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The Troup County Board of Commissioners discussed Tuesday several potential KIA Parkway road repairs. Approximately over a year and a half ago, the Commission committed in SDS negotiations to do crack seal maintenance on the highway leading to the KIA Parkway.  

Allegedly, Troup County extended an offer to West Point officials to fix the cracks in the road. However, the city of West Point has not accepted the offer, Crews said. Officially, the road to KIA Parkway belongs to West Point. The funding for fixing the damages came from both SDS and Troup County SPLOST. 

“The reason we wanted to make those repairs was to extend the life of that road. As we are all well aware, KIA is very important to our community, and we realize that road is of significance,” Commission Chairman Patrick Crews said. “With the approximate resurfacing of 4 million dollars, it was our goal based on expert advice that we could extend the life of that road a little bit if we did the repairs to the highway. Without those repairs being done, it could become a bigger issue quicker if the road is not repaired.”

From the initial inspection done by the Troup County Director of Engineering & Development James Emery in 2020, the road seemed to have garnered more damage.

“To look at it today, I would not have the same findings as I did 18 months ago. Cracks have gotten more severe and damaged,” Emery said.

Since West Point did not accept the funding to fix the highway heading to KIA Parkway, Crews suggested allocating the funds elsewhere to a different project.