Peachtree City’s new cart paths for the current fiscal year have been approved by the City Council.

Two of the path segments will link the northern end of Robinson Road to Ga. Highway 54, continuing on to the Peachtree East shopping center, where it will connect with the SteinMart store, said City Planner David Rast. The area along Hwy. 54 has been an unofficial cart path used by many residents even though it is unpaved.

Rast said he has gotten several requests for a path in the area so residents can have access to the shopping center. The path will be located on the edge of the right of way farthest from the highway, and landscaping will be installed along the highway to screen the lights of golf carts at night from being viewed by motorists on the highway.

The city is also looking into the possibility of erecting a bridge to cross the highway because currently golf carts are crossing from Lexington Circle to Peachtree East at the traffic light, Rast said.

Another new path will be built along Peachtree Parkway linking to Walt Banks Road. City Manager Bernie McMullen said that path, and the intersection improvements to those roads, is one of his top priorities on the path list.

“It is a big safety concern,” McMullen said, adding that he wanted to see the project done before the school year starts.

“As soon as you approve it, we’ll start it,” McMullen said.

It was noted that another path used by McIntosh High School students is quite steep and has been the site of several golf cart accidents. The use of golf carts at MHS has become such that the school built a special parking lot for golf carts; youngsters 15 and up can drive them if they have their Georgia learner’s driving permit.

New paths were also approved on two segments of Robinson Road: from Robinson Court to the Peachtree City United Methodist Church and from Spear Road to the Whitfield Farms subdivision.

Also included in the master path plan approved by council is the design of approach paths for the bridge over Flat Creek that will connect the Morallion Hills subdivision with a path that leads to the Gardner Park area of the city’s industrial park. Once the approaches are built, the city will also add a path that traverses southward to the FAA traffic control building that was funded in last year’s cart path budget, Rast said.

The approach paths will be built in 2007. They are necessary because federal guidelines required the city to build the bridge higher than expected to combat potential flooding of Flat Creek, officials said.

The widening of Ga. Highway 74 will cause the current path on the west side of the highway to be lost, and staff will evaluate other options in the area including the routing of the path along the Clover Reach business park, Rast said. One issue with that, however, will be the blending of carts and other path users with truck traffic, he noted.

“That’s a very busy golf cart path,” said Councilwoman Judi-ann Rutherford.

That section of the path connects with an at-grade crossing over Hwy. 74 that will become a tunnel once the widening project is done. The path leads northward to The Avenue shopping center.

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