Busy County Road 466 near the Buffalo Ridge Wal-Mart may be closed at least four days in early January for resurfacing at the CSX railroad tracks.
The road, which carries 6,000 to 7,000 vehicles a day, is scheduled for closure Jan. 4-8, according to an email to a Sumter County official from Travis Taylor of the railroad. County roads 102, 104 and 106, which are near CR 466, also are scheduled for closure Jan. 18-22 at the railroad crossings.
“This work is part of our capital improvements we do each year and we will have closures and asphalt done by our contractors,” Taylor said in the email.
Sumter County Public Works Director Richard Baier told commissioners Tuesday night that the railroad has proposed diverting traffic on county roads 103 and 104. He said that solution is unacceptable because they are narrow roads incapable of handling the vehicle load.
“We said that’s not going to be possible,” he said. “There are several things they could do.”
Baier said he hopes the railroad will consider other options such as closing half of the roadway at a time so traffic could still use it.
“That is a concern,” said commission chairman Garry Breeden. “We need to let folks know this is going to occur.”
In other traffic-related matters, commissioners also endorsed a plan to widen County Road 501 to four lanes and they accepted a preliminary engineering study.
No one spoke at a public hearing Tuesday night on the project, but Baier said two comments were received.
He said officials at the Coleman federal prison are concerned about the safety of materials storage during construction and SECO Energy officials raised a question about the cost of relocating utility lines.
Baier said both concerns will be addressed during project design.
CR 501 connects county roads 468 and 470 near the proposed Florida Turnpike interchange on CR 468.
Baier said the widening project has not been funded, but the goal is to move it along to the point of a final design, which will cut in half the time it will take to build.
He said the project is on hold until the turnpike interchange is completed and proposed area residential and commercial development projects begin to take shape.
Commissioner Doug Gilpin said he has heard resident objections about another proposal to create a four-way stop at the intersection of County Roads 103 and 104 in Oxford.
“They wonder if it will create more problems than it’s trying to solve,” he said.
Gilpin said he promised to raise the issue at the meeting, but voted in favor of the change, which was approved.