Coweta County officials said Tuesday that last week’s vote by the Peachtree City Council to not build the extension of TDK Boulevard

won’t stop them from making progress on the road.

“We still think this is a very important part of the regional transportation plan and hope that eventually all parties will come to that conclusion,” said Coweta County Administrator Theron Gay.

Gay said the county has done some preliminary grading on the property, and believes the road is a crucial part of connectivity in the region.

“We’re trying to work with everybody and McIntosh Village will develop whether that road is built or not,” he added.

The administrator noted that there is a contract between DOT and Fayette County to build the bridge on the road, and hopes that differences will soon be settled.Even though the Peachtree City Council has voted to halt the proposed extension of TDK Boulevard into Coweta County, there still is a chance the project could be revived in the future.

The Peachtree City Council voted unanimously last Thursday night to halt all city work on the controversial TDK Extension, which drew heat earlier this year when it was revealed that a developer in Coweta County wanted to build a 3,100-home subdivision whose residents would most likely have used the extension to access Ga. Highway 74 for daily commutes. The Coweta County Commission already has approved the subdivision, called McIntosh Village.

Many Peachtree City residents worried the new development would choke traffic on Hwy. 74 and they clamored for the road extension to be stopped in its tracks.

The Georgia Department of Transportation could conceivably build a similar project by extending a nearby state highway such as Ga. Highway 154, Mayor Harold Logsdon suggested at Thursday’s council meeting. Logsdon quickly added that he doesn’t think that would happen at least in part to the current money crunch for state road projects.

It’s also possible that a future city council could decide to build the road, and the current council also could reconsider its decision at some point if it wished, City Attorney Ted Meeker agreed.

A reversal from the current council is unlikely simply because the city is releasing the county from its funding obligation to build the road so the money can be used for other needed projects.

Several council members indicated they would like to see the road reconsidered in future years once Coweta County improves its access to the interstate in the area.

Halting the TDK Extension is not without risk, however. The Georgia Regional Transportation Authority is requiring that the road to be built as part of its approval for the massive McIntosh Village project in Coweta, but the city has sued GRTA challenging its authority to force the city to build the TDK bridge at four lanes.

Technically, GRTA has the ability to withhold any state or federal transportation funds for Peachtree City if the city fails to meet the requirements by not building the TDK Extension. Logsdon and several council members have said they only want the bridge to have two lanes for traffic to keep Hwy. 74 from becoming bogged down with traffic from Coweta.

- Coweta Editor John Thompson contributed to this story.

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