VALDOSTA – The Lowndes County Commission approved a bid by the Scruggs Company to resurface 5.89 miles of Jumping Gulley Road and 1.4 miles of Peterson Road. 

The original bids also included 3.3 miles of McMillan Road, but that portion was removed when the bids came in over budget, said Chad McLeod, engineering department head.

The budget for resurfacing, a road maintenance technique in which a new layer of asphalt is laid on top of the existing road as opposed to completely replacing the base asphalt, is typically $1,600,000 to $1,700,000. The new bid is $1,676,443.10.

Lowndes County received $1,211,881.49 from the Georgia Department of Transportation Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant and the remainder is paid out of SPLOST VIIl.

“Staff worked with the Scruggs Company, the lowest bidder, to get the project in budget. Engineering staff re-evaluated all three roads and determined that McMillan Road was in the best shape, removing it from the project,” he said.

Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker asked McLeod if the Jumping Gulley Bridge would be in place before the start of the resurfacing; McLeod confirmed it would not.

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall made a motion to approved of the bid and construction and Commissioner Scott Orenstein seconded the motion, with the unanimous approval cementing the project’s development.