Roanoke Rapids daily herald., 1948-10-27
Bid Accepted By Highway Group For Auean Springs Bneye Roa
100000 Project Will Be
Built By Durham Contractor

Q Raleigh, October 27. - The
State Highway Commission to-
day announced that bids total
ling more than 100000 for the
construction and surfacing of
highway from Aurelian Springs
to Brinkleyville had been award
ed.
The Nello L. Teer Company Of
Durham, which has con-
tract for constructing and paving
the highway between Roanoke
Rapids and Aurelian Springs,
submitted low bid of $98, ,44270
for the project which will COM
plete the link of surfaced road.
A bid of $2,135.00 for the NOV
ing of buildings necessary along
the route was awarded to Cur
tis L. Register of Scotland Neck.
The contract calls for the
grading and bituminous surfac-
ing of 6.74 miles Of highwoy
from a point a of mile south
of Brinkleyville to a point 6
miles south of the Aurelian
Springs school, at which point
it will join the highway already
under construction. The road will
follow N. c. highway 48 for the
most part.
The Aurelian Springs-Brink-
leyville road was the only one
for which bids were asked in
Halifax County, and was one of
81 projects totalling $2,363,317
for which construction bids were
submitted.
Last Friday night citizens Of
the Aurelian Springs area were
told by First District Highway
Commissioner Merrill Evans of
Ahoskie that bids for the new
road were being considered,
however he said he had no idea
how long it would be before
work would begin or how long it
would be completed.
Evans told George A. Thorne,
vocational agriculture teacher at
Aurelian Springs High School,
that Thorne's guess that the new
road will not be ready for a.
bout "two years" was "a little
bit long"
The construction of surfaced
highways from Brinkleyville to
Roanoke Rapids through Aure-
liam Springs will offer citizens of
that area north-south transpor-
tation on paved roads, however
one of the biggest complaints
they have made at two mass
meetings at the school last week
was that the existing unpaved
roads are not receiving enough
proper maintenance work to
make them usable in bad wea-
ther. All meetings called by the
veterans farm training class,
people in the community got to.
gether to air their grievances
on the road situation.
Last Friday night Commits
sioner Evans, accompanied by
District Engineer T. J. McKim
and Division Engineer C. F.
Gore, met with about 400 resi-
dents of the area and delega-
tions from surrounding towns
and told the people that the
Aurelian Springs area at present
is getting more money for roads
than any other comparable Sec
ton in the entire 14-county First
Division. He explained that he
was referring to the highway al
ready under construction and
the one for which have just
been accepted.
He answered questions from
the audience and said the reason
maintenance had fallen behind
was that men and equipment
were just not available to do
the Districts local paving pro-
jects and maintenance, too.
At the meeting Friday night
Evans said he could offer no
immediate relief or hope of re-
lief beyond the surfacing pro-
jects he mentioned. He said his
term of office as Commissioner
has almost expired and urged
the people of the Aurelian
Springs section to 'holler loud
and holler early" to the new
state administration which will
come into office in January.
In the announcement that the
bids for the Aurelian Springs
Brinkleyville had been accepted,
the State Highway Commission
made no mention of time sche-
dulles, and it is not known
whether the start of construction
will wait for the completion of
the haf-completed road at the
north end of the project into the
area as soon as weather condi-
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