Highway 92 Ceremony Marks Beginning of Major Paulding County Project

Paulding commissioners along with the former Chairman and Sheriff Gary Gulledge, and other state and local elected officials participated in turning the first dirt last week for a ceremony to mark the start-up of work to widen [Hiram-Douglasville]/Hwy 92 to six lanes.
The ceremony was held at HWY 92, just south of Brownsville Road near the Paulding/Douglas line.
“This was a celebration of Highway 92 work starting in Paulding County on what has been the county’s top priority since 1996; this highway has been a concern for the county since at least 1975,” said Scott Greene, director of operations, Paulding County Board of Commissioners.
Master of ceremonies Congressman Tom Graves has been a strong supporter of improving transportation and streamlining the Federal Funding process.
Speakers at last week’s event expressed appreciation for the sustained effort and commitment of Georgia’s DOT in achieving several milestones.
Hwy 92 is the first six-lane highway in the county and the first widening in 22 years. Also the longest multi-lane highway project at 6.9 miles and the most costly at 51 million of fuel taxes to be spent in Paulding and Douglas.
And the project should impact economic development efforts, which have long needed more access to a major interstate. “When complete in four years, this project will connect with the Bill Carruth Parkway loop around Hiram and soon to be completed Douglasville bypass to provide better access to and from I-20 and Hwy 278,” Greene pointed out.
Bill Carruth Parkway, the county’s four-lane by-pass road, was first conceived and pursued by Carruth and other local officials dating back to 1990 and completed last year under Greene’s watch in his former role as Paulding’s DOT director.“[That project]...was the conclusion of a series of projects dating back over 20 years, using about 25 million in SPLOST funds and costing about 38 million overall,” Greene commented at the time. Throughout the current project’s pre-construction activities, DOT staff from Paulding, Douglas, and Douglasville worked alongside the Georgia DOT communicating and coordinating with citizens and business owners. This was a large and complex project that benefited from the team effort, Greene said.
And according to additional information provided by Greene, the Georgia Department of Transportation began using the new “Office of Program Delivery” created in the early stages of the project to ensure that the project was kept within scope, schedule, and budget. GDOT managers Fletcher Miller, Peter Emmanuel and Olu Anyaebosi were crucial in following through with the department’s commitments made about 10 years ago under GDOT Commissioner Harold Linnenkohl to build the project,” Greene said.

State and local elected officials along with Congressman Tom Graves (sixth from right) participated in turning the first dirt last week for a ceremony to mark the start of work to widen Hiram-Douglasville/Hwy 92 to six lanes. Last week’s ceremony was held on HWY 92, just south of Brownsville Road near the Paulding/Douglas line. (Photo: submitted, BoC)