By Hugh Fisher
For the Salisbury Post
KANNAPOLIS ó Two aging bridges are a step closer to replacement after the Kannapolis City Council voted to accept bids for the construction of new ones.
The council voted unanimously to accept bids for replacing the Mt. Olivet Road bridge over Three Mile Branch and the Fairview Street bridge over Chambers Branch.
The low bidder for the Mt. Olivet Road project is Mountain Creek Contractors at $529,265.86.
The Fairview bridge project was awarded to Apple Truck and Associates, Inc. the low bidder at $626,306.53.
Both projects were bid below engineers’ estimates, according to City Engineer Jeff Moody.
“We hope to have both of them under construction by mid-March,” Moody said. Construction of both bridges should be completed by late fall 2008 or early winter 2009.
A third bridge project ó replacement of the bridge carrying Pump Station Road over Bakers Creek ó was originally to have been considered, but was removed from the agenda because the N.C. Department of Transportation is reviewing the bidding process.
That bridge will be up for consideration at the next council meeting, City Manager Mike Legg said.
In weeks ahead, signs will be erected notifying motorists of impending road closings, and Moody said that detours will also be marked.
Other Kannapolis roads will get changes in the weeks ahead, as a result of other items coming before the council last night.
A unanimous vote changes the speed limit on a section of Main Street downtown to 30 miles per hour, raising it in some areas and lowering it in another.
Currently, the speed limit varies from 45 mph below Dale Earnhardt Boulevard south of downtown to as low as 20 mph near the intersection with C Street before returning to 35 alongside the North Carolina Research Campus site.
Wilmer Melton, Kannapolis public works director, presented the council a proposal to set the speed limit at 30 mph throughout that entire area.
“This is a speed which we feel is both safe and enforceable,” Melton said. The Kannapolis Police Department and Department of Transportation had already approved the proposed change before the council voted to change the appropriate ordinances.
Also in traffic news, the council voted unanimously to place stop signs at the intersection of Colony Drive and Matthew Allen Circle in the Settlers Ridge subdivision, after residents expressed concern that the intersection was dangerous. The intersection will now be a three-way stop.
In other business, the council:
– Voted 6-1 to approve the voluntary annexation of 13.39 acres of property on N.C. 3 near Charlie Walker Road. Roger Haas, the lone dissenting voter, said that he opposed the annexation because it would create confusion as to which residents were served by city or county services.
– Voted unanimously to approve the voluntary satellite annexation of 10.22 acres of property on N.C. 73 near the intersection with Odell School Road.
– Approved the Project SAFE Cabarrus continuation grant award from the N.C. Governor’s Crime Commission in the amount of $60,000, adopting the associated grant project ordinance.
Project SAFE Cabarrus is a collaboration between state and local law enforcement agencies to reduce gang activity, drug use and violent crime in the county.
Contact Hugh Fisher at 704-797-4245 or hfisher@salisburypost.com.