On Tuesday, February 21, Mayor Lester Miller and the Commission approved nearly five times more local funding for road resurfacing than has been allocated in years past. 

“For too many years, a lack of funding meant our roads deteriorated faster than we could fix them, so we are putting millions more into this work to begin catching up by focusing on our worst roads,” said Mayor Lester Miller.   

The local funds in 2022 only came from the voter-approved Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) and equaled nearly $640,000. Beginning in 2023, the county will add money from the General Fund, bringing the local amount to nearly $3 million. The Mayor and Commission plan to spend more than $3 million in local funds in 2024. With the state funding and increased local funding, the Macon-Bibb will be spending nearly $13 million for three years to resurface the worst-rated roads in the county. 

Macon-Bibb hired RoadBotics to study every mile of county-owned roads and rated them from 1 (best) to 5 (worst) based on potholes, cracks, structural integrity, and other signs of damage and deterioration. The roads that will be focused on during the next three years are the ones rated 4 and 5. 

“While these roads are being fixed, we will re-study the rest of the roads to get a new ranking, knowing that a road that was a 3 last year could have more deterioration 2-3 years from now,” says County Manager Dr. Keith Moffett.  “By using more local funds and not relying primarily on state funding, we can begin the work even quicker. That means you’ll see work begin quicker than in the past.”