ATLANTA (AP) -- A key link in the U.S. Highway 27 corridor of the Governor's Road Improvement Program has been launched.

The Georgia Department of Transportation has authorized more than $26 million for work in Clay and Randolph counties in the north/south project.

A contractor has been hired to reconstruct nearly eight miles of the highway, from the Bluffton Bypass in Clay north into Randolph. The road will be expanded from two lanes to four with a grassed center median. Work likely will begin within 90 days and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2014.

The Governor's Road Improvement Program was begun by the Legislature in 1989 to foster economic development throughout the state by assuring 98 percent of Georgians live within 20 miles of a four-lane highway.