Major Road Resurfacing on U.S.29 Starts Sunday in Royston

People living and working in Royston may find some inconvenience for a time beginning this weekend as the Georgia Department of Transportation begins a major road resurfacing project.

Beginning Sunday night, the GDOT will be resurfacing State Route 8/US 29 from Cobb Memorial Street in Royston to State Route 51 in Downtown Hartwell.

GDOT spokesperson Teri Pope said the goal is to avoid traffic problems for motorists.

“We’re going to start in Royston first.  The first section of work begins Sunday night on SR8 at  Cobb Memorial St. in Royston to the SR17 Royston Bypass,” Pope said. “Because that’s in the downtown area and Royston Elementary School is also nearby, the work will be done at night from 6p to 6a.”

Pope said that phase of the project should take about a month to complete.  Work there, Pope said, will be done in Royston two sections.

“And then once we finish that we will start resurfacing the rest of the job, which is SR8 from the Royston Bypass all the way into downtown Hartwell at SR51,” Pope said. “Once we get to that second section of work, it will switch to daytime work and we’ll have pilot vehicles and flaggers leading you through the work zone.”

Resurfacing will be done in three steps.  The first step will be to remove damaged asphalt and rebuild those sections from the roadway base up.  The second step is the actual resurfacing and the third step is putting on the smooth driving surface.

“Please be patient as crews resurface the work. Please slow down through the work zone even when crews aren’t present; for your own safety. Most crashes in work zones occur when the work zone is not active,” explained District Engineer Bayne Smith.

Pope said the entire project should be completed by the end of March 2014.