Pickens Looks Ahead to Road Project

Sole Commissioner Robert Jones passed a resolution at the September 22nd meeting for a new road project. The decision

“enables the Georgia Department of Transportation to take the necessary steps to revise the Federal Highway System.”

The resolution is two fold.

First, the resolution approves the physical realignment of State Route 53 in Pickens County west of the Gordon County line. The realignment straightens the now serpentine road. Currently, temporary Route 1229 holds the place of where the new stretch of 53 will be located. So, rather than the road winding unnecessarily though this portion of the county, then into Gordon, the new path of the route will be straighter and more direct. The Pickens County portion of the road is approximately 1.15 miles.

Second, while approving the physical realignment of the road, the resolution also approves its reclassification. This means that classification of the current state route will simply be transferred to the new state route. After the project is complete, old 53 (the current 53) will remain where it is and be used for residential access, the County Commissioner’s Office confirmed.

According to The Pickens County Department of Transportation (DOT), the project will receive federal funding. The DOT also noted that the project is still in the planning stages. This means that the county still needs to open the contract for bids for the construction part of the project. The Pickens DOT said that it’s too early to tell when the project will begin, but said that the schedule for the project has been delayed until next year. No indication was given if work on the road will begin early or late in the year.