By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

It will probably be at least 2005 before the federal government releases its hold on new road building in the Atlanta area including Fayette, an Atlanta Regional Commission expert said.

“You should be able to start building capacity-enhanced roads in 2005,” ARC transportation planner Laura Cruce told the Fayetteville City Council last week.

Metropolitan Atlanta, including Fayette, recently was declared in violation of federal air quality standards, and federal agencies have halted construction of local road projects until ARC and the new Greater Atlanta Transportation Authority can come up with a long-range plan that satisfies those standards.

And plans to tighten the standards even further could bring 10 to 12 more counties into the “non-attainment” zone, including neighboring Coweta County.

The standards are arbitrary, Cruce said. “The Clean Air Act gives [Environmental Protection Agency] staff the right to set whatever standards they want,” she said.

“They [federal agencies] are making an example of Atlanta whether we like it or not,” she said in response to Councilman Al Hovey-King's suggestion that holding up funds for road projects actually harms Atlanta's air rather than improving it.

“It's a fact that at idle speeds your pollution increases exponentially,” said Hovey-King. “We're self-defeating in that respect.”

ARC planners currently are developing a regional transportation plan designed to meet federal air quality guidelines, Cruce said. The agency will probably be ready for public input in September or October, with plans to have the plan in its final form between November and January.

More public input will be accepted in February for final adjustment of the plan, she said. Adoption by the full ARC board is scheduled in March.

Following that, the normal gyrations of planning for road-building probably will take four more years before the first new roads and widening projects get underway to help clear up the increasingly snarled traffic in the area.

The fact that federal money can't be spent to increase road capacity doesn't mean that Atlanta isn't getting its fair share of federal transportation dollars, though, Cruce said. “We're getting our money, but we're spending it elsewhere,” she said.

Public transit, bike paths and other favored projects are getting the federal dollars that once went to road projects, she said.

ARC experts are looking further down the road than the current crisis, Cruce said. Planners have recently completed a 25-year map of road improvements expected to take place in Fayette, including the long-discussed eastern bypass around Fayetteville.

The bypass would run down Corinth Road at its beginning and loop around the city to reconnect with Ga. Highway 85 south of town.