Exasperated

Coweta and Fayette County commuters received a little bit

of good news Tuesday night from the chairman of the

Coweta County Commission.

Chairman

Lawrence Nelms announced the Atlanta Regional Commission

has agreed to move the completion date up five years for

the widening of Ga. highways 34 and 54 from Newnan to

Peachtree City.

The road

will now be completed in 2005, instead of 2010, which

officials with the Department of Transportation said is a

workable date.

Nelms met

Monday with Harry West and Joel Stone of the ARC, along

with Fayette County Commission Chairman Harold Bost,

Peachtree City Mayor Bob Lenox and Coweta County

administrator Theron Gay.

Nelms

thanked everybody for working together to speed the

project up. The announcement comes on the heels of last

week's report by Coweta County assistant administrator

Eddie Whitlock outlining ARC's timeline for a number of

projects.

Now that

ARC officials are going to help alleviate one of the

biggest traffic headaches, county and ARC officials can

focus their efforts on some of the other projects.

ARC

officials estimate the cost of the widening at nearly $24

million.

Commissioner

Vernon "Mutt" Hunter may have been talking

about Hwy. 34 last week when he pointed out that the

county can request amendments to the plan, which would

speed the projects up. Whitlock said Hunter was correct,

but said everything boiled down to the status of the

region's air.

Other major

projects in the ARC proposal include:

- The building of the Newnan bypass

from Hwy. 34 to U.S. 29.

- Widening of the bridge at Ga.

Highway 54 and Line Creek from two to four lanes.

The full

ARC board is scheduled to vote on the projects in March.