On August 26, the Macon-Bibb County Commission unanimously approved a contract with Professional Paving Services, LLC for the next phase of the county’s Paving the Way program. This phase covers resurfacing and paving work on 9.9 miles of local roads. The company was selected from ten bidders after submitting the lowest qualified bid of $1,985,581.70.
The funding for this project comes from the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Local Road Assistance administration under the Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant (LMIG) program. No local match is required for these funds.
“In two weeks, we’ve awarded contracts to repave nearly 20 miles, and that work is set to begin very soon,” said Mayor Lester Miller. “But we’re not stopping there; the next rounds are already being prepared to receive the same treatment and improvements.”
The list of roads in this round was determined by a Roadbotics study that rated all 1,100 miles of county-owned paved roads on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being in the worst condition. With this latest package, almost all roads rated 3 or higher will have been addressed.
Earlier this year, another assessment using StreetScan rescanned all county roads and provided a more detailed ranking system from 1 to 100. Based on these updated ratings and applied criteria, nearly 130 miles across 459 road segments were identified as priorities for future resurfacing at an estimated cost of $44 million.
“We identified the worst roads in our community and are focusing first on them, as well as roads that are heavily traveled every day,” said Mayor Miller. “There isn’t a part of our county that won’t have major improvements for daily travel.”
At an earlier meeting on August 5, Mayor Miller informed commissioners that funding sources would include allocations from the General Fund along with LMIG and SPLOST proceeds. Roads are being grouped by location before new bids are solicited.
In its first round, Paving the Way allocated nearly $15 million—almost five times previous annual expenditures—from general fund dollars as well as SPLOST and LMIG sources. Since 2020, Macon-Bibb County has repaved more than 45 miles of roadways.
Work on these newly contracted sections is expected to begin within weeks. Additional road segments may be added if final costs allow.
