SPRINGFIELD -- Effingham County ash road repairs, funded by TSPLOST, are in sight. 

Beginning today, engineers with Roberts Civil Engineering will be doing sampling of the first round of ash roads to be repaired throughout the county.  The process of core sampling uses a truck-mounted drill to take a 6-inch diameter core from the roads being tested, after which the hole is filled with asphalt or rock.  The samples will be lab tested to determine load-bearing capacity.  This tells engineers the amount of asphalt emulsion to add to the existing surface to make it stronger to hold up from traffic without failing. 

Roads will not be closed during this work as sampling is a minor activity which has minimal impact to traffic.

County Manager Tim Callanan stated, “The restoration of our roads remains the highest priority for our commissioners.  We are confident that these improvements will give residents a greatly improved driving experience.  Repairing these degraded ash roads quickly and correctly is one of the most important expenditures of our TSPLOST funds.”

The following roads are in the first round for a solution to repair the ash subbase failures:  Courthouse Road between State Route 17 and Midland Road, Archer Road, Bethany Road, Bird Road, Clark Road, Corinth Church Road, Floyd Avenue, Old Augusta Road North (from Clyo-Kildare to end), Old Dixie Highway South, and Whitaker Road. 

The Effingham County Board of Commissioiners expects to advertise for contractors to begin making ash road repairs in October, with construction starting in the early spring of 2022.