The State Route 5 widening between Blue Ridge and McCaysville has been divided into six projects with contracts expected to be let from the middle of this year through the middle of 2024.
Several Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) officials attended the Fannin County Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday, March 22, to update officials and citizens on the multi-million dollar project that will reach all the way into Tennessee.
Sonya Thompson, GDOT’s project manager for the construction, provided a breakdown, project by project, of the state’s plans. She began at the southern end, at the State Route 5 intersection in front of Dairy Queen and Murphy Oil in Blue Ridge to Pineview Lane, and ended with the last two projects that will be combined to create the truck route bypass around McCaysville.
(The accompanying chart on A1 shows individual details in a project-by-project breakdown).
The one project currently under construction is expected to be completed by the late summer of 2023, according to GDOT spokesman Robert Bell. The work is currently about 11% complete with the clearing and other right of way work underway.
That work involves the section from Wash Wilson near Abernathy’s Furniture to Old Flowers Road just south of the McCaysville city limits.
Bell said as this work progresses motorists should expect traffic shifts and the closure of some side roads. When questioned about those road closings, Bell explained the GDOT regulates when contractors can work. For example, side roads will only be closed from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. so as to not interfere with work traffic.
As to traffic shifts, Joe Schulman, GDOT District 6 communications officer, said those shifts will still allow traffic to flow in both directions.