GAINESVILLE – Hall County Public Works Director Ken Rearden will be “returning to the drawing board” after county commissioners told him that they wanted to change tactics on two north Hall intersection improvement plans.
Rearden was asked to bring to Thursday night’s voting meeting the design plans and pricing information for the Sardis Road/Ledan Road intersection and for the Jim Hood/Odum Smallwood intersection.
Rearden presented two conceptual designs for the Sardis/Ledan Road intersection: the first mirrored the long-sought Georgia DOT concept of four lanes, divided with turn lanes and signals. The cost for that was estimated at just over $3.8 million.
The downside of that plan was that once vehicles leave the four-lane intersection each road would quickly funnel-down to its existing two-lane status - moving the congestion, not solving it.
The second Sardis/Ledan design presented by Rearden carried a price tag of $810,000 and would see the installation of a round-about, maintaining the current two-lane traffic flow.
Rearden referred to this design as short term because it would eventually be replaced by the Georgia DOT’s plan mentioned above.
Commissioner Jeff Stowe said, “I hate to spend money temporarily and then in five or ten years they (GDOT) comes in and we’ve thrown away $800,000, but I’ve seen four lanes used in a round-about very effectively…could we potentially get them to design it using four-lanes?”
Commissioner Scoot Gibbs liked that suggestion. “I’d rather spend a million-two today then (have) a problem in five years on something I spent $800,000 on today.”
Rearden liked the suggestion. “That’s a really good idea. I think that’s something we would really like to take a look at.”
Rearden said he would contact the design team used by GDOT and see if they could help with a re-design for the county to install a four-lane round-about.
“The Sardis Connector is still on track…unfortunately for a road that we thought would be under construction today, realistically it’s still fifteen years out,” Gibbs said.
“I don’t want to be penny-wise and pound-foolish; like it or dislike it, more traffic is about to hit that area,” Gibbs added. “Something needs to be done.”
Commissioner Billy Powell made the motion to pursue a four-lane design for that intersection, it was approved unanimously, and Rearden will report back to the commission in just over a month.
The other intersection design under consideration, located at Jim Hood and Odum Smallwood Roads, experienced a similar fate.
Mt. Vernon Exploratory School is at that corner and traffic during school hours “is a disaster,” according to Gibbs. “It is dangerous up there, (school) buses going down the wrong side of the road.”
Rearden said the planned intersection improvements would cost just over $621,000.
Gibbs told Rearden, “Make sure you contact the school; make sure they’re going to donate the right-of-way on their side since they created the problem. The school helped create this issue; they need to help participate in fixing the problem.”
Gibbs made the motion for a redesign and it was approved unanimously.
TRIO OF TABLED ITEMS SENDS CROWD HOME EARLY
A larger-than-normal audience attended the meeting as several dozen people had signed up to comment on three agenda items that were subsequently tabled and moved to a later meeting.
Rezoning requests pertaining to a 166-lot subdivision on Buffington Farm Road, a 56-lot subdivision on Conner Road, and the Buford Corn Maze had drawn a lot of attention but were tabled until the April 27th meeting after three separate unanimous votes by commissioners.
In other commission action, a request to submit a pair of Substantial Amendments to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs for expanded involvement by Hall County in the NSP (Neighborhood Stabalization Program) were approved unanimously.
