Fayetteville officials are

looking at a possible redesign of the Pine Trail Road intersection to

combat the traffic problem there, but some neighboring residents think

the city's solution will make things worse.

Many people in Fayette County

and the surrounding area would need a road map to find Pine Trail Road,

even though they drive on it several times a week.

That's because it's the way

out of Office Depot or Barnes & Noble for most shoppers, as the road

splits those two popular retail developments directly across from Fayette

Pavilion. It has an unusual design that has likely caught many motorists

off guard.

The road is currently designed

to keep cars from entering Barnes & Noble or Ruby Tuesday via a left

turn off Pine Trail. A right-in, right-out configuration exists there,

making it relatively easy to exit those establishments.

Two signs warn approaching

traffic about this situation, with instructions to enter the Uptown Square

shopping center directly from Ga. Highway 85, even if that means making

a U-turn at the stop light when coming from the north. But many motorists

ignore those signs and, when finding themselves on Pine Trail, simply

turn around in residents' driveways just beyond the shopping center.

"Driver expectation is

the problem," said City Engineer Don Easterbrook at last week's City

Council meeting. "People enter Pine Trail from Hwy. 85 because they

think they can turn left into the shopping center. The warning signs placed

at Hwy. 85 have not prevented this."

The original development agreement

with Concordia Properties stipulated that the city would look at the intersection

after the development is 80 percent leased. That benchmark has been reached,

Easterbrook said.

"I believe the intersection

should be reconstructed as a normal full-access intersection allowing

vehicles to turn left into the shopping center from Pine Trail, to turn

left out of the shopping center onto Pine Trail, and to go straight across

Pine Trail from Uptown Square to Office Depot and vice versa," he

said. "Stop signs should be placed at the exit from Uptown Square

to give the Pine Trail traffic the right-of-way. There is already a stop

sign at the Office Depot exit."

Because of the current situation

with motorists turning around in nearby driveways, Easterbrook said he

does not believe these improvements would be any worse than what they

face now.

Also, some residents have expressed

concerns about using Pine Trail as a shortcut to Banks Road, but Easterbrook

said he does believe that is a problem because the route is "very

circuitous."

"Despite the physical

barriers that have been installed, including the plastic lane delineator

posts and the raised median in Pine Trail, people still drive into the

wrong lanes and make illegal left turns onto Pine Trail from the shopping

center," he said. "The barriers are not working and the constant

destruction of the plastic posts results in extra maintenance for Public

Works and an unsightly condition."

A number of nearby residents

expressed their concerns to the council, including several who believe

that these improvements would make Pine Trail the main entrance into Barnes

& Noble and a couple who still subscribe to the idea that Pine Trail

would be a cut-through to Banks Road.

One resident said that there

is not enough signage to deal with the problem, the driveway next to Ruby

Tuesday was cut too close to the main intersection, and people are even

confused with the "Uptown Square" designation on the existing

signs, since most people know it as the "Barnes & Noble shopping

center."

"They [shoppers] might

go in there a couple of times a month," she said. "We go in

there two or three times a day."

Councilman Al Hovey-King suggests

putting signs on the median or elsewhere in the right-of-way to encourage

southbound drivers to make the U-turn at the stop light. But Easterbrook

said the state Department of Transportation will not allow signs there,

since the state prefers the redesigned, full-access intersection.

The council moved to table

the matter until its next meeting.

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