TWIN CITY, Ga. () – One local town will get a share of more than $26 million for transportation projects around the Peach State.

Earlier this week, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and the State Road and Tollway Authority announced that $26.5 million in loans and grants from the Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank (GTIB) will support 13 projects throughout the state.

$700,000 of that has been approved for paving improvements in Twin City in Emanuel County.

City leaders and those living here say it’s a project that’s long overdue. 

One of those is Donna Neal, who’s called Twin City home for her entire life.

“When there is heavy rain, the road layout causes water to flow directly into my husband’s shop from my driveway. We would deeply appreciate some new road work being done,” expressed Neal.

Back in 2021, the city did a study of all roads within city limits, and what they found were old streets with potholes and cracked pavement.

They reached out to Governor Kemp to get much-needed assistance to make travel safer around town.

Now, the grant from GTIB will help to resurface 16 streets around Twin City.

Mayor Matt Donaldson says the selection process for streets getting improvements was strategic.

“Our priority was selecting roads in the poorest condition first, as well as those that are most frequently used. Some of these roads serve as connectors to our schools, so it is important for them to be maintained well,” explained Donaldson.

This is also now the second grant Twin City has received from GTIB.

That came in 2023, and the city put those funds to use last year to resurface 13 roads stretching 5 road miles.

“In the span of two years, the city will have resurfaced 29 roads for a total of 12 road miles. That’s about 60% of all the road miles in Twin City,” Donaldson said. “So, we are actively working on our plan to hopefully get all of our roads resurfaced very soon.”

The mayor also says thanks to these funds, the project will make traveling around town easier, and repairs will take a lot less time. 

“Based on the assessment we did 4 years ago, if we had not gotten any of these grant funds, it would have taken us over 10 years to get these roads resurfaced—with our funding. But, the grant funding allows us to expedite those resurfacing plans by 10 years,” said Donaldson.

Here is the list of roads approved for repairs:

• West Broad Street
• Old Swainsboro Road
• Parrish Pond Road
• 1st Avenue
• Wilson Road
• Coursey Road
• Rountree Avenue
• Ward Street
• Sandridge Road
• Lane Avenue
• Central Street
• Leonard Avenue
• Sergeant Street
• Hall Street
• East Broad Street
• North Railroad Street

Neal lives on one of the streets in the list.

“We’re a small little town. A lot of potholes, but not a lot of money to do things with. So, we’d be greatly appreciative of it,” said Neal.

Mayor Donaldson says they’re now working on a bid for this project.

“The city commission will take it up in our August meeting and then put it out for bid. Sometimes, it’s a little slow getting the contractors to come in, but we hope to get it done late this year,” the mayor added.

He’s hoping to start working on paving these roads towards the end of 2025.