Spending on road projects will be a major part of the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners' "new business" slated for votes when the board meets at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 7.

Two new contracts and a proposed change-order in this category total more than $1.9 million.

The smallest of these three items, but one that many drivers have been waiting for with interest, is a $149,846 change order to the contract with Ellis Wood Contracting Inc. for improvements to the Cypress Lake Road Intersection at Veterans Memorial Parkway. One year ago, Sept. 1, 2020, the commissioners first awarded Ellis Wood a  $538,948 contract for the addition of turn lanes and fully functional red-yellow-green traffic signals where there are currently only stop signs and a flashing red-yellow caution.

But the project was delayed when Georgia Power objected that the original plan placed traffic signal poles and support wires too close to high-voltage transmission lines. The cost of the change order, using shorter poles with mast arms to support the traffic lights, is less than the $287,507 Georgia Power had requested to relocate its transmission lines in a proposal the commissioners rejected earlier this year.

Another "new business" item slated for a possible motion and vote is the awarding of Mill Creek Construction an $882,336 contract for the paving of currently unpaved Hood Road between Pulaski Road and Parrish Road. Mill Creek's price was the lowest of four bids.

This project, to be funded from the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or T-SPLOST, is the longest segment of dirt road the county slated for paving this year.

But the widening of pavement and resurfacing along previously paved Old River Road South will cost a little more, as seen in a $911,610 contract proposed to Sikes Brothers Inc. for this project. Sikes Brothers offered the lowest price of four companies that bid. Separate from a $1.44 million contract for resurfacing a list of smaller road segments the county previously awarded to Reeves Construction for this season, the Old River Road project is being funded from a combination of Local Maintenance and Improvement Grant funds from the Georgia Department of Transportation and county T-SPLOST.