Widening of Hwy. 54
now on'fast track' By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer
Fayette
County officials will continue to meet with state
transportation officials to iron out the details
of an agreement reached last week that would
hasten the widening of Ga. Highway 54 west of
Peachtree City.
County
commissioners last month formally alerted the
Atlanta Regional Commission and state Department
of Transportation that ARC's 25-year
transportation plan didn't place the Hwy. 54
project high enough on the priority list to suit
local officials.
It's
the number one priority locally, said the
commission, and the Coweta County Commission and
Peachtree City Council added their voices to that
chorus.
Last
week, a delegation that included Fayette County
Commission Chairman Harold Bost, Peachtree City
Mayor Bob Lenox and Coweta County Commissioner
Vernon Mutt Hunter met with state
officials and secured an agreement to schedule
the project for 2005, five years earlier than the
proposed Regional Transportation Plan had
designated.
The
RTP, if approved by ARC early next spring as
planned, will guide transportation construction
in the Atlanta region through 2025. Approval of
the plan by ARC and by the federal Environmental
Protection Agency would end a moratorium on
transportation projects that has been imposed by
EPA because of alleged poor air quality in the
region.
We
anticipate that as soon as the moratorium is
lifted and the transportation plan approved, they
will start to move ahead with construction
of the Hwy. 54 project, Bost told The Citizen
this week.
Officials
in the next week or so will talk with DOT
engineers who plan projects for the south metro
area, Bost said, in an attempt to get agreement
that the first order of business will be
construction of a new, wider bridge over the
railroad tracks on 54 just west of Peachtree
City.
Traffic
going from Peachtree City into Coweta County gets
jammed up as it crosses the bridge, Bost said,
because that's where the highway abruptly narrows
from four lanes to two. And as that traffic backs
up, it creates a jam throughout the intersection
of 54 with state Highway 74.
We
feel that if we can get that bottleneck relieved,
it's the single biggest problem, said Bost.
Bost
gave credit for working out the agreement with
ARC and DOT to Coweta County's Mutt Hunter.
Hunter, Fayette's former public works director,
has long had a good working relationship with
state DOT Commissioner Wayne Shackleford, Bost
said.
It's
on the fast track now, Bost said of the
Hwy. 54 project. If officials had waited until
the 25-year plan was approved to push for the
change, he added, It would have been much
harder to get it done after that.
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