Residents of the Minter area near County Road 85 will need to plan alternate routes soon as work begins to excavate a section of the road.

During Monday’s Dallas County Commission meeting, engineer Coosa Jones said the project will cover a section of the road from its intersection with County Road 12 to its intersection with County Road 4.

Already, Jones said signs were being placed along the road.

“The contractor has started work putting signs out on County Road 85 (Monday),” he said. “They’ll start on the excavation the next few days. “They have not excavated it — right not they are going to go through and put the signs up.”

When work begins, Jones said there will be detour routs. The southbound detour will take drivers from County Road 85 onto County Road 12 in the Pleasant Hill area.

A second detour will run from Dallas County Road 7 to Lowndes County Road 7 to the intersection of Lowndes County Road 16. This road turns into Dallas County Road 16.

All of the necessary arrangements have been made for school traffic and emergency responders, Jones said.

“We made arrangements with the school board and we have given all the information to the 911 building,” he said. “We’ll keep you updated as things continue.”

The project is expected to take 60 working days, Jones said, but the completion date will depend on winter rains.

“It depends on the weather,” he said. “It might be open sooner.”

The excavation will be 20-feet deep, Jones said, which makes it a challenge.

“It’s a tough time of year to do this type of work, but we have a Federal Highway Administrative Grant and it has to be done now so the money will be available,” he said.