Imagine a manufacturing facility so large that it required the relocation of a road that would have otherwise split the building. That was the situation on South Dug Gap Road in southern Whitfield County, where the owners of Engineered Floors had acquired land on both sides and planned two separate buildings on each side.
Preliminary discussions with Whitfield County officials, however, resulted in a mutually beneficial decision to move the road a few hundred feet to the west to allow construction of the new quarter-mile-wide and half-mile-long facility.
Engineered Floors agreed to provide right-of-way and grading for the new road, while Whitfield County officials agreed to the relocation and three-laning of 4,600 feet of road, especially since the company will be providing 2,000 new jobs in a town hit hard by the recession.
The complicated nature of the relocation, however, means the road has been closed since September of 2013, but Whitfield County Public Works Director DeWayne Hunt and County Engineer Kent Benson announced that the county completed the initial phase of the paving Wednesday, painted stripes on the road Friday, and will officially reopen it to motorists Monday morning.
That will be especially welcome news to residents on Redwine Cove Road, who have used South Dug Gap Road as a way to get around blocked train tracks for years, as well as the many truckers who travel the road to reach the Carbondale and Connector 3 ramps on I-75.
Drivers may notice there is still shoulder work to be done and the final finishing layer of asphalt has not been placed.
There will still be lots of heavy concrete trucks using the road over the next few months to reach Engineered Floors while construction goes on, county officials said. Once work is finally done, the Public Works Department will repair any damage to the asphalt that may have resulted and then place the final layer of pavement to finish the project, probably next summer.
The road had to be built to commercial specifications because of the heavy truck use in the area. Mr. Hunt says that means there are at least 10 inches of rock on the bottom, with another 8½ inches of asphalt on top of that. Ordinary roads have 2-4 inches of asphalt.
Officials said the county and Engineered Floors, as well as the various utility companies, all worked in conjunction to make the road come together.
“Engineered Floors provided the right-of-way and did the grading, and the county agreed to come in there and rock and pave it,” said Mr. Hunt, who also praised the cooperation of contractor John Kiker, whose company is building the Engineered Floors facility.
Mr. Hunt said it was one of the largest projects for his department in several years, one that required a good deal of cooperation between all parties involved to build the road while a major facility was also being constructed.
According to the Engineered Floors website: “Unlike many other carpet companies that grew through acquiring older, smaller, scattered facilities with old, outdated equipment, Engineered Floors started by building new, state-of-the-art facilities with all of the carpet-making processes under one roof. That means a more efficient, environmentally friendly and cost-saving way of making a quality carpet product.”
When the building is completed on South Dug Gap Road, Engineered Floors says it will have 2.25 million square feet of manufacturing space in its two Dalton and one Calhoun facility – all done in the last five years.
Even though the South Dug Gap Road facility is not totally done, the company has been manufacturing products there for several months, Mr. Hunt said, even without the walls completed.
“We tried to do the road so there was limited impact to Engineered Floors because they were already making carpet before the building was finished and before the road was even there,” Mr. Hunt said. “Their trucks were even getting out without a road being there so to speak. We were working on the road, Johnny was working on the building, and they were still making carpet even though the whole thing was under construction. They were making carpet even before the walls were up.
“There were just so many moving parts to that whole project, with me working with Kent, Kent working with Johnny, Johnny working with Engineered Floors, with everybody working together, it was a really hectic project altogether. Now it’s coming together, and we’re hoping this road being completed will help Engineered Floors.”