Dennis Jernigan, project engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), expects the widening of North Carolina Highway 48 — Bolling Road — to be completed on schedule in August of this year, and also expects that the grass behind the curbing will be nice and green by then, too.

The $5-million project, which began in March of 1999, weathered Hurricane Floyd with few problems and little delay, but, “We had a unique situation. We seeded the backfill material behind the curb a few times and the grass would not germinate,” he said.

The contractor, Rose Brothers, Ahoskie, NC, had to remove the top 6 in. (15.2 cm) of soil and replace it, Jernigan said.

“We would have preferred, of course, to add supplements, but the agronomist who tested the soil told us that the supplements would matriculate down and wouldn’t stay. They wouldn’t remain to support germination,” Jernigan said.

The dirt builders sometimes get from borrow pits just doesn’t support vegetation, he added.

The project consists of widening a two-lane section of Bolling Road between West Ridecrest and Roanoke Avenue in Roanoke Rapids, a town of about 16,000 which is in Halifax County.

“We did water lines and sewer line work, added curbs and gutters in a residential area and added a turn lane at Belmont School which has been open about a year,” Jernigan said. Sidewalk was added to half the 2.6-mi. (4.2 km) project.

“We were fortunate with Hurricane Floyd. We didn’t have the damage other projects had with quarries and borrow pits underwater. The damage was minimal. We had to go back and refurbish some erosion control devices like silt basins and temporary diversion ditches but the damage cleanup only took a couple days to a week.”

The project, which will ease traffic flow through the neighborhood, had been in the works for a few years and coincides with the opening of a new school.

“We completed the turn lane and it’s been a great help,” Jernigan said.

Equipment used during construction include a Loadall 525B front end loader, a 410E John Deere backhoe, two rubber-tire backhoes, a shoulder-widening machine for backfilling behind the curb, and a Blaw-Knox paver.

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