Elbert BOC Moves Ahead With Joint Road Paving

The Elbert County Board of Commissioners is moving forward with a joint road paving agreement with two other counties.

Monday evening, the commission approved a motion to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with Madison and Oglethorpe counties to use Oglethorpe County’s road equipment for their road projects, rather than a private contractor.

Elbert County Administrator Bob Thomas says not too long ago Oglethorpe County equipped itself to handle its own paving.

“Oglethorpe County, about years ago, went out and purchased their own paving equipment and they have hired expertise in paving,” he said.

That prompted Elbert, along with Madison County, to enter into discussion with Oglethorpe to try and work out an agreement to try and save costs by sharing that equipment.

Another issue that prompted the agreement said Thomas, was scheduling.

“Unfortunately, we seem to be last on their list whenever it comes to paving,” he said. “We send out bids and we almost never hear from anyone because we’re on the east side of the state. So, it’s really hard to get competitive bids from any of the major companies.”

According to cost projections, the lowest contractor bid per mile of paving came in at $120,000.

For Elbert and Madison counties, going through Oglethorpe would cost roughly $85,000; a savings of $35,000 per mile.

The agreement is for a term of one year and each county has designated five miles of roadway to be paved as a trail run.

However, if everything goes well, Thomas said the other two counties are willing to go longer than a year.  Madison and Oglethorpe counties must now approve the intergovernmental agreement.