Concord Road project moving ahead "full bore"

The Concord Road Improvement project approved in the 2005 SPLOST may be taking some time to complete, but Smyrna City Administrator Eric Taylor and City Engineer Keith Williams assured Patch recently that it is moving ahead “full bore.”

Concord Road actually has a pair of projects set to be completed with monies used from the 1-cent 2005 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax and the 2011 SPLOST. From the older SPLOST, $3,335,000 has been dedicated to the Concord Road Trail/Streetscape project, which will provide a multi-use trail on the north side of the road between Atlanta Road and South Cobb Drive; and $5,280,000 for the widening of Concord Road to include turning lanes and median between Spring Road and South Cobb.

The City of Smyrna’s website and one provided by the county outline this info and amounts used to cover the full design and most of the Right of Way acquisition. Funding from the 2005 SPLOST does not cover construction of the project as that funding, $11,755,00, is to come from 2011 SPLOST money.

Taylor and Williams both agreed that the reason for the seemingly endless duration of the project is the number of properties that have to be purchased by the city for right-of-way in order to complete it. Thirty-nine lots have to be acquired, while more than 40 partial land acquisitions have to be made.

Williams said that 38 of the 39 total takes have actually been completed, while the number of partial acquisitions increases with each week. That said, however, there is no way to predict when all the purchasing process will be complete.

“I would love to say we will be done with right of way a year from now but I can absolutely make no guarantee whatsoever on that,” Williams said. “It’s up the property owners and how they want to handle it.”

With that in mind, Williams explained that the amount of time it takes for all of the acquisitions, not a lack of funding, is the issue that has the project bogged down. The city has each property appraised according to fair market values and, even if the property owners agree to that amount, the process still takes a couple of months to complete. When considering that over 70 parcels of land, either full or partial, have to be acquired, the process will continue for a while longer.

“You still have to draw up all the legals, actually close on the property and get it all recorded,” Williams said. “Then, numerous times people come back with a counter offer or relocation. It doesn't matter how much money we have in the bank right now, we couldn't start construction because we are not done with the right of way acquisition. We've been moving full bore on that for years now and that’s just how long it takes to do it.”

The negotiation process for each parcel is indeed long and arduous, which is hampered even further by the downturn in the economy, Taylor said.

“Keep in mind that since we acquired the first property the market has bottomed out. All the sudden there is a difference in property values so those negotiations change.”

Even so, Taylor called Concord Road the highest priority of the tier one SPLOST projects and said that final plans are being developed now so that when construction can begin more swiftly once all the property is finally acquired.

“That doesn’t take overnight but we are moving forward with it,” he said.