Improved Dairy Lane reopens to traffic

What started out as a sewer project to connect Athens County’s US 50 Sanitation Sewer Project to the City of Athens’ system on Dairy Lane became a significant road improvement project.

On Monday, city officials, contractors and members of the community celebrated the 13-month project’s finish with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of the Dairy Barn Arts Center.

Service-Safety Director Andy Stone noted that the project started a little more than five years ago, as a sewer project to bring in sewage from “points west and points south of here. ... We saw it as an opportunity to not just bring in sewer, but go ahead and improve the water line.”

During the ceremony, Mayor Steve Patterson noted that the city put in 1,700 feet of sidewalk that didn’t exist before. The city also extended the bike path along Dairy Lane about 300 feet.

“It was it was truly a team effort to get this done,” Patterson said.

According to previous Messenger reports , the project was between Stagecoach Roach and Dairy Lane. It included the installation of new sanitary sewer line, new water line, asphalt pavement, relaying brick, and the addition of new sidewalk on Dairy Lane, between the Corporation Limits and the Richland Avenue intersection.

The project is one of several points in which the county’s US 50 Sanitation Sewer Infrastructure Project connects with the city’s sewer system. The other locations are along State Route 56 near Margaret Creek, and along Blackburn Road at the city corporation limit.