By KAY S. PEDROTTI
Staff Writer
New bridges over the Flint River, Camp Creek and
Morning Creek on Ga. Highway 54 between Fayetteville and
Jonesboro will be open for traffic next spring, Ga. Dept. of
Transportation (DOT) officials say.
Fred Landrum, DOT area engineer in the Hapeville
headquarters, says that a plan for four-laning the busy highway has
been shelved by air-quality issues, but the road will likely be
enlarged at some future date.
"That is the plan," Landrum said, "but it's just a question
of when it will be done."
Meanwhile, the narrow old bridges over the three
waterways are being replaced, with highway alignment shifting to the
new bridge locations. The portion of Hwy. 54 from the Flint River
to Tara Boulevard in Jonesboro already has been resurfaced
and slightly widened, but remains only two lanes.
Designation of the 13-county area around Atlanta as a
"non-attainment area," meaning that no new air pollution sources may
be added, has limited DOT work on some highway projects,
Landrum said, particularly widening of existing roads.
"From the transportation standpoint," he said, "when
traffic stands still or moves more slowly, more emissions are put into
the air. But I think the reason for limiting widenings or four-lanings
is that those kinds of roads promote development, which would
add more traffic."
Sunbelt Structures is the construction company for the
new bridges, which will be one lane each way with emergency
lanes. The contract calls for completion by March 1, 1999, according
to Dave Zoeckler, DOT assistant area engineer for the
construction project.