Commercial

developments approved for Ga. Highway 54 West since plans were first drawn

up for widening the corridor have forced still more delays, pushing the

estimated start of the Fayette County portion of the project to April

at the earliest, transportation officials confirmed.

But work may

start in a month to relieve the heavy congestion on busy Ga. Highway 34

between Newnan and Fisher Road in Coweta County. Some houses along the

route are already being uprooted and moved by contractors.

Dorothy Daniel,

spokeswoman at the DOT, said last week that contracts on the Coweta phase

are scheduled to be released and work to begin in November.

The DOT estimates

it will be another six months to get the project rolling on into Fayette

County.

The addition

of Home Depot and Wal-Mart to the congested stretch of highway, as well

as plans for a streetside "shopping village" to run along the

north side of the road, has dramatically changed the traffic patterns

of the area, said David Millen, pre-construction engineer.

"There

was some development that went on out there after we were deep into design

on this project," Millen said. "When some of that hits late

in the game, it generates different traffic patterns and we have to modify

our plans."

"They

started selling them off very rapidly," he said of RAM Development,

which built Home Depot and has plans for the Line Creek Church property.

Peachtree City

has either approved or proposed a host of new developments along Hwy.

54 in front of Home Depot that factor significantly into the DOT's plans,

Millen said.

But city officials

deny that any projects they've approved for the district have greatly

altered the project or caused delays in right-of-way acquisition.

"All of

the projects reviewed and approved during the last few years included

the latest right-of-way information that could be obtained," from

the DOT, said Betsy Tyler, the city's public information officer.

"The city

is aware of delays in Georgia DOT acquiring certain parcels of the right

of way due to nonagreement between the landowner and DOT on the value

of the property," Tyler's office said. "This is not unusual

in a project this size.

"The only

design changes the city has participated in with the DOT are the location

and design of the sidewalks on the north side of the highway," Tyler

said. "We've requested that it meander through the right-of-way rather

than follow their traditional design of having the sidewalk immediately

right up against the road.However, that is an issue within the right of

way and should not affect the acquisition process."

According to

Tyler, city planners worked with the DOT to come up with the following

modifications, all to be funded by a Liveable Cities Initiative (LCI)

grant:

Changed the

design of the median from a rural section to an urban section.

Eliminated

the sidewalks on either side of the road.

Added decorative

street lights and signal poles at each intersection.

Changed the

design for the CSX railroadbridge.

Those changes

meant going