Most of the construction work has thus far not impacted drivers. The construction team is concluding the clearing and grubbing work near the SR 85-123 intersection. Local utility companies continue to coordinate efforts to re-locate utility lines and crews are installing large drainage structures beneath the roadway. The construction team is also preparing the embankments adjacent to State Roads 85 and 123 for the new frontage roads.

"The public will start to notice increased construction activity in the near future," said Mike Lenga, the project administrator with Greenhorne & O'Mara. "We've managed to do a lot of the early work without many impacts and we'll continue to do our best to minimize potential impacts through the duration of the project."

Crews will begin driving test piles soon at the SR 85-123 intersection. The test piles work will reveal information about subsurface conditions that will allow engineers to design and drive the production pile to support the planned flyover ramp.

The first phase of a roadway widening project often involves removing trees, roots, and stumps from the area adjacent to the travel lanes. Referred to as "clearing and grubbing," the work is necessary to prepare the site for the construction effort.

"The vegetative debris from clearing and grubbing work is often either burned or trucked to a landfill," said project engineer Ed Blackmon of Greenhorne & O'Mara. "But with the State Road 85/123 construction project that wasn't the case."

Instead, the material was ground into wood chips and sold to a facility in nearby Panama City that is using the chips to fuel their industrial processes.

"Recycling the debris is an environmentally-friendly option that is far superior to burning or land filling it." said Bobby Braun of Anderson-Columbia. "The amount we had to dispose of would have taken up a lot of room in a landfill."