By TYLER CLEVELAND
Madison County Journal
Madison County Engineer Rudy Warnock gave Supervisors an update on Madison County’s State-Aid road projects here Monday, saying several are nearing completion.
Most notably, Warnock said construction has all but wrapped up on the third and final phase of the Rice Road/Pear Orchard reconstruction project, and the estimated completion date has been moved up to early to mid-August.
Sections of Rice Road have been closed since that project began in May, forcing residents of Camden Park, Muirwood and the Trace Apartments to enter their neighborhoods from the Old Canton Road end of Rice Road instead of coming from U.S. 51.
District 3 Supervisor Gerald Steen said he had noticed that the Pear Orchard end of the project was basically finished.
“We still have some punch-list items to do on Pear Orchard,” Warnock said. “But that work is 95 to 98 percent complete.”
Warnock also said that the Livingston Road maintenance overlay was 95 percent complete.
Four bridges around the county, he said, are all at different stages of completion:
• A bridge over Limekiln Creek on Gus Green Road, between Robinson Springs Road and Cedar Hill Road, is 95 percent finished.
• A bridge over a small creek on Permenter Road near Sulphur Springs Road in Camden is 61 percent complete, and should be finished by the end of July.
• A small bridge over a ditch on Cane Creek Road in Flora is 15 percent complete, with an estimated completion date of mid-September.
• Utilities have been relocated and plans completed to replace a bridge over a ditch on East Dinkins Street in Canton. That project should go to bid in August.
After the update, Steen asked Warnock if he’d had a chance to review the situation on Lake Cavalier Road, where parishioners at Twin Lakes Baptist Church had asked the board to consider adding a three-way stop.
“I think that under peak traffic hours, (a traffic signal) is warranted,” Warnock said. “We even talked about putting an advanced warning flashing sign and using a solar panel to drive it, and if the board wants to move forward, I’ll get some quotes and bring them before you at the next meeting.”
Steen made that motion, and his peers unanimously agreed.
In other county news:
• County Fire Coordinator Mack Pigg said he was proud to announce that, effective June 8, the fire protection insurance classification for the Valley View Fire Protection District had improved from Class 10 to Class 8. Those in that area northeast of Canton and northwest of the Farmhaven district, he said, can now renegotiate for lower fire insurance premiums.
• The board agreed to pay AJ Construction, Inc. $89,474 to complete construction of drainage improvements for Cherry Hills subdivision off of Gluckstadt Road.
• The board acknowledged the receipt of six new garbage trucks, declared six old trucks surplus and authorized their sale at auction for no less than $81,375 total.
• Re-appointed Mary Ann Sones to the Lake Lorman Utility District Board for another five-year term.
