Three Columbus firms will handle the design work to improve the intersections of five heavily traveled county roads.

At Friday’s Transportation Improvement District meeting the board went over the qualifications of firms seeking the work on four intersections: County Road 1 and County Road 15 and U.S. 52; County Road 52 and Solida Road; and County Road 410 also known as Walmart Way and U.S. 52.

“We evaluated 18 different engineering firms and essentially narrowed down each project to three or four firms,” Doug Cade, county engineer, said. “On each project we scored those firms based on criteria that had been shown in the request for qualifications package.”

State and federal law prohibits a county government from selecting a firm based on cost, rather only by qualifications.

Chosen for the County Road 410 project is Strand; County Road 1 and 15 is E.L. Robinson; and Solida Road by M.E. Company/IBI Group.

“We are meeting with them next week to develop the scope of work in the contract,” Cade said. “We don’t know what the cost is yet. We haven’t negotiated the contract.”