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Nearly $19 million in TSPLOST projects have been completed since 2020
Penny
Effingham County residents are being asked to consider a TSPLOST, a one-percent sales tax to be used solely for transportation projects within this county. - photo by File illustration

Special to the Herald

SPRINGFIELD -- The one percent Transportation Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST) Effingham County voters approved in 2020 got the ball rolling on numerous important projects.

The biggest is Effingham Parkway, a two-lane road that will provide an alternate north-south route to Ga. Hwy 21. The parkway, set for completion in April 2025, will stretch approximately 6.4 miles from Benton Boulevard in Chatham County across Goshen Road to Blue Jay Road.

Parkway construction, projected to cost $58,695.945.45, is funded jointly by Effingham County and the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT). The county’s construction share of $20,450,661.40, which has been paid, included $5 million in TSPLOST funds.

Nearly $19 million in TSPLOST funds have been spent to date. Most of the projects -- $33,375,707.50 worth in all -- have been completed (See related map at https://www.effinghamcounty.org/537/TSPLOST-for-Effingham ).

Projects in the development phase include the widening of Goshen Road ($5,673,500) and resurfacing of Hodgeville Road ($1,637,000). The work on those will start in after roundabouts at the intersections of Hodgeville Road and Kolic Helmey Road, Hodgeville Road and Blue Jay Road, and Hodgeville Road and Goshen Road are designed and approved.

In total, TSPLOST and (Local Maintenance & Improvement Grant (LMIG) funds have led to the paving of 70.11 miles of roads in the county since 2019. In addition, 44.73 miles of striping has been conducted with another 17.54 out for bid.

The annual LMIG allocation from GDOT, which requires a 30 percent local match, is based on the total centerline road miles for each local road system and the total population of each county or city as compared with the total statewide centerline road miles and total statewide population.

Approximately $4 million work of patching, milling, leveling and resurfacing projects that involve 28.283 miles of roads are on the county’s 2023 and 2024 LMIG lists.

The county’s total LMIG funding for 2019-2022 was $3,820,624.81.