Friday, Apr. 1, 2005

What do you think of this story? Click here to send a message to the editor.

South cart path connection on the way

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Peachtree City officials are working on connecting homes in south Peachtree City to the city’s baseball and soccer complex on Ga. Highway 74 via the cart path system.

The project, which will require a bridge over Flat Creek and perhaps a bridge or tunnel to navigate over Hwy. 74, is but one of $7.2 million in cart path projects over the next five fiscal years and beyond. That figure will fund 13.6 miles of new paths, six multi-use bridges and four multi-use tunnels, city officials said.

Of the estimated $7.2 million figure, $3.19 million would come from grants, with another $1.64 million from revenues from the county’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. That means the city will have to fund the remaining $2.3 million in the estimate.

The grant funding is already in hand for the Flat Creek bridge, but bids for the project ultimately came in over budget, officials said. The bridge is scheduled to be built sometime in the coming fiscal year, and will join the other high-profile bridges coming online: specifically the gateway bridge over Ga. Highway 54 west that connects the Wynnmeade subdivision to the Line Creek Nature Park and the cart path bridge over the CSX railroad track.

In addition to those bridges, other proposed bridges include one on Ga. Hwy. 74 north at the Kedron Office Park, one on Ga. Highway 54 east connecting the Lexington Circle and Peachtree East shopping centers, one replacing the bridge over Lake Peachtree, and a smaller one in the area of Georgian Park.

The city’s master plan for cart paths includes growth into the industrial park, to help get golf carts, pedestrians and the like off Dividend Drive, for example, where they mix with large tractor trailers, said City Planner David Rast.