NOTE: This story corrects a version that appeared in the Wednesday, March 9 printed edition of The Citizen
In its pursuit of county funding for a golf cart bridge, the Peachtree City Council has abandoned its quest for improvements at the intersection of Peachtree Parkway and Crosstown Road.
Last week council voted unanimously to sack the intersection project.
Instead council is hoping to convince the county to fund a $1.68 million “gateway” cart path bridge that would span Ga. Highway 54 at the western city limits. It would connect a path along MacDuff Parkway to the Shoppes at the Village Piazza shopping center.
Council wants the bridge to be funded with the countywide portion of funding from the 2003 Transportation SPLOST.
That will require a majority vote of the Fayette County Commission, which will take up the matter at a future meeting.
Councilman Eric Imker said the city hasn’t had any projects funded yet with the countywide portion of the 2003 transportation sales tax.
“If we don’t get to spend it here, guess where they will spend it: the same location as other projects such as the East Fayetteville Bypass,” Imker said. “So we want to get a piece of the pie.”
The gateway bridge would serve about 1,400 registered golf carts in the area, according to city staff.
Path users can currently access the shopping center via cart path, but those coming from MacDuff Parkway have to use the bridge-tunnel system at the CSX railroad tracks before heading back west through the Planterra Ridge subdivision to reach the Shoppes at the Village Piazza, according to City Engineer David Borkowski.
There had been various proposals for improvements to .the Crosstown-Parkway intersection including a traffic light with additional turn lanes, a roundabout or the turn lanes without a traffic light.
A handful of citizens who live in the area spoke out against the project, with some worrying that improvements would bring increased traffic.
City staff had presented information on a potential roundabout for the intersection, which would have cost $685,000 and had the side effect of backing up southbound traffic on the parkway as it entered the intersection.
The addition of a host of turn lanes would have cost north of $1 million, and adding a traffic signal to that mix would have added about another $200,000.
