The Fayetteville hospital crosswalk and paths project slated for Ga. Highway 54 in front of Piedmont Fayette Hospital and including up to 8,500 feet of multi-use paths extending through Togwatee Village to the south and along Lester Road moved a step closer to reality March 15 when the City Council gave staff approval to negotiate a fee for service arrangement with consulting firm URS Corp.
City Director of Planning and Economic Development Brian Wismer said URS scored the highest of four companies that responded to the Request for Qualifications for preliminary engineering services. The scoring criteria included issues such as experience, qualifications and familiarity with the project site.
The $400,000 award through the Ga. Dept. of Transportation-administered federal Transportation Enhancement (TE) program announced last year will fund the design and construction of an improved pedestrian-friendly crosswalk on Hwy. 54 between the Piedmont Fayette Hospital and the Togwatee Village retail and residential area.
The project could connect hundreds of homes along Lester Road near the Cleveland Elementary School and Bennett’s Mill Middle School areas to the Togwatee Village site immediately to the north.
Funding permitting, 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.
Eighty percent of the consulting engineering fee for service will be paid from the TE grant. That fee is estimated to range from $75,000-150,000.
The city’s 20 percent match will come from existing local 1-cent sales tax funds.
Construction for the project could be as far away as 2014.
