It may take some time before the funds are released, but in the end there will be a new pedestrian-friendly look to the area around Piedmont Fayette Hospital and beyond.
The Fayetteville City Council on Oct. 6 approved a memorandum of understanding for a $400,000 project that will install an enhanced crosswalk on Ga. Highway 54 at the hospital and 8,500 feet of multi-use paths extending through the Togwotee Village
retail area across from the hospital, effectively linking it with additional multi-use paths to be constructed in the area of Lester Road to the south.
City Public Services Director Don Easterbrook said the $400,000 award through the Ga. Dept. of Transportation-administered federal Transportation Enhancement program will fund the design and construction of an improved pedestrian-friendly crosswalk on Hwy. 54 between the Piedmont Fayette Hospital and the Togwotee Village retail and residential area.
The project is also expected to connect hundreds of homes along Lester Road near the Cleveland Elementary School and Bennett’s Mill Middle School areas to the Togwotee Village site immediately to the north, Easterbrook said.
Funding permitting, the plan also calls for the installation of sidewalks along Lester Road linking the schools with nearby subdivisions. Additionally, the concept plan also 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 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.
“Our goal with this project is to provide a new crosswalk that feels safer. The current crosswalk between the hospital and Togwotee Village requires a pedestrian to cross the entire Hwy. 54 roadway in a single cycle time of 35 to 40 seconds. We are considering a pedestrian refuge island in the Hwy. 54 median. This will allow people to cross halfway on one traffic light cycle and the other half on the next cycle,” Easterbrook said.
“The project also includes cart paths to connect several hundred homes in the Lester Road area to the new crosswalk. This linkage across Hwy. 54 is important now and will become even more important in the future as the hospital area grows.”
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.
The city’s 20 percent match will come from existing local 1-cent sales tax funds.
