Ga. DOT Reschedules Banks Open House

The Georgia Department of Transportation will hold an open house meeting next month on a Banks County bridge project.

A public information meeting will take place on Thursday, March 13 to discuss the detour necessary for reconstruction of the State Route 63 Bridge over the Middle Fork of the Broad River.

That is located 9.4 miles northeast of Homer.

The meeting will be from 5 to 7 p.m. on March 13 at the Banks County Courthouse Annex on Hudson Street in Homer.

This meeting was originally set for last month, but was postponed due to winter weather.

DOT District Engineer Bayne Smith said the purpose of the open house is to present the project and the detour route to the community so it knows the status of the project and the detours that will occur during construction.

The DOT said that the existing State Route 63 Bridge over the Middle Fork of the Broad River was built in 1962 and does not meet current design standards.

Currently, the bridge is 304 feet long, 29 feet wide and does not have shoulders.

The DOT said that the new bridge will be 250 feet long and 40 feet wide featuring 12 feet wide lanes and 8 feet wide shoulders.

The DOT said the detours will allow construction to move about twice as fast as building a parallel bridge and allowing traffic to use the existing bridge until the new structure is complete.

Also, the DOT said the detours will provide a cost savings of at least $150,000.

The DOT said that the displays of the project will also be available online at the DOT’s website, www.dot.ga.gov.

Once to the home page, the DOT said people will choose “InformationCenter,” then choose “Public Outreach” and select the project’s County and choose “go.”

At that point, the DOT says a list of DOT projects in that County will appear and you can select the one you’d like to view.

Newer projects are at the bottom of the project list.