The Peachtree City Council has voted to abandon a project to realign Huddleston Road with Dividend Drive in the city’s industrial park area.

Council also voted Thursday to approve the use of federal funds for transportation projects in three other areas of town.

City staff recommended ditching the Huddleston-Dividend project because it would cost an additional $226,000 to acquire “extensive” right of way.

Instead, the city plans to install right-turn lanes for Huddleston and Dividend to make it easier for large trucks and tractor trailers to turn onto the short stretch of Paschall Road that connects the two.

But one businessman located on Huddleston said that the project may still be needed despite the recent traffic counts done by the city. Earl Randall of Earl’s Quality Car Care said the widening of Ga. Highway 54 West has reduced the number of cars on Huddleston, but he thinks traffic will rise back to previous levels once the project is complete.

“It is going to pick back up,” Randall said, noting that city officials are trying to keep cut-through traffic from going through the nearby Planterra Ridge subdivision.

The council’s decision to abandon the federal money for the project was unanimous with Councilwoman Cyndi Plunkett absent.

The projects council approved the use of federal funds for include:

• Peachtree Parkway and Crosstown Road;

• Peachtree Parkway and Walt Banks Road; and

• A multi-use cart path along Ga. Highway 74 S.

The funds, which total $644,000, have already been approved by the Atlanta Regional Commission though the funds will come directly from the federal government.

City Manager Bernie McMullen added that the project for Peachtree Parkway and Crosstown Road will not involve a roundabout as initially suggested some time ago. McMullen said he expects that additional turn lanes might instead be necessary.

Council also has not yet decided what shape the improvements on Walt Banks Road and Peachtree Parkway will take. The intersection is near McIntosh High School and earlier this year staff proposed a roundabout for that intersection.

But several questions arose out of that meeting, including how the existing golf cart crossing on the parkway, currently located just south of the four-way stop, would safely be factored into the roundabout, which wouldn’t force autos to come to a full and complete stop.

That matter possibly might be heard by council at its April 20 meeting.

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