MOULTRIE — The $15 million in federal and state dollars already spent for preliminary work on Ga. Hwy. 133 does not guarantee that widening project will become reality, a Georgia Department of Transportation official said Wednesday.
The department earlier this year put all road projects that were not under way on hold until road projects are prioritized. In April, Gov. Sonny Perdue ordered an outside audit of the DOT after evidence surfaced that the state promised $1 billion more in transportation contracts than it had the money to fund.
On Wednesday, David Norwood, the department’s design group manager, said that Highway 133 is in development but that there is no funding earmarked for four-laning the roadway from Albany to Valdosta.
The state has canceled 140 project contracts in 2008, said Norwood, who spoke at a meeting in Moultrie with elected leaders and economic development officials from cities and counties through which the highway passes. Representatives for U.S. Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson and U.S. Reps. Sanford Bishop and Jim Marshall were at the meeting. State Sen. John Bulloch and state Reps. Penny Houston, Ed Rynders and Richard Royal also attended.
Each project will be weighed on its merits and if an individual project costs too much “we’ll cut our losses,” he said.
That means even though money has been spent on the preliminary design and environmental work there is no guarantee Highway 133 work will be funded, he said.
The department expects to have the priority list completed by the end of the year and will then further prioritize by the amount of money available and by congressional district, Norwood said.
The last estimate for the 133 project put the price tag at $340 million, he said.
The remarks from Norwood included nothing new, but did alert representatives to the challenge they face, said Max Hancock, the former Colquitt County Commission chairman who is heading up the effort to fast-track the widening project.
“The thing we want to keep in mind is there’s going to be decisions made,” he said after the meeting. “There are ways to help affect some of those decisions. When the decisions are made, we want to be at the table.”
Hancock said that when the highway was first put on the state’s list years ago the estimated cost was $160 million. Delaying the project further will only add to the cost.
“This is a project that’s important enough to warrant funding when the decision is made,” he said.
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