A sign replacement project on Interstate 985 has drifted past the scheduled Oct. 31 completion date, with the state fining the contractor $391 per day the work isn’t finished.

The project began in the spring, with crews steadily working to replace the 11-year-old interstate signs. Sheets Construction Co. of Locust Grove is the contractor.

“There wasn’t enough time in the project, to start with,” said Joe Sheets, the company’s vice president.

In addition, “we have encountered a lot of rock in drilling and so forth, and it slowed production.”

In an interview Wednesday, Sheets said he expects the work will be finished this week, depending on the weather.

The new signs are part of a $2.1 million effort to replace all directional signs along I-985 in Gwinnett and Hall counties.

“The reflectivity of the old signs had faded,” said Teri Pope, spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Gainesville-based District 1.

And federal regulations call for a different font and size.

The old signs may have looked “fine during the day, but in low light conditions, they (were) difficult to see,” said Kathy Zahul, state traffic engineer for the DOT, early in the project.

The new ones are “more visible from a longer distance, allowing motorists to read them from farther away,” she said.
Pope said she has gotten a lot of questions about why the signs are being replaced.

There are three types of signs being replaced: single-pole ones; those mounted on two supports and that let motorists know such information as food or gas is at the upcoming exit; and signs that straddle either the entire northbound or southbound lanes, with one support on either side of the lanes.

The overhead signs are a first for the Hall County part of the highway.

The type of sign being put up “is more like what (motorists) are used to seeing farther south on (Interstate) 85,” Pope said, adding that such a sign is at Exit 4 on I-985 in Buford.

Motorists should watch out for lane closings and possible delays, which have marked some of the work so far, until the work is done.