Newnan resident: Push to solve Peachtree City traffic gridlock

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It’s time for a Peachtree City perimeter highway system around its gridlock.

From Georgia highways 34/54 in Coweta County to the intersection of highways 54/74 in PTC, there is a chokehold on travel and commerce.

Traffic congestion will be exacerbated with the addition of Costco and Fischer Marketplace across from Sam’s. Traffic will also worsen with the multiple residential developments along McDuff Parkway in PTC.

Improvements are coming with the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) plan for a “Displaced Left-turn Intersection” that will remake the 54/74 intersection, but not until 2023.

To make matters worse, in April, the PTC City Council vetoed the needed TDK extension. This would have connected Coweta County and PTC with a new bridge over Line Creek in the south. Also urgently needed is a northern trans-county connection.

Contact your state leaders, regional partners, county commissioners and city officials. Urge them to create a viable traffic plan that will enhance our quality of life.

Encourage GDOT leaders to bring these multiple parties to the table to solve this Newnan to PTC grid lock.

Steve Houlder

Newnan, Ga.

11 COMMENTS

  2. 54/74 was a problem when I first moved to PTC over 20 years ago. 34 west was 2 lane all the way to Thomas Crossroads. Opening that stretch of road up to 4 lanes seemed like a good idea, but you still had the bottleneck at 57/74 and all it did was get traffic coming into PTC there faster.

    Every project since then has done nothing to improve the situation and in some cases made it worse. Whatever engineering group is repeatedly used for traffic studies should never be used again. They have missed the mark every time.

    Mr. Haddix, you have a myopic view of the problem.

    You ask “Why should Peachtree City fix traffic issues created by Coweta County?” If it directly impacts PTC citizens, it’s not Coweta County’s problem alone. Many PTC residents work in Coweta County and many people from Coweta County come into PTC to work. This issue affects all of them. I doubt that your position would be the same if you had to make that commute every day. It was suggested that you folks do that to “feel our pain” but no one on the city council had the “courage” to try it.

    You say “Let Coweta County widen Fischer from 85 into Meriwether County.” Again, how is this going to help the traffic into/out of PTC?

    You’re also not the only mayor to try to stymie the TDK extension. Steve Brown had his own opinion on the matter. As with many other issues, Mr. Brown envisioned himself the smartest man in the room and wouldn’t listen to anything his constituents said to him. His steadfast opposition to the idea bordered on obsessive.

    The first push back was that the area was under the approach for Falcon Field and was not available for development due to overrun and safety concerns. The park that now sits on that very land is proof that those concerns were not valid.

    PTC has always needed an additional way into/out of the city to the west. I’ll again bring up the example of the gas main rupture during the widening near Line Creek. People were forced to go up into Tyrone and down 74 or go all the way back to Coweta County down to Senoia and come up 74 into PTC from the South. And that happened not once, but TWICE during that expansion!

    The TDK extension would have been the best alternative for easing the issues at 54/74. But myopic leadership failed to see a solution. At this point, that option is lost.

    Oddly enough, I do agree with you on one point. Displaced Left Turn lanes would do nothing to alleviate the problem. If the number of cars in the back up is greater than the Displaced Left Turn Lane will hold, then it does not solve the problem. That is certainly the case we have now.

    The ONLY solution is one that takes peak volume off of that intersection and the approach to PTC from the west. Until that is done the problem will not be resolved.

    That’s just my less then humble opinion on the matter.

  3. Hold this Steve.

    We don’t really care about the Newnan to PTC corridor. We only care about ourselves “inside the bubble”. If you need traffic relief – just go the other way up Doc Fisher or 154 whatever. PTC ain’t gonna address anything like TDK extension that will bring Cowetians thru our city on their way east or north and we certainly don’t want an east to west shortcut for the Claytonese to get to Newnan or I-85 south.

    Next thing after that is opening the county up to public transportation and our strident, firmly in the majority Republican/baby boomer voter base will not allow any of that. Or you could just wait us out and in 5 or 10 years the millennials will be in charge and have a totally different attitude.

    The diverging diamond thing (now known as “displaced left-turn intersection”) is a wonderful solution to traffic flow and will really make a difference in 2009 had it been built then. Instead its 2023 when there will be another 100,000 cars on rthat road.

    So thanks for you suggestion, but no thanks. We will take it from here.

    • The displaced left-turn intersection does nothing. Traffic levels and flow outside of the intersection remains
      the same. No reduction in cars.

      We do not have the population to support mass transit.

      You seem to forget mass transit requires a station and a huge parking lot. All of which would go on Huddleston Road.

      There already is a bus station in Newnan. Along with it came crime.

      People move here to escape urban living.

  4. Build ramps from Fischer to 85 to give an alternate route for north and southbound traffic onto 85 from Coweta.

    Why should Peachtree City fix traffic issues created by Coweta County?

    I was the mayor who proposed a plan that killed the TDK extension. Again, you want us to deal with your traffic.

    It would’ve added 2000 homes and a million square feet of retail in Coweta County which would’ve dumped all the traffic into Peachtree City with zero benefit to us.

    There is no relief for 54/74 unless traffic is removed from the intersection.

    Let Coweta County widen Fischer from 85 into Meriwether County.

    • I actually agree with you..DH ..Coweta keeps building and they need to make Fischer Road a viable access to 85. If the TDK extension went through we would see huge developments on the other side of Lake Mac. If public transit is such a great idea why are private companies not running shuttles from Crosstown and Kedron to the Airport..

    • Mr. Haddix, your view is extremely short-sighted. Peachtree City need not continue with it’s head in the sand. Whether you like it or not, aggressive plans need to be implemented in addressing the traffic problems created by other counties. I think the current problems are the result of your (and others) inaction and overall poor attitude towards the problem. What some fail to realize is that development will most certainly build right up to the Peachtree City borders. Those borders will still be there but will essentially become indistinguishable. One city will flow right into the next. With that comes increased traffic for Peachtree City. Just what do you think is going to happen now with the development of Fisher’s Crossing? It’s exploding. Those people that are working and living in that area are going to cross the border and come into PTC. Those people that are working in that area are going to be coming from the north, south, east, and west to get there. Many are going to come through PTC. Who will suffer? All of us will because PTC leadership did not have the forethought to address these issues. I mean, I wasn’t here when Walmart and Home Depot were built, but who in their right mind allowed these two giant stores to be built with only one entrance and exit? Who has designed the traffic flow design on 54? How come no one has properly addressed the synchronization of traffic signals? Where are the roundabouts? I dread going through that mess and it’s only going to get worse. I want you to remember something – we are all entitled to our opinions but make no mistake, there’s a reason you’re on the outside looking in.