GAINESVILLE –Development in Hall County is happening at such a strong pace that the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) asked the Gainesville-Hall Metropolitan Planning Organization (GHMPO) to update its current Transportation Improvement Program (TIP 2016-2019)) to better reflect growing transportation needs.
TIPs are four-year planning and spending strategies for transportation improvements as deemed necessary by various governing agencies within the planning area.
In accordance GHMPO staff presented an updated transportation spending plan (TIP 2018-2021) Wednesday morning and received unanimous approval from the first of three oversight committees, the GHMPO Technical Coordinating Committee.
Starting point for the updated plan begins with projected federal, state and local revenues for transportation projects during the 2018-2022 TIP period: $372-million.
Planned spending of those funds in the 2018-2022 TIP breaks down as follows: $164-million for new roadway projects, $17-million for transit projects and $191-million for lump sum projects. (Lump sum projects are more-upkeep in nature such as adding sidewalks, bridge rehabilitation work, re-pavement projects, etc.)
The 2018-2022 TIP will differ from the 2016-2019 TIP that it replaces in that projects completed under the old plan are eliminated and four new projects are being added.
The new additions to the long-range (20-year) plan so they can be added to the short-range TIP 2018-2022 include the following:
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Railroad crossing on Tumbling Creek Road
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Widening Old Winder Highway/SR211 from SR 124 to Friendship Road/SR347
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Replacement of a bridge on Thompson Bridge Road/SR60 at the Chattahoochee River
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Widening I-985 from I-85 to Mundy Mill Road/SR53
“In a nutshell we are amending our plan, adding four projects…and it will cover from 2018 to 2021,” said Transportation Planning Manager Sam Baker.
Oakwood City Manager Stan Brown asked about the timetable for the Tumbling Creek bridge project, since it was being added to the 2018-2022 TIP. “It shows construction in FY20 (2020), is that correct? I thought it was going to be a part of the current year.”
Hall County Engineer Denise Farr explained the later-than-promised startup date as, “We’re still waiting for the railroad approval (Norfolk Southern) so we’re being a little bit conservative.”
Farr said she expected a response from the railroad well ahead of the 2020 startup date listed in the TIP document. “We’re hoping to start at the end of 2017…we’re holding our breath for the railroad,” she said.
Baker said after the 2018-2022 TIP is approved it could be amended to change startup dates on any of the projects it covered.
The 2018-2022 TIP now awaits the approval of the GHMPO Citizens’ Advisory Committee on July 27th and from the GHMPO Policy Committee on August 8th before being sent to the GDOT.
OTHER TRAFFIC CONCERNS
1 - GHMPO Citizen Advisory Committee Chairman Wayne Stradley said his group had formed a subcommittee to study the need for, and possibility of, a connector traveling east-west across northern Hall County.
“We call ourselves the North Hall Parkway Committee,” Stradley said. Stradley said taking traffic off Green Street in Gainesville, especially commercial traffic, was one of the priorities in considering a northern bypass.
Stradley said he had learned something surprising recently. “Fieldale runs a billion pounds of chicken a year up and down Green Street. Mayor Dunagan (Gainesville Mayor Danny Dunagan) told me a hundred to 100-120 trucks a day. I couldn’t believe it; I was floored.”
“I was told one day (by Fieldale management) it was 200. They want off Green Street as bad as anybody else!”
“We’re looking at all kinds of alternatives and possibilities,” Stradley added.
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2- Hall County Engineer Denise Farr offered an update on a northwest Hall County project.
“The Sardis Road Connector, we’ve started that again,” Farr said. “We hope to start acquiring property beginning late 2019 and we estimate that will be two to three years of acquiring property.”
“GDOT will be doing the construction for that project and we’re thinking that construction could begin as early as 2022,” she said.
On a more immediate note she reported that construction on the Sardis-Ledan Road round-about was underway, and, “the road will be closed to the public Monday, July 31st, and we expect that project to be completed sometime the end of September or early October.”
