DOT blames new projects for more delays on Hwy. 54

Peachtree City denies meddling in right-of-way issues;Coweta County stretch likely to get started next month

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

Commercial developments approved for Ga. Highway 54 West since plans were first drawn up for widening the corridor have forced still more delays, pushing the estimated start of the Fayette County portion of the project to April at the earliest, transportation officials confirmed.

But work may start in a month to relieve the heavy congestion on busy Ga. Highway 34 between Newnan and Fisher Road in Coweta County. Some houses along the route are already being uprooted and moved by contractors.

Dorothy Daniel, spokeswoman at the DOT, said last week that contracts on the Coweta phase are scheduled to be released and work to begin in November.

The DOT estimates it will be another six months to get the project rolling on into Fayette County.

The addition of Home Depot and Wal-Mart to the congested stretch of highway, as well as plans for a streetside "shopping village" to run along the north side of the road, has dramatically changed the traffic patterns of the area, said David Millen, pre-construction engineer.

"There was some development that went on out there after we were deep into design on this project," Millen said. "When some of that hits late in the game, it generates different traffic patterns and we have to modify our plans."

"They started selling them off very rapidly," he said of RAM Development, which built Home Depot and has plans for the Line Creek Church property.

Peachtree City has either approved or proposed a host of new developments along Hwy. 54 in front of Home Depot that factor significantly into the DOT's plans, Millen said.

But city officials deny that any projects they've approved for the district have greatly altered the project or caused delays in right-of-way acquisition.

"All of the projects reviewed and approved during the last few years included the latest right-of-way information that could be obtained," from the DOT, said Betsy Tyler, the city's public information officer.

"The city is aware of delays in Georgia DOT acquiring certain parcels of the right of way due to nonagreement between the landowner and DOT on the value of the property," Tyler's office said. "This is not unusual in a project this size.

"The only design changes the city has participated in with the DOT are the location and design of the sidewalks on the north side of the highway," Tyler said. "We've requested that it meander through the right-of-way rather than follow their traditional design of having the sidewalk immediately right up against the road.However, that is an issue within the right of way and should not affect the acquisition process."

According to Tyler, city planners worked with the DOT to come up with the following modifications, all to be funded by a Liveable Cities Initiative (LCI) grant:

Changed the design of the median from a rural section to an urban section.

Eliminated the sidewalks on either side of the road.

Added decorative street lights and signal poles at each intersection.

Changed the design for the CSX railroadbridge.

Those changes meant going back to dozens of individual landowners to renegotiate right of way contracts, the DOT said.

The 1.83 miles of highway included in the Fayette County portion of the contract stretches from Ga. Highway 74 to Fisher Road in Coweta County. It includes 59 individual parcels that had to be negotiated, Millen said.

Of those, just 32 have contracts. Appraisals on the other 22 are due to the DOT any time now, Millen said, and once those are in hand offers will be made from the state to the property owners based on fair market value.

But with the legal entanglements that usually ensue, it will still be months before all the deals are signed and construction can start.

"It's not as easy as it sounds," Millen said.

Plus, the Fayette stretch is just much more complicated, demanding a new multi-lane bridge over the CSX railway tracks, new approaches for Huddleston Road traffic, a bicycle tunnel beneath the highway and a median that's significantly wider and higher than the state standard.

"It's going to be major construction," said Millen of the $6.7 million widening. "But it's something we've been needing."

Motorists will likely see work start on the commercial component of the Hwy. 54 West master plan before the widening project is even complete.

Critics of the so-called "Gateway Project" have been especially vocal about a proposed pedestrian and golf cart bridge that would span the entire width of a widened Hwy. 54 at Wynnmeade Parkway, serving as a so-called "gateway" entrance to the city. DIRECT PAC, the political action group formed earlier this year, formally proposed the city council drop the plan and sell the land to shore up the city's shaky finances, but their pleas were largely ignored.

Mayor Steve Brown dismisses those who call it a "bridge to nowhere" by pointing out it will offer easy, safe access to the still largely undiscovered Line Creek Nature Area south of the highway, behind Days Inn.

And on the north side of Hwy. 54, the "meandering sidewalk" Tyler referred to will provide street-side access to a row of mixed-use retail and professional buildings that will actually front away from the highway, with parking hidden from view, said City Manager Bernard McMullen.

Brown says the commercial buildings will resemble Vinings Jubilee, an award-winning Cobb County "shopping village" constructed to look like a New England town. Building the commercial developments at the same time as road construction will lesson the overall impact, Brown said.

All of the work will take about two years from start to completion.