Maybe in our lifetime, after all

Construction on US 27 from Colquitt north ends at the Hilton- Damascus Road above. Pictured below is the north end of the Blakely bypass as seen at the Harold Ragan Dr. entrance to Bainbridge College.

For decades community leaders here and up and down the corridor have said, "Never in our lifetime!" will US 27 be four-laned.

However, three highway construction projects four-laning US Highway 27 in Early County are scheduled to get underway in 2007.

Those three projects total $26,757,000, and according to a new website - www.whatsthebigidea. us- launched in December by the Georgia Department of Transportation Board, those three projects are funded and on schedule.

One project, three actually, estimated to cost $26,757,000, will four-lane the 7.5-mile stretch of US 27 from the bypass in Blakely to the section already under construction stretching from the Damascus- Hilton Road intersection to the Colquitt city limits.

One of those projects is the construction of a bridge over Blue Creek just south of Blakely at a cost of $555,000.

Another project originally scheduled for 2008 would four-lane the 10-mile stretch of US 27 north of Blakely from the Blakely bypass to the Bluffton bypass at the Clay County line. That project, estimated at $18.5 million is unfunded and has been delayed and designated as a long range project.

Also scheduled for construction this year is the 6.8-mile stretch from the Bluffton bypass north to the intersection of the Carnegie- Vilulah Road in Randolph County, estimated at $26,867,000.

Two remaining projects in Randolph County originally scheduled for construction in 2008 have been delayed to 2009. They include the four-laning of the remaining 7.8-mile stretch of US 27 from the intersection of the Carnegie-Vilulah Road to the Cuthbert bypass, estimated at just over $4 million, and the construction of a $543,000 bridge over the Georgia/Alabama Railroad two miles south of Cuthbert.

According to a DOT fact sheet updated November 2006, approximately 290 miles (82%) of the 352- mile US 27 corridor is already open to traffic or under construction.

The four-laning of US 27 has been completed from Colquitt to the Florida stateline and from Cusseta to Cuthbert north of Blakely.

Most sections of US 27 north of LaGrange to the Tennessee stateline have been completed and most others are under construction.

The estimated cost to complete the four-lane construction of the US 27 corridor is $396,913,000.

The four-laning of US 27 is part of the Governor's Road Improvement Program (GRIP) initiated in 1989 by a resolution of the state legislature and the Governor to connect 95 percent of Georgia's cities (with a population of 2,500 or more) to the Interstate System.

The GRIP system was designed to ensure that 98 percent of all areas within the state will be within 20 miles of a four-lane road.

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