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March 15, 2010

Springplace bypass gets green light

Ridley: Taxpayers no longer on hook for project fees

Mark Millican Dalton Daily Citizen

CHATSWORTH — Did the squeaky wheel get the grease?

Murray County Sole Commissioner David Ridley seems to think so. On his fourth attempt to persuade the state Department of Transportation to move forward on the Springplace Bypass project, he got an agreement.

“Murray County taxpayers won’t have to pay another dime,” Ridley said, referring to $1.5 million the county has forked over in 15 years’ time to keep environmental and engineering studies up to date. “This has been something that has bothered me ever since I became commissioner — the county continuing to pay that $70,000 to $80,000 a year on environmental studies. Now it looks like it will take place in the next 18 months.”

But the project to relieve traffic congestion at the Highway 52 Alternate and Highway 225 intersection has been scaled back — from a four-lane connector to a two-lane thoroughfare — between Ga. Highway 225 south of Springplace to U.S. Highway 76 west of Central.

A DOT official said the physical environment of the roadbed and financial considerations figured into the downgrade.

“From an environmental standpoint, we had to make a decision to go from four lanes to two,” said DOT planning director Todd Long. “We also had to go back and reassess funding. We’d been asked to pick up the cost for the studies, and we came to a gentleman’s agreement on that. The traffic numbers dictated it would be fine to do that.”

Long was less specific than Ridley’s timetable.

“The funding for it is still up in the air,” Long said. “We’re waiting for a funding bill that’s in Congress, and the state legislature is also looking at a regional SPLOST (special purpose local option sales tax) bill. The construction is not currently scheduled.”

Ridley was asked what the county will do with the money that has now been freed up.

“Those fees have been paid through SPLOST funds, so now we can apply them to road repair,” he replied. “The DOT is going to help us with some LARP (Local Assistance Road Program) funds in the spring and summer of 2010 and the spring and summer of 2011. This winter has taken a heavy toll on our roads, and we’re going to address that.”

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