Good news for the golf cart

In an effort to be good citizens and reduce our country’s energy dependence, we’re using our golf cart for almost every errand: church, choir practice, shopping, working out and doctor’s visits. We often congratulate ourselves for living in a town where we can get just about anything we need, by foot or bicycle, or by our trusty little buggy. That is, as long as our destination is in the north end of Ga. Highway 74 South.

Living in southern Peachtree City as we do, I thought the highway construction work was a real headache – until I realized that it was also an opportunity to install a means of crossing the state road by tunnels or bridge. Once the bulldozers start rearranging the soil it’s too late to propose crossings.

Several months ago I made a few inquiries about the plans and regret to report that I got no assurance that any kind of crossing was in them. A recent e-mail to the mayor and city council got the response I was hoping for, in a two-page single-spaced letter from David Rast, head of the Planning Department. The news was so good I can’t resist passing it on to Citizen readers.

(First a disclaimer. For a writer who really does like research, it was not bright for me to ignore the information on the city’s website. It’s all there, at www.Peachtree-City.org. I guess what I wanted were specifics explained in lay terms. And I got ’em.)

Rast said the city met with the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) to identify the need for access between the east and west sides of Hwy. 74 South, stipulating that there would be no at-grade crossings.

There will be a new tunnel under Hwy. 74 South at Paschall Road, replacing the at-grade crossing that used to be there, and the Kelly Drive tunnel will remain in place, maybe getting spruced up a little. (That last wish was mine, hoping someone cleans up the defaced walls and rough paving.)

The city refers to the parcel of road from the Hwy. 74 / Ga. Highway 54 intersection to Crosstown Road as Phase One, and expects to have it finished in October. Planners are nearly done with realigning and replacing the cart paths that connect with the rest of the system.

But the southern end of the expansion of Hwy. 74 South is what concerns me most. We enjoy visiting Falcon Field, especially for air shows, and lots of our friends spend whole days at the various sports fields thereabouts. Not to mention that GilRoy’s Hardware Store is inaccessible from our side of town.

Rast writes:

“I am happy to report that we will have two additional multi-use tunnels underneath SR 74 South, one connecting the proposed Hannon Sports Complex (immediately south of FAA) to the South 74 Baseball and Soccer Complex. Additionally, we will have a tunnel connecting the property immediately south of the Rite Aid at Wilshire Pavilion to the city’s recycling center tract.

“A path from this tunnel will then connect to another multi-use tunnel that will be installed underneath Rockaway Road and will provide access to the Wilshire Village retail and Somerby at Peachtree City developments.”

Two of the tunnels will be constructed by GDOT and the other by a private developer. Rast also described a network of “multi-use paths,” as the city likes to call cart paths, interconnecting numerous industries on the south end of Hwy. 74 South. He wanted me to note that most of this very ambitious expansion project is still unfunded, and may appear as part of the SPLOST question on the ballot in November.

We haven’t gone down to see the multi-use path that bridges Flat Creek, but Rast says it is essentially complete. I know at least one Morallion Hills resident who is looking forward to riding his bike to work at the FAA center.

And last but by no means least, Rast says another of my pet projects is going to happen. Residents who have taken to travel by golf cart take their lives in their hands when they do so on Dividend Drive in the Industrial Park. At certain times of the day, traffic is heavy and very fast. A golf cart wouldn’t stand a chance against a car.

Rast says: “We are also working on plans for a multi-use path that will connect the future multi-use tunnel at the BSC to Cooper Lighting and ultimately to Dividend Drive, where we have identified a path connection extending the entire length of Dividend Drive and Huddleston Road.”

Thank you, David Rast, for the good news. For aesthetic reasons I’d like at least one of the three projected tunnels to be a bridge like the one at Aberdeen. And a tunnel at Crosstown Drive would be perfect. We’ll take what we can get, and with appreciation.