By Hugh Fisher
For the Salisbury Post
KANNAPOLIS ó Roads took center stage at Monday’s meeting of the Kannapolis City Council, as the board approved a bid to replace the Pump Station Road bridge over Bakers Creek and a resolution to rename several city streets
A unanimous vote awarded the bridge contract to Mountain Creek Contractors, the same company that won the bidding two weeks ago to replace another bridge on Mount Olivet Road.
Mountain Creek’s low bid of $377,056.55 is $150,000 less than estimates, according to City Engineer Jeff Moody.
Construction of the new bridge will take about nine months and should be completed by late fall or early winter 2008, Moody said.
Meanwhile, a resolution adopted Monday night begins the process of renaming several area streets as a result of the soon-to-be-opened Rogers Lake Road extension.
Council members unanimously approved a resolution asking the N.C. Department of Transportation to consider a plan under which portions of Triece Street and Universal Street would be renamed Rogers Lake Road, along with the new extension which intersects with Kannapolis Parkway.
The current stretch of Rogers Lake Road that curves north to meet Boy Scout Camp Road would then be reconfigured to meet the new road at an intersection, and would become part of Isenhour Road.
The plan is complicated, as Councilman Richard Anderson observed.
Anderson said he felt the name changes were unnecessary because the eventual plan to have Rogers Lake Road serve as a major east-west thoroughfare was a long way from being a reality.
“That might not happen for another 20 years,” Anderson said. “… I think we’re getting the cart before the horse.”
Councilman Roger Haas asked City Manager Mike Legg for information on how many homes and businesses would be affected by address changes, as well as for a cost to install new street signage.
Legg said he’d make those figures available as soon as they were calculated.
The resolution adopted Monday does not change the name of the streets. Before that can happen, NCDOT must approve the potential name changes and the matter must come back to the council for a public hearing.
That public hearing is currently slated for the March 24 council meeting.
Also at Monday’s meeting, the council approved the final high offer of $385,000 for the sale of 1.6 acres of land off Macedonia Church Road to The McAlpine Group after four rounds of upset bidding.
Contact Hugh Fisher at 704-797-4245 or hfisher@salisburypost.com.