THOMASVILLE — The Cairo City Council has given approval for city staff to begin planning a project to improve a roadway near a Grady County elementary school.

The council recently approved to start the first phase of a 20th Street Northeast improvement project near Eastside Elementary School. This includes design and bid out of the project for replacing undersized pipes with a box culvert and a water main relocation.

“The road has a lot of traffic due to the school and also the housing in the area,” Councilman Jimmy Douglas, whose district includes the street and school, said. “We have to fix a lot of potholes due to the traffic and the poor condition of the road.

“I have not received many phone calls about the road itself. Most of the complaints have been where the road turns right before you get to the school. A lot of the buses and cars cut short and it keeps the road worn out.”

Watkins & Associates of Tifton will be managing the project, City Manager Chris Addleton said.

An exact cost is not yet known, but the project is part of the city’s ongoing storm water improvement and can be funded by Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax 2008 funds.

In December 2008, Watkins & Associates prepared a preliminary engineering report for the widening, resurfacing, box culvert and sidewalk improvements for the street, Addleton said.

The report was submitted to the Georgia Department of Transportation for a state aid grant program but, due to lack of funds and DOT issues, program funding was suspended, he said.

The project was never funded, but the need for it remains, city staff said.

The overall project is broken into multiple phases.

Phase One is replacing undersized pipes with a concrete box culvert and the relocation of a 16-inch water main by directional bore.

Phase Two is to widen, resurface and cub and gutter that portion of 20th Street Northeast from U.S. 84 to the east boundary of Eastside Elementary, approximately 3,750 feet.

The third phase is replacement, widening and resurfacing that portion of the road from the east boundary of the school to Ga. 188, approximately 4,500 feet.

“We are going to fix the culvert and do some base work first because we cannot complete the whole project at one time due to the costs,” Douglas said. “The state does not have any money to help us so we are going to do what we can with the money as we have it available.”

The approved phase needs to be performed to coincide with school being out for the summer, which would be from the end of May to the beginning of August, Addleton said.