Road improvements,

express buses and the beginning of commuter rail are among recently announced

plans to help ease the Atlanta traffic crunch in the next five years.

The proposals

were just a few of the items outlined last week in a press conference

initiative.

Barnes, along

with GRTA Executive Director Catherine Ross and state Department of Transportation

Commissioner Tom Coleman, said the measures will go a long way toward

unsnarling some of the traffic that Atlanta commuters face every day.

A big part

of the proposal is the Governor's Road Improvement Program.

"The economic

development of rural Georgia was the catalyst behind the Governor's Road

Improvement Program, which we call GRIP, when it was conceived in 1989,"

said Coleman

He added the

idea gave birth to 14 developmental corridors throughout the state and

said the GRIP corridors are only 62 percent complete and, at the current

rate, they will take over 20 more years to finish.

But with the

governor's push to get things moving, Coleman said the Georgia DOT expects

to have about $2 billion worth of GRIP projects under way in the next

five years.

Another component

of the transportation project is adding additional lanes to the interstate

system.

"Together

with the GRIP system, having six lanes throughout the I-85, I-75 and I-95

corridors will enhance Georgia's competitive position in the Southeast

in moving commercial traffic from state to state. Multi-lane highways

reduce transportation costs for many industries, including farmers who

are dependent upon these roadways to link them with suppliers, food-processing

plants and farmers' markets," said Coleman.

The multi-laning

of interstates 85, 75 and 95 to six lanes ­ three in each direction

­ will be under construction by 2005.

I-85 north

will be widened 67 miles, from I-985 to the South Carolina state line.

I-85 south will be widened 26 miles, from Ga. Highway 34 to I-185, providing

greater accessibility to Columbus.

I-75 will be

widened 45 miles, from the Lowndes County line to the Dooly County line.

I-95 will be

widened 27 miles from U.S. 17 to Ga. Highway 57.

A controversial

part of the governor's transportation program is the building of the northern

arc of the proposed outer perimeter.

Coleman said

the northern arc will be totally under construction by 2009.

"The northern

arc would provide a much-needed 50-mile, east/west connection from U.S.

411 in Bartow County to state route 316 in Gwinnett. This 1,000-foot-wide

corridor is planned with limited points of vehicle access, providing an

opportunity for a highway to handle the increasing traffic volumes, as

well as providing a corridor for rail and a future location for express

bus service," Coleman said.

He added the

green space planned for this corridor would be available for bike and

pedestrian trails.

Preliminary

engineering for multi-laning projects slated for fiscal year 2002 will

total almost $12 million.

Over the five-year

program, the cost of multi-laning all of these corridors, including the

northern arc, will total approximately $2 billion.

By 2006, the

state will have HOV lanes open or under construction on all metro interstates

outside the Perimeter, including Ga. highways 400 and 316.

In the next

five years, Georgia DOT is looking at an almost $2 billion program to

add 262 miles of HOV lanes to the system.

HOV lanes will

carry buses from Cobb and Clayton counties and buses from the other regional

transit systems proposed by the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority.

According to

a recent Clean Air Campaign survey, preliminary results indicate that

50 percent of the respondents choose carpooling as their most likely commuting

alternative.

In implementing

the governor's vision, the work produced by the Georgia DOT will be roughly

doubled in the next five years. GRTA Executive Director Catherine Ross

said her agency is excited about providing a better Georgia and is eager

to start.

"To help

pave the way for commuter rail, GRTA will implement express commuter bus

service in the Athens, Canton and Macon-to-Atlanta corridors. The estimated

cost to implement the express commuter buses, in all three corridors,

over the next five years is $162 million," she said.

Ross also said

GRTA will work on getting people around in the main activity corridors

in the region.

"To address

this challenge GRTA will lead the effort to implement activity center

circulator systems ­ our ACCESS program - targeting major activity

centers in the metropolitan Atlanta region," said Ross. "As

you know, we've partnered with the Buckhead Area Transportation Management

Association on an electric shuttle that will serve the shopping centers,

businesses and MARTA stations in Buckhead.

"Other

centers ACCESS will serve include downtown and Midtown, Hartsfield Airport,

Perimeter, Cumberland and Town Center. Shuttle buses will link transit

centers with the major employment and shopping centers in each area. In

other words, we're going to get you to where you're really trying to go,"

she said.

The estimated

cost of implementing this program will be $38 million over the next five

years.

In addition

to bus services, GRTA will be implementing two rail programs.

The first of

these will be the initial segment of a commuter rail system for the state

that will serve the Macon-to-Atlanta corridor.

"For the

regional commuter rail system we anticipate spending $446 million over

the next five years to implement rail service between Macon and Atlanta

and to begin work on the multi-modal passenger terminal," said Ross.

The other rail

program is the northwest corridor light rail system.

Ross said the

effort will center on a light rail system linking Town Center, Cumberland

and Midtown Atlanta, with small light-rail circulator services at Town

Center and Cumberland.

The anticipated

cost for the northwest corridor light rail system over the next five years

is $2.8 billion

Ross added

that GRTA proposes spending $345 million to improve the arterial roads

in the 13-county region

"To put

it simply, when you wake up in the morning and want to drive to work ­

you can. If you don't want to drive ­ you don't have to! The choices

will be there," said Ross.