At a workshop meeting Wednesday, Fayette County public works officials will present a scaled-back series of improvements for the third and final phase of the controversial West Fayetteville Bypass.
No vote is expected yet from the commission, as county staff just want to lay out the potential improvements and projected costs. The workshop meeting is open to the public and starts at 3:30 p.m. at the county’s Stonewall government complex in downtown Fayetteville.
County staff was directed last month to prepare the concepts and costs after the county commission voted to redirect a potential $12.8 million in federal aid from the west bypass to the more-costly east bypass.
Doing so will result in a scaled down west bypass that includes no new road path but instead will feature intersection improvements in several areas to make traffic flow smoother.
The bigger question is whether the commission might proceed with seeking proposals for construction or whether the matter will fall into the hands of three new commissioners who take office in January, some of whom ran for office on the goal of stopping the bypass project.
The current commissioners — three of whom will be leaving office Dec. 31 — have deferred to the three new commissioners already on the matter of selecting the next county administrator, leaving the possibility the current group will pass the buck on this decision as well.
Also, next year’s commission will keep bypass opponents Steve Brown and Allen McCarty, who will have two more years before their terms expire. Brown has advocated scrapping the west bypass to work on the east Fayetteville Bypass while McCarty said recently he would prefer to halt all bypass work for the time being.
The west bypass was envisioned as reaching from Ga. Highway 92 North down to Ga. Highway 54 West and further south and east along Lester and Ebenezer Church roads to cross Redwine Road and ultimately reach Ga. Highway 85 at Harp Road.
But without using a new road path for that final section, the bypass will ultimately end at Redwine Road, stopping short of Ga. Highway 85.
The suggestions staff will outline Wednesday will not include improvements to the Ebenezer Church Road bridge over Whitewater Creek which is slated to receive federal funding in the 2018-2030 time period. Staff also plans to present conceptual cost estimates for each of the safety and operational improvements that are proposed.
