The Georgia Department of Transportation in the US has announced $85m in new transportation improvements across the state.

The projects under the improvement plan include the reconstruction of a busy interchange, as well as widening two sections of an important economic development highway in south Georgia.

Renovations on the crowded US Highway 41/State Route 3 interchange with US Highway 441/State Route 61 will cost $31.5m and require department contractors to establish a total of nine bridges.

"These projects are part of the GRIP programme."

The contractors will also set up six permanent structures and three temporary detour bridges for traffic to use during construction of the project.

Work will be conducted by Marietta-based CW Matthews Contracting.

Contractors will also widen more than 11 miles of State Route 133, a 66-mile Governor’s Road Improvement Program (GRIP) corridor stretching from Albany to Valdosta in the Brooks and Colquitt counties in south-west Georgia.

The Brooks project involves a 6.7-mile road section and will extend from Pauline Church Road to Troupeville Road.

Construction will be done by Reames and Son Construction Company for $20.7m and is expected to be finished by 30 June 2016.

Work on the Colquitt section, which covers 4.4 miles between the Moultrie Bypass/State Route 35 and Hawthorne Drive, involves an investment of $15m.

Reames will also take up this project with a targeted completion date of 31 July 2016.

These projects are part of the GRIP programme, which began in 1989 and is designed to insure that virtually all Georgia communities have close access to four-lane state highways and also to the Interstate Highway System.

Other projects announced today include a $5m bridge on State Route 36 over the Flint River between Upson and Talbot counties, which is to be built by Scott Bridge Company.