DOT says 2015/2016 is earliest possible
Polk County commissioners approved a resolution urging the N.C. Department of Transportation (DOT) to put resurfacing Hwy. 9 near Polk Central Elementary School higher on its priority list.
Commissioners met Monday, Aug. 6 and unanimously approved the resolution that said the road’s condition from Hwy. 74 to Mill Spring is “suboptimal and poses a potential hazard to safe driving.”
Sending a resolution to the state was brought up by commissioner Ted Owens initially in July when a DOT engineer attended a county meeting to discuss amending this year’s secondary road project.
Owens asked DOT District Engineer Steve Cannon how the county could get Hwy. 9 resurfaced sooner.
Cannon said a resolution would help and said he would request the project be moved up.
Cannon said last month the resurfacing of Hwy. 9 in the Polk Central School area is a minimum of three to four years out.
The county received an email on Aug. 1 from DOT District Asphalt Engineer Keith Rogers that the request to repave Hwy. 9 has been noted.
“The best date that I can give will be in 2015 or 2016,” Rogers’ email said. “The cost of resurfacing has increased greatly over the past few years; and our road system is challenged with the current funding level for the division. But I assure you that as soon as we are able to resurface N.C. 9 it will go out to contract.”