Few things irritate motorists more than missed deadlines in road construction projects. In the past, our community and this newspaper have grumbled about extraordinary delays in completing road projects.

We all remember the long delays and the dangerous driving conditions along Interstate 85 during the three years that the widening project dragged on.

It seemed to take forever to see progress on intersection improvements at Highway 154 and Lower Fayetteville Road. While progress has been made, there is still wrangling over whether the traffic lights at that intersection should have turn signals.

Almost a decade ago, there were seemingly never-ending delays getting the intersection improvements done at U.S. 29 North at Weldon Road and the railroad track near Palmetto.

Today, the big problem irritating Newnan drivers and hundreds of residents and business people is the widening of the Newnan Highway 34 Bypass from Bullsboro Drive to Carrollton Highway. The work started in 2009. It was scheduled for completion at the end of 2011. That didn't happen.

While the stretch of roadway has been open throughout the construction, driving conditions have not been ideal. And intersections into busy residential and business areas have been terrible.

Our readers have been asking when the construction will be completed. Georgia DOT told our reporter last week that "it will likely require another extension of approximately six months."

The delay was blamed on "several plan revisions, erosion control issues, a sub-contractor going out of business ... and a replacement firm having to be secured, and weather."

The bottom line is it appears that everything that could go wrong did, but that's small consolation to motorists and residents along the bypass.

There are simply too many DOT projects that get bogged down and don't come close to getting completed on time. That's a problem GDOT needs to address.

GDOT is about to hire a new commissioner. We hope that the new hire will pay attention to this problem of missed deadlines and long delays in finishing road projects. It would seem that better planning on the front end would cut down on the need for revisions. Better screening of contractors and sub-contractors should solve that issue.

Blaming the weather?

Funny thing. The Newnan Times-Herald received a news release from GDOT Tuesday morning. It stated, "The Georgia Department of Transportation is taking advantage of a (so far) warmer than normal winter to work on several important projects to improve motorists' mobility in Metropolitan Atlanta."

How about the Newnan Highway 34 Bypass?