Travel through the downtown area of Fayetteville has long been a traffic log jam at the intersection of Ga. highways 85 and 54. While there is no available funding to fix the problem, the Fayetteville City Council at its Feb. 25 retreat heard several potential solutions that might be considered in the future.
Whether at noon on weekdays or anytime in the afternoon through rush hour, motorists traveling through downtown Fayetteville are accustomed to traffic that backs up in all four directions. Perhaps the biggest choke point of all is for those traveling east on Hwy. 54 and wanting to turn north onto Hwy. 85.
Council members at the retreat heard several suggestions from Integrated Science and Engineering representative Dan Davis that could help facilitate the flow of traffic and mitigate the choke points.
Traffic flowing north and south on Hwy. 85 are expected to be impacted favorably by the upcoming construction project that will link Ga. Highway 92, Hood Avenue and North Jeff Davis Drive. But that project will have little impact on traffic flowing along Hwy. 54 through the downtown area.
Davis said an analysis by ISE and Wilburn and Associates using a variety of old and new traffic data led to a dozen potential options to address congestion issues on Hwy. 54.
Among the top six ideas were flipping the one-way traffic flow on Lanier Avenue and Stonewall Avenue, installing diverging diamonds where the two one-way streets merge on either side of downtown, installing roundabouts, creating a mini-bypass by including Lafayette Avenue and Tiger Trail and returning to two-way traffic flows on both Stonewall Avenue and Lanier Avenue through downtown, something not seen in Fayetteville since the late 1980s.
Though there is no current funding for the potential projects, one of the ideas suggested was to combine the idea of flipping the one-way streets and adding diverging diamonds where Lanier and Stonewall merge on the east and west sides of downtown.
Davis said the analysis will be forwarded to the Ga. Dept. of Transportation for review.
The Hwy. 92, Hood Avenue, North Jeff Davis project is expected to go to bid in May with construction beginning in the summer. The project is expected to be completed in 2016, Davis said.
