|
Subscribe!
770-267-8371
|
|
Thursday
September 2, 2010
|
|
|
|
Marketplace
|
|
Sections
|
|
Service Center
|
|
 |
|
Highway 138 project gets another shot
Published August 12, 2009
MONROE — The original scope of the project has changed a number of times and hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars have already been spent, but there finally seems to be a glimmer of hope for the proposed Highway 138 extension.
“This project will be dead if we do nothing,” Walton County Board of Commissioners Chairman Kevin Little said during a commission meeting last week.
County officials voted 4-1 to approve $54,000 for engineering costs for a new design, the latest chapter in the ongoing saga.
The 1.6-mile Highway 138 extension, also known as Charlotte Rowell Boulevard, has been in the works since August 2004. In June 2005, Georgia Department of Transportation officials partnered with Walton County where design and right of way acquisition would be taken care of locally while the state would help with construction funding. The original scope of the project was for a two-lane road extending Highway 138 from where it currently ends at Highway 78 and extend it to Highway 11.
In 2006, Monroe has contributed $50,000 for design, with a sizable portion of the project contained within the city limits. On Tuesday, the city council was expected to approve an additional $54,000 for engineering.
In October 2005, GDOT pushed project design toward three lanes, with enough room for future expansion to five lanes. This was based on a long-range goal by the state of expanding the highway in coming years. GDOT approved the concept in April 2006, and the county proceeded with preliminary design and completion of environmental studies.
Then the economy started taking a turn for the worse, funding became more limited at the federal and state level and GDOT funds started drying up. The Highway 138 project was delayed until funding could be identified.
State, county and city officials met on occasion through 2007-08 to identify possible funding.
Earlier this year, with federal stimulus money available for “shovel- ready” projects, hope was renewed at the local level.
With design-related activities almost complete for three lanes, Walton County officials again took the project to the state for approval with their sights set on federal stimulus funds. Although the project received support at the state level, the Federal Highway Administration indicated traffic volume did not warrant the construction of three lanes and the project must be re-designed. State and local officials tried to get the project passed by allowing grading for three lanes and then paving only two, allowing for use of the current designs, but the feds ruled against the attempt.
The ruling added to the frustration local officials have had with the project, having gone full circle from the original plans of a two-lane road.
“Is this the last money we have to spend on this?” Commissioner Clinton Ayers asked when the matter came up for a vote at the meeting last week. “How much money are we going to have to keep spending on this?”
GDOT has included funding for the project in its 2010 budget, but the county must re-design the project. Monroe officials also approved matching funding last week for the re-design. All told the two entities have spent more than $250,000 on just the design aspects of the project.
Once the designs are approved, a local match will be required for the projected $4.6 million project. County officials indicated they will use $1.2 million in monies from the Atlanta Regional Commission to re-surface local roads, freeing up Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax funds to pay for the highway expansion.
“We thought this project was shovel ready,” Little said. “But the feds showed us we weren’t. So now we are going to change the scope of the bypass again and try to get the project approved again.”
Once funding is approved and construction starts, officials estimated it would take 12 to 18 months to finish the project.
Share |
Save |
Mail |
Print
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
