Peachtree City’s latest transportation plan, unveiled Thursday night, is already significantly outdated because it does not include figures from the most significant road improvement project in the past year. In addition, it doesn’t take into account other proposals in the region that could threaten traffic flow, particularly on Ga. Highway 74.
The potential impact on Hwy. 74 is crucial given that it’s the main link to Interstate 85 used by thousands of local commuters during the weekdays.
The traffic projections used to compile the analysis were done in late 2005, well before the widening of Ga. Highway 54 west from two to four lanes was complete this summer, City Engineer David Borkowski confirmed at last week’s City Council meeting.
None of the plan’s projections takes into account future traffic from several proposed large-scale developments, including the 3,000-home McIntosh Village development planned for unincorporated Coweta County, he added.
The transportation plan was compiled by the city’s traffic consulting firm, Qk4, which calculates an annual growth rate of traffic on Hwy. 74 of 4.5 percent without including the large-scale projects proposed for Coweta County.
Even using the outdated data, Qk4 noted that traffic volumes on hwys. 54 and 74 “have increased significantly” and their intersection is “severely congested during both the a.m. and p.m. peak hours.”
In 2009 the city is projected to get funds to design intersection improvements for hwys. 54 and 74, with the possibility of using a grade-separation so one road could feature traffic flowing freely over the other.
Although traffic at 54/74 has increased, the city has seen “very little traffic growth on the east side,” Qk4 noted in its presentation.
That lack of information also hampered the projections for how many vehicles will use Crosstown Road, which is envisioned as a potential shortcut for McIntosh Village residents and others nearby to reach Piedmont Fayette Hospital and also the city of Fayetteville.
Borkowski said he’d rather wait to do new traffic counts on hwys. 54 and 74 after 74 is widened. Clearing for the first phase of the Hwy. 74 widening is underway, which will bring six lanes of traffic between Hwy. 54 and a location south of Crosstown Road. The second phase, stretching from that point southward to Ga. Highway 85, will be four lanes wide.
Some Peachtree City residents fear the McIntosh Village project will clog peak commuting traffic on Ga. Highway 74 if the city allows the TDK Boulevard to be extended into Coweta County. The development would be located off the road extension and also would have access to Ga. Highway 154 in Coweta County, which is currently a two-lane road with no pending state funds to be widened in the near future.
Peachtree City has filed a lawsuit challenging a regional agency’s decision that the bridge over Line Creek for the TDK extension should be four lanes wide when the city only has enough right-of-way acquired for two lanes to be built from the bridge to the current terminus of TDK Boulevard. Peachtree City Mayor Harold Logsdon said the road will be built as “two lanes, or no lanes.”
No council vote was taken Thursday on the transportation plan, which will be used to help plan for future road improvements.
The plan provides analysis of existing data for traffic flow at significant intersections in the city. That data was extrapolated to calculate projections for future traffic both with certain transportation improvement projects. The projections encompass a period all the way up to the year 2025.
The plan grades intersections on a scale similar to those issued to schoolchildren: A through F, with A being excellent and F being failing. The city is aiming to have its intersections meet at a minimum the D rating, which means that one vehicle will wait between 35 and 55 seconds before it can proceed through the intersection.
According to the data, before the widening of Hwy. 54 was completed, the intersection of Hwys. 54 and 74 was rated an “F” in the morning and an “E” during the afternoon peak hour commutes.
The data also showed that the intersection of Hwy. 74 and Georgian Park being rated an “F” but Borkowski said that traffic count was taken before the city installed a light there because of the Kedron Village shopping center expansion, which included a big box Target store.