A project to extend Lukken Industrial Drive and help create another east-west corridor to get around LaGrange is underway.

Troup County is extending the west side of the road from West Point Road to Pegasus Parkway near the railroad bridge. LaGrange is in charge of the east side extension from Lukken Industrial’s terminus at Hamilton Road, cutting north and ending at Davis Road south of the Davis/Big Springs Road intersection.

Special-purpose, local-option sales tax money is paying for both extensions, which total about $2 million in construction costs.

“Our side of the project has been underway since May,” said James Emery, Troup County engineer. “We’re in the middle of paving.”

The county’s portion will include upgrades to the intersection of Lukken Industrial Drive and West Point Road, where the extension begins. The extension is set to be complete by sometime in mid-November.

The city’s side of the extension could be done as soon as AT&T comes and re-hangs a low-hanging power line along the new section of road. Construction on the east side started in November.

“We’re waiting on AT&T to move the line before we put down permanent striping,” said David Brown, LaGrange public works director.

Neither end of the new extensions (Lukken Industrial at Pegasus Parkway or Lukken Industrial at Davis Road) will have traffic signals because current traffic studies didn’t show enough demand. Both intersections were designed, however, so that traffic light poles could quickly be added at a later date when more traffic is present.

The project first was mentioned in a county-wide transportation plan in 2006. Brown said the project helps connect the west end of LaGrange to the South Loop (Pegasus Parkway) and gives people an alternate route to get around the city.

“This should help take some traffic off Vernon Road,” he said.

There’s more work to be done to create a full loop around the city. Realigning Waugh Road with Ann Bailey Way on the north end is still in the process of right of way acquisition. On the southern side, the loop that would add a “jog” from Davis Road to Pegasus Parkway via Whitesville Road, still is in the long-term planning phases.