Contract awarded on SRP project
By Deborah Bennett Millen News Editor

Above, Little Buckhead Creek Bridge on U.S. Highway 25 South is to be replaced as part of the Savannah River Parkway project. Below, two additional lanes of travel and a depressed grass median will be constructed on U.S. Highway 25 as part of the project. (Staff photos by Deborah Bennett)

A contract on the only section of the Savannah River Parkway (SRP) not currently under construction through Jenkins County was recently awarded to low bidder R.B. Baker Construction, Garden City, with a bid amount of $38,411,682.50. This section of the SRP runs from the intersection of U.S. Highway 25 South and State Route 121 (Woodpecker Trail) north to the Millen By-pass.

Construction on the project is expected to begin January 2008 with completion of the project set for June 30, 2010.

The total distance of the project is 11.53 miles with the replacement of the bridges over the Central of Georgia railroad tracks and Little Buckhead Creek included in the plans. The plans also call for the construction of two additional 12-foot lanes to run parallel to the existing lanes. A 44-foot depressed grass median is to be constructed from State Route 121 to just south of the Millen By-pass. A depressed 14-foot flushed median is to be constructed from the intersection of U.S. Highway 25 and State Route 17 (Midville Highway) to just north of Little Buckhead Creek. From just north of the creek, the project will revert back to a 44-foot depressed grass median to the end of the project at the by-pass.

When completed, the 156- mile 4-lane roadway, conceived in 1989 as part of the Governor's Road Improvement Projects, will connect Savannah and Augusta via two different legs, with Millen as the connection point of both. In Millen, the two legs split and follow State Route 21 to Savannah and U.S. Highway 25 to Statesboro and Interstate 16.

Completion of the SRP was originally slated for 2001. Currently, 96 percent is either open to traffic or under construction.