MOULTRIE, Ga. — An issue presented after the recent resurfacing of a county roadway could point to future challenges as officials deal with a spate of road resurfacing projects.

After a 5.7-mile Mt. Sinai Church Road project was completed, bumps surfaced on the right edge of one side of the roadway for about two-thirds of that distance.

“There’s a little (bumpiness) where the soil was kind of bad,” said Stan Kirksey, Colquitt County Roads & Bridges superintendent. “It dips on the edge.”

The dips extend out as far as two and a half feet from the roadway in places.

During a recent Colquitt County Commission meeting, Commissioner Paul Nagy, in whose district Mt. Sinai Road is located, brought up the condition of the recently resurfaced roadway. The situation brought up a longer-term problem: the impact of heavy trucks and farm equipment on narrow county roads.

Mt. Sinai Road is the first instance the bumps have been an issue, Kirksey said.

The deteriorated condition of the edges of the road also contributed to the problem.

It can be fixed and the county will contract with a paving company to apply additional asphalt.

But with a number of heavily deteriorated roadways, future costs to fix them could increase.

“If we don’t jump on some of these roads quick, they get too bad,” Kirksey said. “Mt. Sinai was about that bad.”

Roads in worse shape could mean that instead of simple resurfacing the project gets into road reclamation, Kirksey said. The latter costs about $400,000 per mile, where resurfacing costs range from about $130,000 to $150,000 per mile, depending on the width of the road.

Most county roads are 20 feet wide, Kirksey said, while some are 24 feet wide.

The narrower roads seem to suffer worse from tractor traffic because the wheels of the machinery seem to ride on the edge of the roadway, he said.

With the county being a major producer of chickens for plants here and in Mitchell County, there also is significant traffic related to that industry moving on county roads.

The county has a new source of revenue to fund resurfacing projects, a 1-penny tax approved in 2017. Collection of the tax began in April, and it’s expected to raise about $25.5 million over five years for projects in the county and its municipalities.

The vast majority of the county’s share will go toward laying more asphalt on aging roads, with some going to fund right-of-way mowing and spraying.

The worst of the worst roads are at the top of the list.

“We’re just trying to get the roads that should have been resurfaced years ago,” Kirksey said.