The proposed “gateway” cart path bridge that would span Ga. Highway 54 West near the entrance to the Wynnmeade subdivision may not get past the design stage.
The cost estimate of $618,000 is more than five years old, and the city’s consulting engineering firm is preparing an estimate and preliminary design for the project. Of that figure, $480,000 would come from a grant from Georgia’s Livable Centers Initiative program, with the remaining $138,000 coming from the city’s Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenues.
The design may cost $50,000 but possibly less as city staff will ask the consultants to focus on preparing the cost estimate first, noted City Manager Bernie McMullen.
“I have some real concern about what that bridge is going to cost,” said Councilwoman Judi-ann Rutherford. Mayor Harold Logsdon added that he agreed with Rutherford’s concern.
McMullen said it was possible that the grant money for the bridge could be re-purposed for another project, but that would take special permission from state officials.
In a recent meeting, City Planner David Rast said that relocating the bridge from property from the Wynnmeade entrance far closer to MacDuff Parkway would likely result in a significant cost savings because the topography of that land is better. The land on both sides of the road is owned by private developers: one will be the site of an Applebee’s restaurant. Both developers have expressed interest in cooperating with the project, Rast said.
That would nullify one of the main reasons the city purchased two tracts on either side of the entrance to the Wynnmeade subdivision for $840,000 several years ago. It was also purchased to protect that land from future commercial development, then-Mayor Steve Brown noted at the time.