Motorists who frequently travel U.S. Highway 27 in Morgan County have likely come to expect construction areas and will continue to experience them for the next few years.

Currently there are two separate projects active on U.S. 27. One to construct new lanes to expand the roadway and another to reconstruct existing lanes, according to Tennessee Department of Transportation Community Relations Manager Mark Nagi.

The construction project, which has a price tag of just under $63 million, involves about 3.2 miles of roadway south of Whetstone Road. Nagi said so far four walls have been built along with all box culverts. What is left to do is excavate about 166,000 cubic yards (about 33 percent of the total), build three bridges and two walls as well as grading, stone and paving.

Nagi said this part of the project is on schedule and is expected to be completed by May 2018, but that doesn’t mean the construction on U.S. 27 will end then. Upcoming phases include reconstruction from north of Tennessee 328 to north of Ray Cross and Mossy Grove roads (2.45 miles). This segment has an earliest bid letting of late 2017. Then reconstruction from north of Ray Cross and Mossy Grove roads to Tennessee 62 in Wartburg (4.93 miles) has an earliest bid letting of late 2019.

But bid letting is a step before construction begins, so actually roadway will continue beyond 2019 for the U.S. 27 widening project. Motorists should drive the posted speed in the work zone, heed the construction signs, be aware of possible lane closures, take precaution of workers and equipment in the roadway,” Nagi said. “They need to pay attention at all times.” The average daily traffic count on the roadway is 4,270, according to TDOT’s records.