It’s going to take the contractor a little longer — at least a month — than initially planned to complete the widening of Ga. highways 54 and 34 from Peachtree City to Sharpsburg.

The estimated completion time is now early August, according to Barry Hancock of the Georgia Department of Transportation. When construction began in late July 2004, the project completion date was June 30, 2006.

Hancock said Tuesday afternoon that the contractor is working as quickly as possible and if the road can be opened earlier, it will be. But there have been some delays due to typical subcontractor issues that are expected, although the weather overall has been good for the project, Hancock said.

“I promise you they are working as quickly as they possibly can,” Hancock said.

Meanwhile, motorists using Hwy. 54 W. to get into and out of Peachtree City have suffered through construction-required delays and are looking forward to the day they can go smooth sailing on Hwy. 54.

The most significant improvement on the widening is the replacement of the bridges over the CSX railroad and Line Creek. Both bridges have been widened to accommodate six lanes of traffic if necessary in the future. The older bridges were only big enough to accommodate autos going one way in each direction.

The bridge over the railroad became a choke point in particular for traffic in both directions.

The contractor on the $14.02 million project is E.R. Snell of Snellville.

Once construction is complete, landscaping will be installed along the new retail area including the Best Buy and other stores heading westward.

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