Road

projects will gobble up about 10 percent of

Fayette County's $49 million fiscal 2000 budget.

And

that's par for the course, said public works

director Lee Hearn. "When you've got a half

million dollars worth of just asphalt and you

start plugging those kinds of numbers in there,

it doesn't take long to add up to some

significant dollars," Hearn said.

Three

large projects will eat a good portion of the

budget, he said. Those include:

� Swanson Road, a long-awaited

project that will include widening, grading and

paving the road. Currently, it's dirt in some

places and, where paved, is too narrow and poorly

paved to meet county standards, he said.

The

project will cover just under a mile, about a

half mile of it inside Tyrone. That portion of

the work will be a joint effort with the town of

Tyrone.

� Friendship Church Road will

be graded and paved along its 1.8-mile length.

� Improvements to the

McDonough Road - County Line Road intersection,

including removal of a hill to improve sight

distance, turn lanes and a traffic signal.

Using

state and county revenues, the department also

will repave numerous roads.

Repair

and maintenance of the county's 49 bridges and

culverts also will consume a large portion of the

department's budget for 2000. "Every two

years the DOT [state Department of

Transportation] inspects all the bridges and

advises us if they are OK," said Hearn. A

long list of projects comes out of that process,

including replacement of a large creek culvert on

Sandy Creek Road, currently underway.

Many

of the bridges have to be repainted to halt rust

and corrosion in metal parts, including one

bridge over the county's drinking water supply,

Hearn said, adding that this project will require

hiring a specialized contractor.

State

experts said one bridge, on Coastline Road over

the CSX Railroad, should be replaced if it's used

for school bus traffic. Hearn said the Board of

Education has stopped using the bridge, and

county officials are evaluating to see whether it

can be replaced in this year's budget.

Also,

talks are ongoing with Clayton County officials

concerning repair of bridges over the Flint

River, the border between the two counties, he

said.

"There

doesn't seem to be anything major [in the bridge

report]," said Hearn. "The good thing

about this is they do it every two years, and

we've been pretty good about taking care of them

in the past," he added.

The

department's budget is $4.7 million, but Hearn

told County commissioners during a recent budget

work session that revenues and expenditures in

his department fluctuate wildly.

For

instance, the 1999 budget was $5.2 million, but

recent estimates put actual expenditures at $4.1

million.

Weather,

how fast the state comes through with approved

funding and other factors affect those figures,

Hearn said. Sometimes projects get done early

- sometimes they get shuffled into the next

year's budget.

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