It will take a while but a $400,000 federal award from the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) will bring sidewalks, multi-use paths and a re-worked pedestrian crossing in the area of Piedmont Fayette Hospital and Togwotee Village on Ga. Highway 54 West and on to the Lester Road residential area to the south.
City Public Services Director Don Easterbrook said the $400,000 award through the GDOT-administered federal Transportation Enhancement program will fund the design and construction of an improved pedestrian crossing on Hwy. 54 between the Piedmont Fayette Hospital and Togwotee Village retail and residential area. The project is also expected to connect hundreds of homes along Lester Road to the Togwotee Village area, Easterbrook said.
The initial concept plan shows the installation of sidewalks on the south side of Hwy. 54 from Lester Road on the west to the area of Sandy Creek Road to the east.
The concept plan also shows a multi-use path that extends to the south of the Togwotee Village commercial and retail area and intersecting with Lester Road just east of the Bennett’s Mill Middle School/Cleveland Elementary School area. Funds permitting, the plan shows the potential for sidewalks to extend along both directions on Lester Road.
Easterbrook said the project will take some time to accomplish. Request for proposal letters will have to go out followed by a design phase that could take approximately one year. Actual construction could be as far away as 2014.