The Ga. Highway 92/Hood Avenue/Jeff Davis Connector project in Fayetteville has been approved for local funding but its status on the list of possible regional transportation sales tax projects to be decided by voters in July 2012 is not looking good at this point.
Meantime, the project is proceeding, with 30 percent of the design work complete and negotiations underway for property needed to link the three roadways.
The Hwy. 92/Hood Avenue/Jeff Davis Connector project will essentially serve as the city’s northside connector. The $7.9 million project funded by SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) dollars was previously approved by the Fayette County Commission.
The project also survived the first round of cuts made to the large list of regional transportation sales tax projects in the 10-county Atlanta Regional Commission area, but disappeared from the most recent list unveiled last week.
Fayetteville City Manager Joe Morton said recently, with the design phase of the project approximately 30 percent complete, negotiations with affected commercial property owners is ongoing.
Morton said if the northside connector project reappears on the list throughout the regional elimination process and if voters approve the regional transportation sales tax in July 2012 the balance of the SPLOST funds already allocated locally could be used for other priority transportation projects in the county.
If the July 2012 referendum does pass, however, the project would likely be slowed by about a year given the lag time between now and the subsequent time required to begin obtaining sales tax revenues, said Morton.
“One way or the other we’re continuing to move forward,” Morton said of the project.
Even if the regional sales tax vote is successful, the northside connector project would be well into the design and right-of-way acquisition phases, Morton added.
Project plans call for moving the traffic signal on Ga. Highway 85 (North Glynn Street) from Hwy. 92 a short distance south to the intersection with Hood Avenue. West on Hood Avenue just a short distance from North Glynn would be the location of a roundabout that would funnel traffic northeast and northwest onto Hwy. 92.
Motorists at the new traffic signal at Hood Avenue would be able to continue eastward across the intersection on what is proposed to be an extension of Kathi Avenue that would, via another roundabout, link with North Jeff Davis.
