It is your 1-cent special local option sales tax at work. Construction is well underway for the widening of Jimmie Mayfield Boulevard in Fayetteville.

Meantime, grading has begun on the first phase of the West Fayetteville Bypass that will eventually link Westbridge Road/Ga. Highway 92 with Harp Road south of Ga. Highway 54.

These and other road projects are part of what is expected to become $115.8 million in Fayette County’s SPLOST revenues for which collections began in 2005.

Construction is ongoing for the estimated $3.5 million Jimmie Mayfield widening project that will add two more lanes of roadway between South Jeff Davis Drive and Marion Boulevard. The area has been cleared, drainage installed and the surface graded for the 1.6-mile project, said Fayette County Public Works’ Carlos Christian, adding that the roadway sub-base now going in. The project completion date is Aug. 30, 2009.

Preliminary work has also begun on the initial phase of the estimated $50 million, two-lane West Fayetteville Bypass that will eventually run from Westbridge Road/Hwy. 92 to Harp Road.

Phase 1 of the project will see construction from Sandy Creek Road north of Piedmont Fayette Hospital to Lester Road on the south side of Hwy. 54. Mass grading is now underway on the north side of Hwy. 54 and is occurring approximately halfway to Sandy Creek Road, Christian said.

Phase 1 will cross Hwy. 54 and continue to Lester Road, said Christian, adding that the bypass will be widened to four lanes at the intersection with Hwy. 54 to allow for traffic needs. Phase 1 is expected to be completed in late summer 2009.

Next up on the west bypass schedule is Phase 2 that will see two-lane construction from Lester Road to Ebenezer Church Road, crossing Redwine Road and tying in at Harp Road. An alternative route could have Lester Road crossing Ebenezer Church Road and tying in directly to Harp Road. Phase 2 is projected to begin in September 2009 and be completed in late 2011.

The last of the phases will link Sandy Creek Road with Westbridge Road at Hwy. 92. The bypass will run north on Sandy Creek Road and onto Tillman Road. Construction will extend to Lee’s Mill Road to the north and continue to Westbridge Road. Phase 3 could potentially begin in 2014, with a possible completion date in mid-2016.

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