Tift County board approves TIA resolution to start Hunt Road street and drainage improvements

The Tift County Board moved to approve a resolution under the Transportation Investment Act of 2010 on a plan to lift and reconstruct a section of Hunt Road and improve its drainage, a measure county staff said is intended to alleviate chronic flooding and coordinate infrastructure with new nearby development.

A staff member told commissioners the project will pick up behind the Chick-fil-A site and run toward the top of the hill near the city limits, stopping short of the Hobby Lobby area. The work will include preliminary engineering, right-of-way acquisition, construction and utility relocations, and the staff member described new drainage structures, drop inlets and gutters to capture and move water before it reaches the low point that has produced severe erosion in the past. "It's a 3 plus million dollar project," the staff member said; the presentation noted the figure as an approximate project budget.

Staff said the project has GDOT approval for the application and that the funding structure involves two portions of TIA money: a 25% portion the county manages locally and a 75% portion administered by the state. The county plans to self-perform local project management to accelerate preliminary engineering and other early work. The staff member cautioned that more detailed hydraulic engineering remains to be completed and that some downstream flows could still reach the lower section until final designs are finished.

Commissioners asked whether the planned budget and scope would address the most troublesome stretches of Hunt Road. The staff member responded that the design will "gradually pick that whole road up to the top of the hill" and that the team will evaluate pipes and materials during engineering; he noted modern zinc-coated metal pipes can have long service lives but that reinforced concrete brings other trade-offs. "What’s gonna be tricky is managing the amount of water and retaining that water on the new site," the staff member said, adding that capture points would be placed along the descent to slow the flow.

The board approved the resolution by voice vote and staff said the county will begin engineering work and then proceed to acquisition and construction phases as scheduled. The presentation named Williams Investments as a nearby developer building a hotel and said coordinating infrastructure with that development is part of the project's justification.

Next steps: staff will move forward with preliminary engineering and return to the board as designs, cost estimates and scheduling are refined.