Inflation is having a negative impact on the construction schedule for the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), the Capitol Beat News Service in Atlanta reported July 24.

The agency has rejected bids on 12 projects that had been due for letting in August, Meg Pirkle, GDOT's chief engineer, told members of the State Transportation Board July 21.

She explained that construction bids are coming in an average of 33 percent above what GDOT was expecting.

"We have to balance the funds we have with what we can do," Pirkle explained to the board. "With prices going up that much, we're not going to be able to deliver everything that's in the program."

Georgia Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry said any projects that GDOT lets next month probably would not be ready for paving to be applied in 2022. Therefore, he said the agency can wait until this fall or early 2023 to let projects without suffering a major impact on the schedule.

"We were hedging that the [price of a] barrel of oil may come down, and asphalt and cement prices may come down," he noted.

McMurry added that GDOT could stretch the cost of its major projects by bidding them out in several smaller segments.

The good news is that the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill Congress passed last fall has become a life preserver in helping GDOT cope with the higher prices of building materials, McMurry said.

"It's keeping our head at water level," he explained.

Capitol Beat also reported that McMurry said the temporary suspension of Georgia's tax on gasoline sales and other motor fuels the state General Assembly approved in March cost GDOT $294 million in lost revenue during April, May, and June.

With prices at the pump surging well beyond $4 a gallon, Gov. Brian Kemp has twice issued executive orders renewing the suspension — the second of which is due to expire in mid-August.

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