Outside the Box: Improving The 74-54 Intersection Through Peachtree City’s Borders

Every two years at election season Peachtree City political candidates, local press, pundits, and voters rediscover a long-term transportation issue in Peachtree City, namely the backups at the 74-54 intersection during rush hour and other peak periods, but the drivers who have to commute through it every day are frustrated, and simply want something done. If the solution were simple, something would have been done a long time ago.

I moved to work in Peachtree City in 1997, and 74-54 backed up at rush hour then, too. I didn’t buy a home immediately and chose to rent for a year at Lakeside in Newnan and commute while my wife and I home shopped. I always drive the route to work during normal commute time before renting or buying a place so I know what I’m getting into. I knew the commute was not smooth going into it.

In 1997 traffic flowing into Peachtree City on 54 from Coweta County backed up to the Hot Spot gas station, now a Sunoco, and beyond on a regular basis, and this was before several road widening projects designed to alleviate this had been completed. 74-54 has always been congested at peak travel periods, and subsequent City politicians have campaigned on fixing it or at least making it a little better. Not to belabor the point, but the Lenox, Brown, Logsdon, Haddix, Fleisch, and Learnard administrations have not fixed it. The current Displaced Left Turn may improve the situation, and time will tell.

The issue with 74-54 is geography, regional transportation solutions, and past decisions.

With the exception of Interstate 20 and Interstate 16, there are not a lot of highways that run east-west in Georgia, especially not state highways. By contrast, there are many north-south interstates and state highways. This is an “all roads lead to Rome”- in this case Atlanta- situation. We rely on what should be true east-west state highways, 74 and 34, but they run more southwest to northeast.

A trip almost due south to Warm Springs has just a few turns. A trip almost due east to McDonnough, a much larger population center, feels more like a trip to Grandma’s house, unless you drive interstates, going very much out of way.

This means 74-54 in Peachtree City is a pinch point with no major east-west roads to the north or south.

Sensing there would be a whole lot of traffic on the south side of Peachtree City coming from a developing Coweta County, the Brown administration stopped the extension of TDK Boulevard into Coweta, ensuring the traffic problems would stay concentrated at 74-54. Opening TDK is a political non-starter, but it is necessary to point out that traffic originating in eastern Coweta must use 74-54 to travel to the industrial park in Peachtree City, even though it is nearly due east, and more than a few people commute from Coweta to work in the industrial park.

Traffic through 74-54 comes from all directions and includes travel between Fayetteville and Newnan and places in between, access to Interstate 85 from eastern Coweta County, and some north-south traffic between Senoia, Tyrone, and Fairburn. Our area is economically connected with retail and industrial businesses, commuters, and consumers.

There are not any easy solutions, and I will summarize. These solutions are not original, but the thoughts on them are mine.

Council Clint Holland has proposed an overpass to fix 74-54, and kudos to him for going on the record with a proposal. I’m certain it would work, but it would require a very deep dialog among everyone involved. We would lose sections of the three shopping centers that border 74-54 at a minimum and part of shopping centers east of the intersection.

The Avenue parking lot is already crowded, and some businesses may have to close. Our new Trader Joe’s is very close to 54. The Displaced Left Turn (DLT) currently under construction costs $22 million, and an overpass would be much more. Given the Peachtree City annual budget is around $60 million, we’d need outside money, similar to the DLT funding, which came from the federal government through the Georgia DOT.

An overpass would fundamentally change the nature of Peachtree City. We’d be a waypoint and not a destination- not that we aren’t today- but rush hour congestion keeps this in check. Developers on both sides of Line Creek could have value propositions such as “live in Sharpsburg and work at Trilith.”

Some current and past Peachtree City political leaders speak about “urbanization,” and to them it means no high-density housing to include apartment buildings, town homes, multiplexes, and even duplexes, but an overpass of two state roads in a city of 41,000 is clearly urbanization. It’s a big, ugly monstrosity that has much more in common with large city urbanization than duplexes or town homes.

I’m not sure how an overpass maintains the village concept. My home is between Braelinn and Glenloch villages, and both are as quiet and idyllic as I can hope for in a city, but the residents of Wilksmoor would have their village center in the shadow of a noisy overpass.

