Oxford completes Oakland Road resurfacing

LEESBURG — Despite a slight initial disagreement over cost, a portion of Oakland Road has been leveled and repaved and Lee County officials are pleased with the work done by Oxford Construction Co.

“They’ve finished the road and it looks really nice,” said Mike Sistrunk, the county’s interim co-manager. “Christi (Dockery, the county’s other interim co-manager) called them to let them know. I’m very happy with the work they’ve done. They always do a good job.”

While there’s still some work left to be done to rebuild the road’s shoulder, Sistrunk said it took Oxford a little less than two weeks to level and repave roughly 4.5 miles of one of the county’s busiest roads. He said crews were able to work around the heavy traffic, which had a significant uptick in recent days with school back in session.

Although the bulk of the repaving project was paid for using proceeds from a Georgia Department of Transportation Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant (LMIG), it had drawn the attention of many Lee County residents after Oxford representatives approached the Lee County Board of Commissioners in July with a request for additional funding.

The Oakland repaving was part of a larger contract Oxford won through competitive bidding that included the repaving of approximately .5 miles of Kinchafoonee Creek Road and improvements to roughly 1 mile of Bronwood Road.

Of the original $617,244.06 contract for the road work, $440,204.38 was earmarked for the Oakland work. However, prior to beginning that work, Oxford Project Manager Jay Griffith approached the commission with a request for an additional $155,000 to complete extra leveling work the company didn’t anticipate when it originally won the contract.

After investigating the matter and consulting with legal council, commissioners ultimately followed Sistrunk’s recommendation to hold Oxford to the original contract and require the company to complete the resurfacing project to GDOT standards for the agreed-upon price.

That decision left some concerned that relations between the company and the county might be strained, but Sistrunk said that everyone has moved on from the disagreement.

“We’re all good,” said Sistrunk. “There’s no hurt feelings on our side, and I hope there’s none on theirs. We just wanted to make sure that when we do a contract that contractors stick with that and do the work for what they said they could do it for. We’ve got a good relationship with them, and with Reeves (Construction) and Jim Boyd (Construction). We all understand this is business and nothing personal.”

In fact, Sistrunk said the county is currently in the process of outlining a plan to resurface and improve additional roads in the county in the coming year, and that he fully expects Oxford to be among the companies that bid on that work.

“We’re already working on our LMIG ‘17 plans,” he said.

In addition to his assertion that the work on Oakland Road was done well, Sistrunk also commended the company for the work done on two other roads.

“They did Kinchafoonee first and then went up there and did the chip and seal on Bronwood, and did a great job,” he said. “We could not be happier with the work they’ve done for us. I’ve ridden those roads and they look great. I (also) drove down Oakland the other day in the pouring rain, and there was no standing water.”

Although the company still has to finish the shoulder work on Oakland, Sistrunk said all three roads are open to traffic.

In other road news, Sistrunk said work has also been completed on the Muckaloochee Creek bridge on Smithville Road. That bridge had been temporarily closed since July 28 as Southern Concrete worked to repair the bridge’s pilings and add guardrails for safety.