County to double size of busiest convenience site
Relief from traffic congestion is coming to users of the Barber Mill Road convenience site.
SMITHFIELD — County Commissioners have awarded a contract to expand the solid waste convenience center on Barber Mill Road near Clayton.
The site is easily the County’s busiest.
“We did 112,000 customers there last year,” Brian Beasley, director of Solid Waste, told Commissioners on Sept. 21.
The work will:
- Expand the convenience center by about eight acres, roughly doubling the size of the existing site.
- Replace the existing 3-cubic-yard trash compactor with a 5-cubic-yard compactor, which can hold more material and process trash more efficiently.
- Add a second 5-yard trash compactor, allowing one to remain available while the other is being emptied or replaced.
- Add a recycling compactor between the two trash compactors.
- Reconfigure the site to provide two traffic lanes, allowing customers to access the trash and recycling compactors separately.
- Add a separate exit, eliminating the current arrangement in which the entrance also serves as the exit.
The new layout is intended to keep traffic moving when a full compactor is being changed out, reducing the backups onto Barber Mill Road that can occur on busy days.
Commissioners awarded the $432,941 contract to S.T. Wooten Corp. of Wilson. The company will likely begin work this month and will have 147 days to complete the expansion.
Commissioners were happy to move the project forward. “This is an important project for the County … so I’m glad to see it’s coming,” Chairman Patrick Harris said.
Page last updated on: October 16, 2026