LEESBURG — Winding through a pecan orchard, a new 1.8-mile extension of Cedric Street in Lee County will join subdivisions east of Lovers Lane Road with amenities on U.S. 19 and beyond.
The board awarded a $1.049 million contract to Oxford Construction Company to build the road at a called meeting Tuesday afternoon.
Oxford celebrated its 60th birthday in June and is “proud to be a part of Lee County,” Oxford President Bruce Melton said during a news conference held at the work site Tuesday.
“As Lee County grows, it is important that we continue to make investments in county infrastructure,” County Administrator Alan Ours said.
The extension not only joins two roads, Old Leesburg and Lovers Lane, in a highly populated area, but it connects eastern Lee County with western Lee County, Ours said.
The sales-tax project would not have been possible without Lee’s two state representatives, Ed Rynders, R-Lee County, and Bob Hanner, D- Parrott, and senator, Joseph Carter, R-Tifton, who met with former Department of Transportation Commissioner Harold Linnenkohl in Atlanta, Ours said.
GDOT agreed to $300,000 in DOT funds for the project, Ours said.
The Lee Economic Development Authority issued a letter of support for the project three to four years ago, EDA Executive Director Winston Oxford said.
“It’s nice to see it coming to fruition,” he said.
The extension will provide quicker emergency response times, Lee 911 Coordinator Larry Hill added.
Already some 9,000 vehicles travel Cedric Street each day, Lee Director of Planning and Engineering Bob Alexander said.
“The road is very much needed as an east-west connector,” Alexander said.
While Lee is moving forward quickly with the Cedric extension, it isn’t the only transportation project underway in the county, Ours said.
The fastest-growing county in Georgia outside of metro Atlanta is working proactively on other sales-tax-funded road projects intersecting various pecan orchards and fields to make way for growth, he said.
“SPLOST is a wonderful way to provide needed capital projects,” he said.
The Cedric Street extension is expected to be complete by Dec. 31, Ours said.