The Marion County Board of Supervisors weighed its options on how to best remove three houses at the front of the BusinessPlex as part of the Columbia-Marion County Airport project Tuesday.
The Tri-Community Volunteer Fire Department has expressed a desire to burn the structures for training purposes, but the board is advertising a bid for the demolition to see which option would be cheaper.
“We’re going to wait to see what the bidding on demolition is, and if it’s a possibility of saving any money for Tri-Community to burn them we would do that,” Board President Terry Broome said.
Engineer Jeff Dungan said the federally funded, $10.2 million project to expand the runway is going well, and the road closure for Airport Road, which will be relocated, is fast approaching with progress being made.
The board also unanimously approved to advertise a bid opening for construction on Harmony Road. The 1-mile road, which connects Mississippi 35 to Old Mississippi 35 North near Airport Road, is expected to see a drastic increase in traffic when Airport Road is closed, and Dungan said repairs need to be made before then. To save money in place of a complete rebuild that would cost around $1 million, he proposed a roadbed reclamation that he estimated would cost $225,000. The estimate includes striping and widening the road from 20 to 22 feet.
A big mixer would be used to grind up the top six to eight inches of the pavement, which would be mixed with around 6 percent cement. It would then be spread and mixed again with water to create a cement base. Once that base is created — the road currently does not have a secure base — a tar-and-rock surface would be laid on top. Dungan said the county had a lot of success with that same process on Wesley Road 15 years ago. “There’s no doubt in my mind you would get a 20-year base structure out of that. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have to be sealed some time in a few years, but you won’t have base failings,” he said.
Dungan said the county will eventually be able to use its Local System Bridge Program money for road repairs but only when all of the timber piling bridges are repaired.
Dungan said the contract for bridge repairs on Albert Rayburn Road, Cavanaugh Road and East Reservoir Road is roughly two-thirds complete. Three bridge repairs on Clear Creek Church Road are about a third of the way done, and repairs for Seamon Bullock Road, National Guard Road and Sanders Road will soon follow. The board also approved advertising for Old River Road South bridge repairs.
The bid opening for three contracts at the former Training School, which includes the demolition of structures, finishing the roof on the school building and constructing a small building to store voting machines, was moved to May 14.
