Bypass subcontractor to be replaced

A grading subcontractor on the Shelbyville bypass, State Route 437, has gone out of business, but a new contractor should be lined up soon and state transportation officials say the change will have no impact on the completion date for the bypass.

Callers to the Times-Gazette reported that work on the bypass, which connects U.S. 231 north of Shelbyville to U.S. 41-A east of Shelbyville, stopped suddenly about a week ago and equipment had been removed. B.J. Doughty of Tennessee Department of Transportation said that Thomas & Associates, a subcontractor for primary contractor Wright Paving Contractors Inc. of Fayetteville, has gone out of business. She said Wright Paving should have a new subcontractor lined up "in the next week or so" and the change should have no impact whatsoever on the project's completion date.

Doughty said the subcontractor was employed by Wright Paving, not the state.

The entire project is estimated to be completed by July 31, 2011.

The bid of $14,283,873 for the bypass was awarded last June to Wright Paving. The bypass is one of 119 road projects in 64 counties throughout Tennessee funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.