State transportation officials will host an open house Monday night for Forsyth County residents to discuss five proposed projects to improve SR 20 between I-575 and GA-400.
The open house will be held at Otwell Middle School, located at 605 Tribble Gap Road in Cumming from 5-7 p.m.
State Route 20 has exceeded its capacity and multiple improvements are needed to improve mobility and enhance safety from I-575 in Cherokee County to GA 400 in Forsyth County according to Department of Transportation Communications Officer Katie Strickland.
"Its a span of 24 miles in that corridor between Cherokee County and Forsyth County that has five projects planned. We want people to come out to the open house and tell us a little more about the land, giving us comments, information and giving residents a chance to look at proposed options to relieve congestion, increase mobility and improve safety along that 24 mile stretch," said Strickland.
The DOT will present a refined concept alternative to address comments heard in the December 2016 Public Information Open Houses to widen SR 20 along its existing route. A series of public meetings have been held, but additional input is still being sought in this public information open house.
According to Strickland, that stretch of GA 20 is already seeing a growth in commuters, and is about to see even more.
"The growth just from 1985 to 2015, in Forsyth alone, the county grew 525 percent. It is insane.Cherokee County population grew 255 percent," she said.
"We did a study back in 2013 and just on the morning commute it indicated that the total drive time will go from 38 minutes to an hour and a half if nothing is done by the year 2040. That is an increase of 194 percent in travel time."
The project information and displays at the public information open house will also be available for review online.
The Open House will be informal and the public is invited to attend anytime between 5 and 7 p.m.
