The Fayette County Commission is poised to award a $3.4 million contract Thursday night for the completion of the second phase of the West Fayetteville Bypass, also known as Veterans Parkway.
The design includes a roundabout intersection at the bypass and Lees Mill Road and a new bridge over Whitewater Creek. This section of the road will begin at the current end on Sandy Creek Road, continuing to the north and east to Ga. Highway 92 North at West Bridge Road.
The entire stretch of road is about 2.8 miles long, almost all of which will be new road construction. The contract is expected to be approved — though not unanimously — at the commission’s 7 p.m. meeting Thursday at the county’s Stonewall government complex in downtown Fayetteville.
E.R. Snell Contractor, Inc. had the lowest of the seven bids received on the project. Funding is coming from the 2004 countywide transportation sales tax.
Once all three phases of the bypass are complete, motorists traveling up Ga. Highway 85 South will be able to avoid downtown Fayetteville and use Hwy. 92 to take several rural roads into Fulton County to reach Ga. Highway 138 and ultimately, Interstate 85.
The first phase of the bypass runs between Lester Road and Sandy Creek Road, crossing over Ga. Highway 54 at a new traffic light.
The third and final phase of the bypass will reach from Ga. Highway 85 South at Harp Road to the west and north, along part of Ebenezer Church Road and then the existing Lester Road.
Despite vocal opposition from a group of county residents — and repeated “no” votes on various bypass-related contracts from commissioners Steve Brown and Allen McCarty — work on the second phase of the bypass has shown no signs of slowing.
Brown and McCarty have been outvoted on bypass matters, which have been approved by Commissioners Robert Horgan, Lee Hearn and Herb Frady.
Brown and McCarty, who took office in January, failed to convince their fellow commissioners earlier this year to repurpose money from the transportation sales tax in an effort to reduce the county’s property tax levy.
Citizen critics of the proposal have taken to calling the West Fayetteville Bypass/Veterans Parkway “the road to nowhere.”
