Because of rapidly deteriorating pavement, Peachtree City officials plan to completely repave the section of Crosstown Drive from Peachtree Parkway to Ga. Highway 74. The project will cost an estimated $230,000 and will involve grinding up the existing roadbed to form a new surface.
“There is potholing on the road,” Public Works Director Mark Caspar told the city council last week. “… It’s also such a highly traveled road.”
Coming up for road repair funding this year will be more challenging for the city because the city’s funds from the 2004 countywide transportation sales tax are almost completely extinguished. One concept that has been floated is putting a general obligation bond on the referendum for voter approval.
Another perhaps simpler method of raising the funds would be via further budget cuts or a property tax increase, given that the sales tax funds, along with state and federal grants, have covered the funding of nearly all road repair and improvements in the city since 2005 at least, resulting in a savings to the general fund and thus city property taxpayers.
While that shifting of the road repair burden to the sales tax resulted in a number of out-of-county shoppers paying into the process, those tax collections are over and the burden is almost certain to shift back to city property owners in one form or another.
Councilman Eric Imker suggested making an appeal to the Fayette County Commission to release funds to the city since the commission is expected to cancel some of the remaining projects it had targeted for SPLOST spending, including the third phase of the West Fayetteville Bypass.
If the county could be convinced to do so, it potentially could cover several years of road repair in the city, Imker said.
As for Crosstown Drive, the city also plans to replace stormwater pipe underneath the road that also is deteriorating, Caspar said. The project has the potential to cause problems not just for commuters who use Crosstown to access south Peachtree City but also for the businesses along Crosstown including those in the Braelinn Village shopping center.
This section of Crosstown is on the city’s list of roads considered to be in the “worst” condition. The other half of Crosstown, stretching from Peachtree Parkway to Robinson Road, is also on that list with a price tag of $349,000.
Rounding out the list are Rolling Green, Westpark Drive, Hilltop Drive (west), Clover Reach from Clover Green to Hwy. 74, Commerce Drive from Westpark to Aberdeen Drive and Southworth Court; these projects have a combined estimated price tag of $268,000.
In addition to the roads in need of repair and repaving, the city also has a list of cart paths which need to be repaved this year. Just like its road system, the city uses a scoring rubric to determine which paths are in the worst condition and in need of the most immediate repair.
Those paths include:
• Robinson Road to Strathmore;
• Peachtree City United Methodist Church to Spear Road;
• Woodruff Way to path marker 0503;
• Path marker 1103 to Waterwood Bend;
• Path marker 15009 to 700 Westpark Drive;
• Path marker 2120 to Clifton Lane;
• Crofts Corner to path marker 0306;
• Path marker 0305 to Shetland Circle;
• Short path at Gables Court and Stevens Entry;
• Stonington Drive to Vanderwall;
• Path marker 1230 to Red Roan Court;
• Path marker 0317 to Welton Way;
• Fishers Luck to Peachtree Parkway; and
• Haddington Lane to Haddington Lane.