Again, all of this would require ongoing community dialog so everyone knows the potential outcomes, positive and negative.

A portion of 74-54 traffic comes from residents of east Coweta who simply want to travel to Interstate 85, and Highway 154 is too far west such that sitting in traffic is a better option. Building an overpass means Peachtree City solves their problems for them at an inconvenience to ourselves.

Straightening Fischer Road in Coweta and directly connecting it to Interstate 85 would alleviate some congestion at 74-54, but this has no political traction in Coweta as I suspect they’ve concluded the 74-54 intersection is Peachtree City’s problem to solve, even as political leaders there know many of their residents are inconvenienced.

Minor solutions to 74-54 have been proposed. A former mayoral candidate proposed adjusting all the signals east of 74-54 to prioritize east-west traffic flow. The challenge with this solution is that it means Peachtree City residents wait longer to leave where there live, Wilksmoor Village, and Peachtree City shopping centers, making them less convenient. We shouldn’t prioritize through traffic at the expense of Peachtree City residents and businesses.

If I must travel to Coweta on Saturdays at noon, I know to use Willow and Huddleston Roads to avoid 74-54. Setting the intersection at Huddleston and 54 to prioritize east-west traffic means locals get punished for knowing how to get around. Better yet, if I need to make a Costco run, I go before 10:00 a.m.

The last solution is radical and likely more controversial than an overpass or retiming lights, and that is to annex portions of Coweta County into Peachtree City to control our borders since, today, our western border is controlling us. Again, this is not an original solution, but it solves other issues, not just transportation.

Addressing all the issues with annexation is beyond the scope of this article, but I will address the important ones.

Peachtree City runs largely northwest to southeast following Line Creek. If Line Creek ceases to be the western boundary of Peachtree City, we could annex portions of Coweta and determine the direction of their development. It would be a long, difficult process with lots of setbacks, but I believe there could be several accomplishments.

We could create more east-west connections between Peachtree City and Coweta, and this would mean opening TDK Boulevard and creating a village to the west, but part of the village concept is to have village centers for shopping, dining, and entertainment. Developed the right way, we may see Peachtree City residents decide to shop across TDK Boulevard in Coweta in large numbers, something that already happens today at Costco, Sam’s Club, the NCG theater, and nearby restaurants- adding to 74-54 congestion I might add- so there is precedent.

Even though it has a Sharpsburg address, Costco and the other retailers all position themselves as “Peachtree City” retailers. No offense to anyone, but residents of Wynnmeade can be at Sam’s Club before most Coweta residents have even left their neighborhoods.

Annexing west could also mean that Wilksmoor residents would have safer shared-use path connections, not along 74, to the Costco shopping center area. It is not necessary to annex to create path connections, but it is more likely to get done if the land is in Peachtree City. 

If Peachtree City could annex enough of Fischer Road then we’d have a stronger voice with the Georgia DOT and could frame a proposal of “we already put in a DLT to take care of 74-54; now it is time to do something in Coweta County.”

Another issue annexation would fix is more land to zone as industrial park. Residents already know the appeal of Peachtree City, but to reduce residential property tax, it always helps to have more corporate taxpayers.

The largest roadblock to all of this is answering the benefit to Coweta County residents and those that would be part of annexation. My thoughts on how to sell this, paraphrasing a former City Manager, are the shared-use paths are Peachtree City’s number one amenity, and I would add the village concept is a necessary component of this. Coweta residents already purchase golf carts to drive around their neighborhoods. Being part of Peachtree City would give them a place to go. Plus, if annexation fixes east-west traffic flow for Coweta residents, they may see it in a different light. Again, it’s a long, hard process.

In summary if traffic congestion at 74-54 were easy to fix, it would have been done already, and it’s been a problem going on three decades or more, unfixed or exacerbated by former City administrations. The DLT will help. Simple solutions create clear winners and losers and are largely untenable.  The complicated solutions of building an overpass or annexations with clear development objectives have their own benefits and drawbacks. An overpass will absolutely fix the problem but at a financial and quality of life cost few may be willing pay. In the end, carefully, considered and executed annexation may be the best way to reduce traffic at 74-54 by creating other east-west roads and proper villages, not just residential tracts, in Coweta to control Peachtree City’s borders.