The “reduced conflict U-turn” or R-CUT, approved Feb. 6 by the Peachtree City Council for the intersection at Ga. Highway 54 and Dan Lakly Drive at the Peachtree Crossing retail area is about to be installed.
Peachtree City in its online “Updates” on April 6 said Ga. Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued a notice to proceed to the contractor, and citizens may notice some activity on the project any day now, weather permitting. Once started the project will only take a few days to complete.
Essentially, this is a concrete median built in the center of the intersection that prevents left turns out of the shopping center drive by McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A on to Hwy. 54, while preserving the ability to turn right in, right out and left in from Hwy. 54 eastbound, the city said.
The R-CUT will be similar to the one recently installed on Ga. Highway 74 north at Kedron Drive South.
According to DOT, “An R-CUT is an intersection design that reduces crashes by changing how minor road traffic crosses or turns left at a major road, reducing the potential conflict with other vehicles.
“At an R-CUT, minor road traffic must turn right. Left turn and through movements from the minor road are accomplished through the use of a downstream U-turn. All movements (left, though, and right) are allowed from the major road.
“For example, drivers who would turn left from the minor road at a conventional intersection must now turn right instead, then make a U-turn at the designated location.
“Drivers who would cross the main highway once reaching a conventional intersection must now turn right first, make a U-turn at the designated location and then turn right onto the adjoining side street at the R-CUT intersection.”
Having lived here for 17 years, I had previously not seen many of the GA road set-ups, etc. The problem w/ these left turn lanes, often, is left-turning drivers pull out and PARK in the middle of them waiting to complete a left turn. THIS IS NOT HOW THEY’RE TO BE USED! WAIT until traffic is CLEAR both ways – YES, you might have to wait a bit – but DON’T pull out and PARK in those left turn lanes – you BLOCK, or IMPEDE, those wanting to turn left off the highway/street (using this site as an example).
I’m ok with those R-cut, but I’m not OK with the $72 millions that the city is going to expend on this project, this is the reason why they need more and more money from us in taxes !!!!!!!!!!
$72M? Well, if you’re going to spin something to gain attention might as well go whole hog. Just saying.
The city isn’t paying for it and it isn’t going to cost $72 million.
Grrr! Save the money and fix 74/54 with a fly over not some dumb temp solution diamond that is more a lump of coal!!!
I just created an account with The Citizen to reply to this issue, my first time replying to an issue. I find it hard to believe that this directional change has been passed with NO opposition. I have been using this interchange as a means of turning left to go to Fayetteville for the last 15 years, specifically so I do NOT have to wait at a traffic light, and certainly to avoid traveling in the OPPOSITE direction, wait at a light, then take a U-turn, to accomplish what is now a simple left turn maneuver. 90% of the time, drivers at this interchange are able to turn left within seconds, after oncoming cars in both directions clear. Moreover, I do not recall any accidents at that interchange to support the theory that the present configuration is unsafe. Are we on a slippery slope of eliminating all left turns into traffic on Rt. 54 and 74? How long before the unregulated left turn at the intersection of Rt. 74 and Wisdom Rd is likewise eliminated, just like the left turn I USED to be able to perform onto Rt. 74 from Kedron Rd South, before “R-cut” barriers went up?
I for one am 100% opposed to the driving inconvenience and added traffic congestion of “R-cuts”, configured and installed solely due to a vague basis of safety. Could I be the only one?
You may to be the only one opposed to the R-cuts, but you are certainly in the minority. Welcome to The Citizen Forum, by the way. You’ll enjoy participating.
I assure you those of who have lived here a long time have seen plenty of accidents at this intersection and Petrol Point and Stephen’s Entry before the light. Some of these were fatalities, one involved the classic teenage new driver leaving Chick-fil A with a carload of friends. The worst intersection for left turn is the one at Westpark by the bank just east of 54/74.
I never make left turns without a traffic light if at all possible – and I assure you it usually is. Never once saw a safe solution that took more than 3 minutes. Never thought my time was more valuable than my life