Collinsville Road tops the list of the states secondary road improvements in Polk County for the next two years.

The N.C. Department of Transportation (DOT) proposed Secondary Road Paving Program will be presented to the public and the Polk County Board of Commissioners Tuesday, June 8, at 2 p.m. in the Polk County Health Department conference room. The commissioners will have to approve a resolution approving the plan to make it official.

The state has $929,503 available for both the new projects and unfinished projects already approved, and plans to spend $646,662, carrying forward the rest to finish its Collinsville Road project in the next fiscal year, which begins July 2011.

A total of $365,000 is allocated this fiscal year to widening, paving and building drainage ditches along 1.8 miles of Collinsville Road from Landrum Road (Hwy. 14) to Hickory Grove Church Road. Another $520,000 is allocated the next year, 2012-2013, to complete the remaining 2.6 miles of Collinsville Road from Hickory Grove to Hwy. 9.

Also on the plan is the completion of the Peniel Road project, which was first programmed a couple years ago. DOT plans to spend $150,000 to widen, drain and pave the section from the Columbus city limits to Hwy. 108.

Projects planned last year that are still being completed include 4.9 miles of Landrum Road (Hwy. 14) from Hwy. 9 to the S.C. state line. The paving and widening are complete and the state is just now building the shoulders, according to DOT county maintenance engineer Lori Jones.

Skyuka Mountain Road remains on the project list, at $14,503, because it requires ongoing special maintenance after the discovery of endangered white irises in the area, Jones said. There is also a fill slope failure along Skyuka Mountain Road that has to be fixed, she said.

A short section, .4 miles of Laurel Drive, from the Saluda city limits to Howard Gap Road, was not completed and no money was spent this past year because the state is having difficulty obtaining the rights-of-way for widening, Jones said.

Paving of the formerly gravel Scoggins Road, in the far southeast of Polk County, from Radar Road to Sandy Springs Road, was just recently completed.

In addition, a special allocation was made to pave the driveways into the fire truck bays at the Sunny View Fire Departments Lake Adger substation and to the additional bays added at the Green Creek Fire Department, as well as the Polk County Rescue Squad building on Walker Road in Columbus. The work has not been completed and remains on the project list carried forward.

The same driveway paving will be done for the Mill Spring Fire Departments unpaved driveways.

In 2013, DOT projects spending $700,000 widening, draining and paving Pea Ridge Road from Hwy. 108 to U.S. 74.