Wednesday, February 20, 2002
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Wednesday, February 20, 2002 |
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Bad news for local roads By DAVE HAMRICK
This year's news is no better than last year's concerning Fayette County's transportation needs. "They're going to take all that money and put it into big projects and there's not going to be any money left over for the counties," Fayette Commission Chairman Greg Dunn said following a hearing last week on the Atlanta Regional Commission's long-range and short-range transportation plans. ARC Executive Director Chick Krautler headed up the session as about 20 staff members of the planning agency displayed maps and charts showing plans for the region for the next three years and for the next 20. Several county staffers also were on hand to answer questions, but only a handful of residents attended. Dunn cast the only "no" vote when the ARC Board of Directors approved the draft Transportation Improvement Plan for 2003-05 last month. He told The Citizen this week that several other board members privately agreed with him that the plan doesn't help the counties with their transportation problems. "But they're afraid if they don't vote for the TIP they won't get any money for their projects," he said. He said he doesn't believe the counties will get the money anyway, because too much is going into major projects like the northern arc of a future outer perimeter highway. The northern arc is Gov. Roy Barnes' stated top priority, he said, adding he believes the $2.2 billion estimate of its cost is too conservative. "When the TIP is OK'd, we set in motion a snowball that's going to grow," he said. "It could be disastrous." Fayette County's top priority project, widening of Ga. Highway 54 from Peachtree City into Coweta County, is moving forward, and a previous oversight has been corrected: the bridge over the railroad tracks that was left out of previous plans has now been included. But Dunn said the next priority is Ga. Highway 74 from Hwy. 54 south to Ga. Highway 85, and ARC's plans place that project ten years out, with no funding yet in sight. "We need to concentrate on the 74 widening," he said. "It was promised by Gov. [Zell] Miller if Cooper Lighting would come here. Truck traffic is going to destroy the two-lane road that's there now. This is a contract the state of Georgia made with Cooper Lighting and we should follow through with it."
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