By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
The N.C. Board of Transportation awarded a $16.6 million contract Thursday to widen U.S. 70 from Amity Hill Road in Cleveland to the Rowan County line.
The 3.4-mile project will be the last of five sections encompassing the overall widening of U.S. 70 between Salisbury and Statesville.
“This is the missing link,” DOT Project Engineer Tim Canup said Thursday.
The DOT board awarded the contract for this Section “B” to Maymead Inc. of Mountain City, Tenn.
Work is scheduled to begin as early as Oct. 27 with a scheduled completion date of Aug. 1, 2011.
Meanwhile, finishing touches are being applied to U.S. 70 sections “C” and “D,” which taken together run from Kepley Road to Amity Hill Road (the Freightliner plant) ó a distance of 6.9 miles.
APAC-Atlantic Inc., the general contractor, combined the C and D sections as one project. A final road surface has been applied to all lanes, some of which remain closed as finishing touches such as shoulder and median work, landscaping, striping, signals and barricade removal take place.
The DOT has scheduled a final inspection for next Wednesday.
Section C, which goes from the Freightliner plant to Hildebrand Road, originally carried a $13.5 million price tag. The DOT’s construction progress report shows the project has experienced cost overruns of 14.7 percent.
Section D, going from Hildebrand to Kepley roads, had a $16.8 million original contract with cost overruns of 4.85 percent.
The C and D projects began in February 2005 and were supposed to be finished by Sept. 15, 2007. Several projected completion dates had to be revised.
Section “E” from Kepley Road to Jake Alexander Boulevard was finished in December 2007 after almost four years and a cost near $14 million.
Maymead Inc. previously won the “A” section contract from Statesville (Shiloh Church Road) to the Rowan County line. That section, started in September 2004, had a contract of just under $24 million and has seen cost overruns of 9.89 percent, according to the DOT.
Overall, the five U.S. 70 projects will have cost at least $84.9 million, based on the original contracts awarded.