Lewisburg knew it had one road paving project starting this week. The start of a second project as well came as a bit of a surprise.

Drivers on the south side of town will have to be patient for the next several weeks.

Lincoln Paving from Fayetteville started work this week on the resurfacing of Highway 31A from the intersection at North Ellington Parkway south through Cornersville to the county line.

This is in addition to the repaving work started on Yell Road.

The city knew that Yell Road would be closing to through traffic on Monday, July 24, but the start of the repaving of Cornersville Highway was a surprise.

Lincoln won the bids for both contracts and is doing both at the same time.

While Yell Road is being done with state dollars passed through the city, the Cornersville Highway project is entirely a Tennessee Department of Transportation project.

Lewisburg has known the state planned to complete the repaving of Highway 31A through the county for over a year, said City Manager Randall Dunn, but hadn’t been included in any pre-bid or pre-construction meetings to inform it of any schedules.

“They have their own policies and procedures,” said Dunn. “It’s their project.”

So much so, that by press time, the Tribune can’t even get an answer on when the project should be completed.

Lewisburg hasn’t been informed. The county highway department hasn’t been told. The person answering the phone at Lincoln Paving didn’t know, and neither the local or state TDOT offices have returned messages asking for an estimate.

The Yell Road project has an official completion date of October 4, but Dunn said that he hoped that, as long as the weather held, completion would only take several days.