AIKEN --- The right-of-way improvement process should begin soon for a heavily traveled thoroughfare in Aiken.

Plans for the 2.5-mile project along Powderhouse Road between Pine Log and Whiskey roads are moving forward, with right-of-way work scheduled to start in August, said Julie Barker, the project manager with the South Carolina Department of Transportation.

Ms. Barker said construction should begin in the spring, with completion scheduled for fall 2010.

The work will involve shoulder widening, drainage improvements and resurfacing. Ms. Barker said Powderhouse now has no shoulder, which has caused some wrecks because vehicles can easily veer off to an unpaved surface and lose control.

"The majority of the wrecks that happen (on Powderhouse) ... were either at the intersections of Pine Log and Whiskey Road or they were runoffs," she said.

At a recent DOT meeting, public comments focused on an area for bicyclists and needed intersection improvements at Old Powderhouse and Powderhouse roads, Ms. Barker said.

She said her office has adjusted the plan, allowing for additional pavement for bicyclists along Powderhouse and straightening the alignment of the intersection, where residents say motorists often don't make complete stops.

The $2 million project is considered one of the larger ones in Aiken. The thoroughfare has an average daily traffic count of about 4,000.

Reach Preston Sparks at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110, or preston.sparks@augustachronicle.com.