County plans more striping on Oak Ridge

Published 9:12 am Friday, February 20, 2015

Warren County’s efforts to stripe about 18 miles of roadway this year are to grow by another mile or so.

Supervisors on Monday OK’d adding 1.3 miles of Oak Ridge Road between U.S. 61 North and Culkin Road to a to-do list of six roads that already included part of Oak Ridge, between Tucker and Ballground roads.

“It’s our intention to advertise for the striping on Oak Ridge Road for the inclusion of a double-yellow all the way from 61 to the Culkin intersection,” county engineer John McKee said. “Based on the speeds in the area, traffic is coming into that intersection from side roads and driveways.”

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A cost estimate of the add-on wasn’t mentioned. A contract awarded Feb. 2 to Pearl-based Traffic Control Products to handle the first six totaled $90,984.91, or about $5,054 per mile. Work is expected to take 30 working days once it starts.

Oak Ridge forms part of the political boundary between Districts 1 and 2 and is the fastest access road to 61 from several populous neighborhoods, including Openwood Plantation and Lake Forest. Supervisors up for re-election later this year in those districts had consulted with county engineers to do the additional work.

“It’s a good thing to do, because there’s no place to pass,” District 1 Supervisor John Arnold said.

“I had talked to (county engineering official) Brian (Robbins) once before about getting it done,” District 2 Supervisor William Banks said. “There’s so much traffic coming out the subdivision.”

Roads on the main list to re-stripe are part of U.S. 80 the county maintains — between Bovina and the Big Black River — two parts of Bovina Cutoff Road, Oak Ridge Road between Tucker and Ballground, Tiffintown Road near Lena Drive and Tucker Road between Freetown and Tiffintown.

Bridges to be addressed this year include structures that cross dry creeks along Fisher Ferry Road and at Ballground Road. Engineers expect to shore up erosion near the piers of the Fisher Ferry structure, at the Vicksburg municipal line, and replace the Ballground bridge.

Inside the city, the county expects to tap its allocation from the Local System Bridge Program to replace aging bridges at Avenue D, Wood Street and Baldwin Ferry road.