EFFINGHAM COUNTY, Ga. (WSAV) — Effingham County officials are already working on roadway projects funded by TSPLOST approved in last week’s election.

“Let’s say 5 years when this TSPLOST ends you’re going to see a very different county,” said Effingham’s county manager Tim Callanan.

A 1% sales tax over the next five years is going to raise $120 million dollars for Effingham County roads – it’s the Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (TSPLOST).

“Our roads have been in poor condition for a very long period of time, decades, and so this will really get us close to catching up,” said Callanan.

He says the extra tax will benefit residents the most since a majority of their sales tax comes from non-residents.

“You’re going to start seeing hopefully some less frustrations,” said Callanan.

The county has now started paving or repaving roads and designing and building roundabouts and traffic lights. They’ll thicken roads and widen lanes, ensuring they’re built to last.

“It’s important to show folks results because if you don’t show them the results they’re not going to support it again,” said Callanan.

Adding to TSPLOST’s increased sales tax, Callanan says industries are taxed 18% more on their property because of the burden they put on roads

“Those improvements are going to benefit not just the freight,” said Callanan. “It’s gonna benefit the public as well because they’re going to use the same roads, but the industrial areas are just going to be chipping in more.”

Despite that, he says there are very few projects in industrial areas since they’re mostly surrounded by state roads.

“Nearly all these dollars are going towards residential areas and commuter traffic.”

He says they’ll start first on paving roads since they don’t require a lengthy design process like the other projects. They’ll be finished in the next two years. Effingham County has more information about their projects on their website.