Atlanta Road Construction Ready To Begin
Road improvements from Windy Hill Road to the Spring Road/Concord Road intersection are about to start. Plans for the road median and streetscape concept between the Spring Road/Concord Road intersection and Ridge Road are still being developed.
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Construction is set to begin on one section of scheduled Atlanta Road improvements, while another portion of the road median and streetscape concept is still in the planning stages.
Wade Lnenicka, council member Ward 6, explained that improvements along Atlanta Road from Windy Hill Road to the Spring Road/Concord Road intersection are about to start.
“My understanding is that project is getting ready to crank up soon,” he said. “That was funded a long time ago, five, six, seven years ago by federal funds; a grant that the city got. But it’s more than just the median. It’s landscaping and intersection improvements.”
Plans for improvements to Atlanta Road between the Spring Road/Concord Road intersection and Ridge Road are still being developed. A public hearing for this portion of the Atlanta Road median and streetscape concept was held in April. Citizens were allowed to make comments and ask questions, which are now being incorporated into the plans.
“Where that project stands, based on the feedback we got from the public hearing, the consulting engineer and the city engineer were going to make some revisions, bring those back to me and the council,’’ Lnenicka said. “What I promised at the first meeting is if these plans are going to change, we’d have another public hearing to unveil the revised plans before we go forward.
“I’m waiting for the engineers to get back to me with the revisions based on the citizens’ feedback and the suggestions that we got. I don’t know when that’s going to be. I hope fairly soon, this summer sometime.”
While the first phase of the Atlanta Road improvement (Windy Hill Road to Spring Road/Concord Road) was funded by a federal grant, the latter phase (Spring Road/Concord Road to Ridge Road) is funded by $2.7 million from the 1 percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) that was approved by Cobb County voters in 2005. It will include installing raised medians and designing and implementing intersection improvements.
According to studies conducted by the Georgia Department of Transportation, in urban and suburban areas, medians provide greater vehicle and pedestrian safety and reduce left turn movements and turning conflicts by up to 55 percent.
Rio
1:03 am on Saturday, July 9, 2011
Although I'm not excited about this work being done, I am thankful to see if getting off the ground. I live just off of Atlanta Road and this will directly impact my neighborhood. I want to thank the City Council, and Wade Lnenickea in paticular for taking the citizens of Smyrna's concerns and comments in to consideration during the planning process. Safety on our road is important and even though I'm not looking forward to the construction phase, I think it is needed and will be a positive impact on traffic and accident prevention.
mary kirkendoll
9:23 am on Saturday, July 9, 2011
HOW & WHY?????
HOW will a median along this good traffic flowing section of Atlanta Road help address Smyrnas immediate traffic NEEDS?
WHY would this city even concieve of BEGINNING another project,... if the excuse for Concord Roads debacle is LACK OF FUNDS??
I want to see a sidewalk w/ tree grates, & a decorative stone wall!
Do thses folks ever look @ a MAP & pinpoint PROBLEM areas?
FIRST & FOREMOST the city OWES its citizens to REPAIR the MESS on Concord ROAD!
2nd,... Windy Mac Connector is about to open! Has even one thing along Windy Hill been addressed to help move it through? New lane markings, keep moving lanes, updated crosswalks, synchronized & censored traffictlights?
Or will you think of addressing it (in the future)- which is already TOO LATE!! ..and NO, a 40 MILLION dollar boulevard was not the only solution to that issue!!
...then the 3rd area that needs immediate relief is the Cobb Parkway/Spring Road/Cumberland Blvd area! Rush hour traffic comes to a STANDSTILL!!.
there needs to be Smyrna police out there doing what they do in Sandy Springs- called TRAFFIC Patrol!! Move that traffic through that area,.. OFF the 285 ramp,.. keep it MOVING!! Make a plan there & TAKE ACTION!! 2 rt turn lanes off Cumberland to west on Spring in a NO-BRAINER!!
How can Smyrna attract quality business ,... if the only small portion of Smyrna that gets adnaseum attention,... is the vacant Market Village!!
Is there anyone on council that has any vision or fire any more??
Robin Tubbs
10:06 am on Monday, July 11, 2011
Thank you S Murphy for the clarification of who owns the Market Village. Some folks just want to blame the City for everything, and in fact it's the developer's choice to Lease as they see fit. Wake up call....we are in a bad economy. The reality is we will not see new businesses opening up until the economy improves. Let's improve our streets in order to increase traffic counts, which when the time is right , will attract more businesses.