Exasperated Coweta and Fayette County commuters received a little bit of good news Tuesday night from the chairman of the Coweta County Commission.

Chairman Lawrence Nelms announced the Atlanta Regional Commission has agreed to move the completion date up five years for the widening of Ga. highways 34 and 54 from Newnan to Peachtree City.

The road will now be completed in 2005, instead of 2010, which officials with the Department of Transportation said is a workable date.

Nelms met Monday with Harry West and Joel Stone of the ARC, along with Fayette County Commission Chairman Harold Bost, Peachtree City Mayor Bob Lenox and Coweta County administrator Theron Gay.

Nelms thanked everybody for working together to speed the project up. The announcement comes on the heels of last week's report by Coweta County assistant administrator Eddie Whitlock outlining ARC's timeline for a number of projects.

Now that ARC officials are going to help alleviate one of the biggest traffic headaches, county and ARC officials can focus their efforts on some of the other projects.

ARC officials estimate the cost of the widening at nearly $24 million.

Commissioner Vernon “Mutt” Hunter may have been talking about Hwy. 34 last week when he pointed out that the county can request amendments to the plan, which would speed the projects up. Whitlock said Hunter was correct, but said everything boiled down to the status of the region's air.

Other major projects in the ARC proposal include:

• The building of the Newnan bypass from Hwy. 34 to U.S. 29.

• Widening of the bridge at Ga. Highway 54 and Line Creek from two to four lanes.

The full ARC board is scheduled to vote on the projects in March.

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