New roadway with roundabouts to be ready in 18 months
Groundbreaking for the long-awaited Ga. Highway 92/Hood Avenue realignment project to improve the traffic flow on Fayetteville’s north side was held Dec. 29. The $9.6 million project will take 18 months to complete and will re-work several streets and intersections around Ga. Highway 85 North and east to North Jeff Davis Drive.
Fayetteville Public Services Director Chris Hindman said the city and Fayette County are working jointly on a project to interconnect Hood Avenue and Hwy. 92 North and to extend the road across Hwy. 85 North to Kathi Avenue and Jeff Davis Drive. The new road system will also include an extension to Church Street.
The project is funded through the 2004 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) with $7.8 million coming from Fayette County’s share and $645,000 from the city.
The city will use an additional $1.155 million in left-over money to fully fund the estimated cost increases to the project. This brings the total estimated cost to complete the project to $9.6 million.
The total length of the project is approximately 6,000 feet.
The project will relocate the traffic signal currently at Hwy. 92 and Hwy. 85 a short distance to the south at Hood Avenue. A large roundabout will connect Hood Avenue to Hwy. 92 on the west side of Hwy. 85.
The roundabout connecting Hwy. 92 and Hood Avenue will be located approximately 400 feet from Hwy. 85 and will be quite large. Vehicles passing through the roundabout on the way to Hwy. 85 will find a total of five lanes of roadway. Two of those lanes will be right-turn only, one will cross Hwy. 85 and onto the Hood Avenue extension while a fourth will be designated for left turns. The fifth lane will be designated for traffic coming from the east side of Hwy. 85 onto Hwy. 92.
The project also includes extending Hood Avenue east across Hwy. 85 along the south side of Hudson Plaza where it will link with Kathi Avenue by way of another roundabout east of Hudson Plaza, and on to North Jeff Davis Drive to the east.
Still another project component includes extending Church Street from where it currently ends at Georgia Avenue.
The new extension will tie in with the Kathi Avenue roundabout.
A portion of the Hudson Plaza Shopping Center previously situated perpendicular to Hwy. 85 and across the highway from Hood Avenue was previously demolished to make way for the realignment project. The Tuesday ground-breaking was held on that section of the project.
