbow Circle to the 2017 list based on medical reasons. And, he said, since the CTC’s formula takes into account residents and not merely homes, the facility’s 20 residents would also qualify Elbow Circle for paving.

Committee member Clifton Hendrix (District 3) asked Muir to consider also going before County Council to seek their help, but Council Chairwoman Carolyn Robinson (District 2), who was in the audience, said the County had already committed their road paving funds.

“Other than working dirt roads, we don’t do anything with paving anything,” Robinson said. “The only thing we’ve done is, (with) the tax money we’ve brought in, we have agreed to re-do one of the roads (Old North Road), which is what we thought we could do with that money, is resurfacing roads. Once the logging is finished we’d do the resurfacing of the first road.”

“I think this is your decision,” Coleman told the Committee. “Council’s fund is pretty well depleted. Old North Road is torn all to pieces.”

“My opinion is put it at the top of the list,” Committee member Clyde Wade (District 2) said. “That’s a business down there. It brings money into the county. That sounds like Third World down there to me.”

The Committee ultimately agreed and added Elbow Circle to the top of the priority list.

The CTC took no action on a second plea for asphalt, delivered by Jackie Workman on behalf of Dave Cole Road, between Parr Shoals Reservoir and Lake Monticello in Blair.

“Our road has not been paved in over 25 years,” Workman told the Committee. “We have at least 35 homes on a 2-mile road, and also we have over 75 individuals with automobiles that travel that road daily. What’s happened is, because of the low spots, high spots, rough spots, our cars are constantly out of line. When large trucks travel that road, it makes the road worse.”

Landis Road & Old 21

District 4 County Councilman Kamau Marcharia asked the CTC for an update on Landis Road, an approximately 14-mile stretch that runs between highways 213 and 269 in western Fairfield County. Marcharia said it was his understanding that Landis Road was scheduled to be paved in 2016.

“Landis Road was approved by this committee with last year’s one-time money to be paved,” Coleman said. “It was put out to bid with other roads; it was over budget and we had to go back and re-bid it. It is going to be done, but it was delayed a little bit by unfortunate circumstances.”

Coleman said Landis Road was currently under contract with Lane Construction. The projected finish date, he said, was May 30, 2017.

Landis Road, Coleman said, had been put out for bid with Old 21, which runs between Winnsboro and Longtown Road in Ridgeway. When that bid came back over budget and was subsequently re-bid, Old 21 was dropped from the project. Coleman asked the Committee to approve taking the $721,000 of new one-time money coming in from the state plus the $481,000 the CTC has left over from last year and devoting those funds for Old 21.

“That should be enough to do it,” Coleman said. “Let’s bid it out, see exactly where we stand; we’ll have another meeting, and we’ll come back and decide exactly how we want to switch the funds around to make it work.”

2017 Roads

With Elbow Circle added to the top of the 2017 list of roads to be paved, the remainder of next year’s list runs as follows (districts in parentheses):

High Hill Lane (District 4); Deck Drive (1); Rainbow Cove Road (2); Cypress Drive (3); Bob’s Point Lane (4); Shoemaker Lane (5); Valencia Road (7); Pineneedle Lane (1); Hickory Nut Lane (2); Stoney Trace (3); High Hill Road (4); Creighton Road (5); Horse Creek Road #2 (7); Ridge Top Lane (1); Blue Bird Lane (2); Cyprus Lane (3); Vine Circle (4); S. Wisteria (5); Ridge Top Lane (1); Skylark Lane (2); Rosewood Lane (3); Holly Place (4); and Dove Lane (5).

New List

The CTC’s priority list of roads will be three years old in January, Coleman said. The Committee gave the OK to pony up $15,000 to match the $15,000 budgeted by the County to prepare a new list. That list will be published in January, Coleman said.

 

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