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Many are probably wondering what’s being constructed between Fob James Drive and 55th Street in the area of Zaxby’s. The answer, according to City of Valley Planning and Development Director Travis Carter, is basically that the city is having a new road built.

“That’s a pretty big tract of land there, and where that red light is, there’s an entrance to what would have been a shopping center,” he said. “We’re still hoping that one day that will be, which would kind of be behind the Steak and Shake and the Zaxby’s and all that as commercial land. But what we’re doing is we’re just creating a road that goes straight across from that intersection and ties into 55th Street, so it actually splits our property there.”

Carter said the new road is intended to subdivide the land into smaller tracts, making it more attractive to prospective businesses.

To Carter’s knowledge, no buildings are yet planned for the site. However, he said the city has sold off a piece on the backside of it to Brumfield Electrical and Communications Inc.

Contractors are putting in water and sewer lines before the road can be built. These will make it convenient for new businesses to build locations on the site.

“There are actually two projects,” Carter said. “We’ve got King Road over there, which is straight across from the Fairfax Bypass. And right off of that King Road, we’re having a very small road that goes in there, and it will be a cul-de-sac. And then we’ll have four or five pretty good-sized lots on that road, maybe for a business park or something. But the sewer line, water line will go up through there, and then it will go on over and connect into this new road that we’re talking about so that this new road will have sewer and water, as well.”

Carter said that to his knowledge, the new road hasn’t been named yet. He also couldn’t say how much the project would cost or how long it would take to finish.

“We actually started probably close to a year ago, doing the rough grading for this project,” he said.

Carter guessed that the project would be completed by the end of the year, as Valley Mayor Leonard Riley wants it completed in a year.