| MATS - Policy - Committee 06-22-2010 | ||
|
|
||
Citizens gave a short comment about the migration out of Macon/Bibb Telegraph story last week and then mentioned the Zebulon Road story in Sunday’s paper. Mentioned idea about walking from one part of the Zebulon Rd “Village” to the other side of The ROAD “Village”. [more like a "Village for Cars"] CAC Chair - Jaime Webb, in his comments to the TIP agenda item, referenced other citizens remarks. Joe Allen was complaining about the airport funding being way out in 2014 when we left. He wants that airport runway lengthened by 2000 feet now, but this project may become another destructive and expensive big-contractor {Moreland} boondoggle... Susan referenced how good the DOT/Senator Brown meeting at Forest Hill Rd was for the citizens. Sam Hart is now Chair, and he does not conduct as efficient (Roberts Rules) a meeting as Robert Reichert. There was no one there from Jones County. |
| |
||
|
MATS-Policy meeting is reported
by Telegraph
Wednesday, Jun. 23, 2010
p3B
Forest Hill
Road back on transportation plans
By MIKE STUCKA - mstucka@macon.com http://www.macon.com/2010/06/23/1172058/forest-hill-road-back-on-transportation.html Widenings of Forest Hill Road and Jeffersonville Road are back on the area’s transportation plan, but a faltering economy means the construction of many road projects will be years away. The Transportation Improvement Plan was approved by a wide margin in Tuesday’s meeting of the Macon Area Transportation Study, a regional planning group. The only dissenting vote came from Jaime Webb, who said the Citizens Advisory Committee he chairs was united against the projects because they didn’t have fresh ideas. Webb said a proposal to add a constant left-turn lane to Jeffersonville Road was unsafe and left out opportunities for a landscaped divider. Webb said the plan didn’t have enough pedestrian-friendly designs or support for public transit. Forest Hill Road advocates have long fought efforts to widen that road. Construction on Forest Hill Road isn’t slated to begin until at least 2014. It would be widened to three lanes between Wimbish Road and Northside Drive for $9.8 million, a wider bridge over Sabbath Creek for $416,000, and a widening from two lanes to four, with some left turn lanes, between Vineville Avenue and Wimbish Road at a cost of $9.4 million in construction and another $12 million for right-of-way acquisitions. Jeffersonville Road is moving slower than that. Local officials hope to widen the road to four through-lanes and a continuous turn lane. They would buy rights-of-way from Emery Highway to Walnut Creek for $3.5 million, spend $9.7 million for rights-of-way between Walnut Creek and Recreation Road, plus a stretch of Millerfield Road to Bristol Drive, and would spend $1.2 million for property acquisitions from Recreation Road to Emery Highway and Riggins Mill Road. Actual road construction for Jeffersonville Road is not in the current Transportation Improvement Plan, which covers the next four years. The full plan has been posted on the Macon-Bibb Planning & Zoning Commission’s Web site, maconbibbpz.org. No comments were received during a monthlong public comment period. Separately, the board voted Tuesday to add three “proposed illustrative projects,” with no funding identified, to area transportation plans. The state is already working to connect Interstate 75 to Sardis Church Road, then Avondale Mill Road, near an industrial area and an airport, to Ga. 247. For $178 million, local officials want to build a connector from Ga. 247 across a swamp to Interstate 16 and Sgoda Road in Twiggs County. Macon Mayor Robert Reichert also seeks $18 million to turn Second Street into a tree-lined boulevard from Richard Penniman Boulevard to I-16, through the heart of downtown Macon. Another proposal for $750,000 would reroute trucks away from downtown onto Seventh Street. James Thomas, executive director of Macon-Bibb County Planning and Zoning Commission, said the area’s long-range transportation plan was finished before the recession, so actual revenue will be lower than projections and the plan can’t be completed on time. To accommodate any new projects such as the Sardis Church Road-to-Sgoda Road connector, older projects would have to be eliminated or delayed further, he said. To contact writer Mike Stucka, call 744-4251 |
||
| |
A meeting of a regional planning organization — Macon Area Transportation Study — offered a way for Macon and Bibb County leaders to, er, build some bridges. Macon
Mayor Robert Reichert was pushing for a runway expansion of the Middle
Georgia Regional Airport when County Commissioner Joe Allen said he
didn’t know whether the city had sought federal funding. “Bibb County and city commissioners are 100 million miles
apart,” Allen said. Allen said the expansion is important to get traffic from
Savannah’s ports. “You’re singing my song,” Reichert replied. City and county officials also agreed to share more information about public transit efforts. |
|
|
|
||
|
|