Effingham County commissioners have agreed to extend the deadline for work on phase 1 of Old Augusta Road.

By a 5-1 vote, commissioners gave R.B. Baker Construction another 40 days to complete the work, which runs from Highway 21 near the Effingham-Chatham county line to Chimney Road, a distance of 2.75 miles.

The change order includes installing additional casings.

“It’s part of the expanded idea we had to put in infrastructure,” County Administrator David Crawley said.

And if the casings aren’t put in now, coming back to put them in later can be expensive. To do it after the road work is completed would result in having to do a jack and bore under the road.

“Now is the best time to save some money,” Crawley said.

Having to do jack and bore later could mean spending four to five times as much on installing the casings, he said.

“It’s a good value to put the casings in now,” Crawley said.

County project manager Adam Kobek also worried that going back to put in the casings may cause damage to the road.

Commissioner Verna Phillips, who voted against the change order, was not happy that the work won’t be done by the original Aug. 28 deadline.

“I knew this was going to happen. I just knew it,” she said. “There were at least three or four months where they had good weather and didn’t do a durned thing. Tell them I’m real unhappy.”

With the change order, the expected completion date for phase 1 is the middle of October.