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.
