Friday, July 6,
2001
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New transportation initiative runs the gamut By JOHN
THOMPSON
Road improvements, express buses and the beginning of commuter rail are among recently announced plans to help ease the Atlanta traffic crunch in the next five years. The proposals were just a few of the items outlined last week in a press conference by Gov. Roy Barnes as he announced an ambitious $8 billion transportation initiative. Barnes, along with GRTA Executive Director Catherine Ross and state Department of Transportation Commissioner Tom Coleman, said the measures will go a long way toward unsnarling some of the traffic that Atlanta commuters face every day. A big part of the proposal is the Governor's Road Improvement Program. "The economic development of rural Georgia was the catalyst behind the Governor's Road Improvement Program, which we call GRIP, when it was conceived in 1989," said Coleman He added the idea gave birth to 14 developmental corridors throughout the state and said the GRIP corridors are only 62 percent complete and, at the current rate, they will take over 20 more years to finish. But with the governor's push to get things moving, Coleman said the Georgia DOT expects to have about $2 billion worth of GRIP projects under way in the next five years. Another component of the transportation project is adding additional lanes to the interstate system. "Together with the GRIP system, having six lanes throughout the I-85, I-75 and I-95 corridors will enhance Georgia's competitive position in the Southeast in moving commercial traffic from state to state. Multi-lane highways reduce transportation costs for many industries, including farmers who are dependent upon these roadways to link them with suppliers, food-processing plants and farmers' markets," said Coleman. The multi-laning of interstates 85, 75 and 95 to six lanes three in each direction will be under construction by 2005. I-85 north will be widened 67 miles, from I-985 to the South Carolina state line. I-85 south will be widened 26 miles, from Ga. Highway 34 to I-185, providing greater accessibility to Columbus. I-75 will be widened 45 miles, from the Lowndes County line to the Dooly County line. I-95 will be widened 27 miles from U.S. 17 to Ga. Highway 57. A controversial part of the governor's transportation program is the building of the northern arc of the proposed outer perimeter. Coleman said the northern arc will be totally under construction by 2009. "The northern arc would provide a much-needed 50-mile, east/west connection from U.S. 411 in Bartow County to state route 316 in Gwinnett. This 1,000-foot-wide corridor is planned with limited points of vehicle access, providing an opportunity for a highway to handle the increasing traffic volumes, as well as providing a corridor for rail and a future location for express bus service," Coleman said. He added the green space planned for this corridor would be available for bike and pedestrian trails. Preliminary engineering for multi-laning projects slated for fiscal year 2002 will total almost $12 million. Over the five-year program, the cost of multi-laning all of these corridors, including the northern arc, will total approximately $2 billion. By 2006, the state will have HOV lanes open or under construction on all metro interstates outside the Perimeter, including Ga. highways 400 and 316. In the next five years, Georgia DOT is looking at an almost $2 billion program to add 262 miles of HOV lanes to the system. HOV lanes will carry buses from Cobb and Clayton counties and buses from the other regional transit systems proposed by the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority. According to a recent Clean Air Campaign survey, preliminary results indicate that 50 percent of the respondents choose carpooling as their most likely commuting alternative. In implementing the governor's vision, the work produced by the Georgia DOT will be roughly doubled in the next five years. GRTA Executive Director Catherine Ross said her agency is excited about providing a better Georgia and is eager to start. "To help pave the way for commuter rail, GRTA will implement express commuter bus service in the Athens, Canton and Macon-to-Atlanta corridors. The estimated cost to implement the express commuter buses, in all three corridors, over the next five years is $162 million," she said. Ross also said GRTA will work on getting people around in the main activity corridors in the region. "To address this challenge GRTA will lead the effort to implement activity center circulator systems our ACCESS program - targeting major activity centers in the metropolitan Atlanta region," said Ross. "As you know, we've partnered with the Buckhead Area Transportation Management Association on an electric shuttle that will serve the shopping centers, businesses and MARTA stations in Buckhead. "Other centers ACCESS will serve include downtown and Midtown, Hartsfield Airport, Perimeter, Cumberland and Town Center. Shuttle buses will link transit centers with the major employment and shopping centers in each area. In other words, we're going to get you to where you're really trying to go," she said. The estimated cost of implementing this program will be $38 million over the next five years. In addition to bus services, GRTA will be implementing two rail programs. The first of these will be the initial segment of a commuter rail system for the state that will serve the Macon-to-Atlanta corridor. "For the regional commuter rail system we anticipate spending $446 million over the next five years to implement rail service between Macon and Atlanta and to begin work on the multi-modal passenger terminal," said Ross. The other rail program is the northwest corridor light rail system. Ross said the effort will center on a light rail system linking Town Center, Cumberland and Midtown Atlanta, with small light-rail circulator services at Town Center and Cumberland. The anticipated cost for the northwest corridor light rail system over the next five years is $2.8 billion Ross added that GRTA proposes spending $345 million to improve the arterial roads in the 13-county region "To put it simply, when you wake up in the morning and want to drive to work you can. If you don't want to drive you don't have to! The choices will be there," said Ross.
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