COLUMBIA, S.C. — Changes to Leesburg Road in Columbia could come as early as this summer.
According to Joey McIntyre with the South Carolina Department of Transportation, organizers are in the final stages of preparing before the project can begin.
"Trying to finalize a little bit of design work on the roadway and once we do that we are waiting on the City of Columbia to submit their revised water line design to us," McIntyre said. "Once we have all that we should be good to go."
The plan includes the widening of Leesburg Road from Fairmont Road to Lower Richland Blvd including road pavement and sidewalks.
"In essence like, where it currently drops down from a four lane section now, it'll be widened all the way out to Lower Richland Blvd," McIntyre said.
It's something to look forward to for Raymond Jones who says he lives nearby and has had trouble traveling the road.
"The road conditions, it's been like that for a while and just trying to find a way to get that done and have a better, smoother road," Jones said.
Funding for the project includes contributions from the Central Midlands Council of Governments, Columbia Area Transportation Study (COATS) and the Richland County Penny Tax. The spending cap for the penny tax funding is $4 million dollars, according to McIntyre.