Interchange Justification Report approved by Feds

Coweta County officials received notification late Tuesday (January 8) that the proposed I-85 interchange at Poplar Road has cleared another hurdle. The interchange has been approved by the Federal Highway Administration division of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The Georgia division of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) had already approved the Poplar Road report, but because Coweta County is in the Atlanta Transportation Management Area, the project also had to be approved by the Washington D.C. office. FHWA stated in their letter to Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Gena Abraham that “the addition of a diamond interchange on I-85 at Poplar Road is acceptable.”

“This project has been in the works for a long time and we are very excited that it is moving forward,” said Tavores Edwards, transportation planner for Coweta County. “Now we face the challenge of securing the dollars to make it a reality.”

This approval allows the project to move forward and for funding to be sought. The interchange is included in the Atlanta Regional Commission's Envision 6 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) that was adopted in 2007 with engineering, right-of-way, and construction planned in the 2014-2020 time frame. The programming of the project in the RTP is a critical step in the project development, but this is a placeholder.

The county must work with its state and regional transportation partners to get the project programmed in the short-range Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for funding. There are no funds dedicated at this time for construction of the new interchange, which is expected to be roughly $30 million to construct. This project requires 100% local funding for the preliminary engineering and right of way acquisition and a match of 20% for construction.

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