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Snellville Infrastructure: Unlocking the Gridlock
By Jerry | August 13, 2007
When the bridge collapse tragedy in Minnesota hit the news two weeks ago, it stirred up a lot of discussion nationwide on infrastructure growth and maintenance. As a licensed Civil Engineer with over 25 years of experience, I understand the great importance of community infrastructure, and the importance of being able to secure funding to make sure our infrastructure is safe, and fulfills our ever growing needs.
Here in Snellville, our needs grow every year. If you take time and can navigate your way around Georgia’s State Traffic And Report Statistics site, you’ll find the number of cars traveling through Snellville everyday grows each year. To save you some time, I’ll note the traffic counts of a few of the busiest intersections here in Snellville:
- 124 at Wisteria Drive: 49,870 cars a day!
- 78 at Wisteria Drive:35,310
- 78 at City Hall: 33,230
- 124 at Ronald Reagan: 26,300
But Mayor, I don’t need to see the numbers to know that traffic in Snellville is BAD, what are you doing about it? Well as anyone can tell you, when it comes to dealing with the Georgia Department of Transportation, it takes time and money. Neither of which Snellville has a lot to spare. But we have made steps in the right direction. Here’s what we’ve done:
- GDOT is currently expanding their Automated Transportation Management System (ATMS) to include US 78 and GA 124. This means traffic cameras, and fiber optic cables connecting all of the traffic lights together down 124. They then will be able to adjust the timing of our traffic signals to better handle traffic loads during the day.
- Snellville and Gwinnett County have both invested $1 Million EACH for the study and redesign of the US 78 / GA 124 Intersection.
- Most of the options on the table include a “grade separation” of both roads. This means one road would go under the other and create some sort of parkway-style intersection. (Trust me, it will NOT look like the West Park Place “fly over”)
- The design phase will be completed by 2009
- The original cost of rebuilding the intersection was $58 Million, but with the rise in oil prices recently, that cost will go up
- The Evermore CID has secured funding to create access roads along US 78 to separate the local shopping traffic from the thru-traffic. This is in conjunction with the current median project about to get underway.
While we are making progress here on the local level, I am worried that support for quality design and development on the state level is beginning to wane. Recently I was at a meeting here in Gwinnett where a high ranking State Official was the guest speaker. As a Civil Engineer and your Mayor, I paid close attention to his words when discussing transportation and roadways. What he said next concerned me about the future of our highways, he stated that he thought the State of Georgia was spending too much money on the engineering phase of roadway construction. He suggested that the state needed to be more efficient by combining the design and construction phases.
There are many pros and cons to this sort of combination, but after the events in Minnesota, I can safely say that no amount spent on engineering is too much when it comes to the safety and reliability of our public infrastructure. As Mayor, I will continue my fight to get Snellville the funding it needs to create the best infrastructure in the state.
What are your thoughts on traffic and infrastructure in Snellville? What more can I do as your Mayor to help make Snellville safer and less congested?
Topics: Thoughts |
August 24th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
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