The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners earlier this week awarded E.R. Snell Contractor, Inc., a contract for more than $28 million to resurface county roads. The Georgia Department of Transportation will fund a quarter of the contract cost.

“We value our partnership with the Georgia DOT,” said Gwinnett Transportation Director Lewis Cooksey. “State funding allows our SPLOST dollars to stretch farther, in this case to pave more roadways.”

Every year Gwinnett transportation employees document roads in need of resurfacing. With nearly 2,700 centerline miles of roadway, it takes close to 30 months for staff members to assess pavement conditions on all the County-maintained roads. That pavement data is used to identify the roads in most need of resurfacing. Gwinnett will resurface just over 108 centerline miles of roadway this year.

The $28 million contract is funded 75 percent by the County’s 2017 SPLOST program and 25 percent by the Georgia Department of Transportation.

Transportation staffers say resurfacing studies and their own experience have shown that maintaining the roadway pavements helps reduce costs over time. Funds spent on resurfacing cut down on spending to patch or completely rebuild a roadway.