Locals get first look at Highway 67 plans

TSPLOST vote casts uncertainty on timeline, funding of road widening

Interested citizens, from left, Sharon Farkas, JoAnne Cox, Ginny Smith and Stephen Olliff look at maps of the Highway 67 project while Georgia Department of Transportation design engineer Dennis Odom, right, is available to answer questions. - photo by Al Hackle/special

Hwy 67 Open House — Interested citizens, from left, Sharon Farkas, JoAnne Cox, Ginny Smith and Stephen Olliff look at maps of the Highway 67 project while Georgia Department of Transportation design engineer Dennis Odom, right, is available to answer questions. - photo by Al Hackle/special

Local residents took a close look Thursday evening at state plans to widen Georgia Highway 67 between Statesboro and Interstate 16. Voters’ rejection of the recent TSPLOST referendum casts some doubt on the $40 million project’s timing.A list before the July 31 vote on the 1 percent transportation sales tax showed the Highway 67 widening, with a $42.9 million price tag, as one of four major projects proposed for Bulloch County. Then voters in the Coastal Regional Development Commission district rejected TSPLOST, while only three of Georgia’s 12 regional districts approved it.But the Georgia Department of Transportation is taking scheduled steps toward a 2017 construction bid for the Highway 67 project on a prediction that money will be available.