By Charles Oliver
From a redesign of the Rocky Face interchange at I-75 to renovation of the Waugh Street bridge, the Georgia Department of Transportation has already signed off on several projects in the Dalton area.
But Whitfield County officials said Friday they need state and federal help on several other projects on their priority list.
Steve Farrow, the 9th Congressional District representative to the state transportation board, gathered GDOT staffers, staff members from the area’s delegation to Congress and members of the area’s General Assembly delegation at Dalton State College. They listened as Dalton and Whitfield County officials presented their transportation priority plan.
County administrator Robert McLeod told them that voters approved last year a three-year transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).
“Our estimated revenue, even with the downturn, is $48 million,” said McLeod.
McLeod said there are 58 projects on that list. Three, including a new traffic signal on Shugart Road at the Home Depot entrance, have already been bid out. Twenty seven other projects are under design.
But McLeod said local officials believe the state should provide assistance on projects that involve state and federal roads.
At the top of that list is the intersection of the Cleveland Highway and the North Dalton Bypass. Plans call for additional left-turn lanes and better signals at that intersection of two state routes.
McLeod said the estimated cost of that project is $9 million, but he said local officials would be willing to spend about $400,000 of SPLOST dollars on preliminary engineering and planning as an incentive for the state to do that project.
Officials also asked for state help on the extension of Brooker Drive at Heritage Point, the alignment of the intersections of Fleming Street and North Oaks Drive with Cleveland Highway, and with moving the intersection of College Drive and Dug Gap Battle Road.
Those are all SPLOST projects. McLeod said one other project has come up since the SPLOST that officials would like the state to look at. McLeod said moving the western intersection of Ga. Highway 201 and U.S. Highway 41 north would make the route safer as well as foster economic development.
“When we look at the map, we see very developable land in an area that doesn’t have a lot of commerce,” said Melanie Suggs, executive director of the Dalton-Whitfield Joint Development Authority.
Suggs said authority members support moving the Highway 201/Highway 41 intersection.
Farrow said the next step is for him and local officials to meet in August with GDOT commissioner Gena Abraham.
“They’ve done a lot of thinking and organizing. It looks like a good priority list,” he said.
But Farrow warned officials at the beginning of the meeting that Abraham continues to uncover financial problems at the department, including commitments of money the agency doesn’t have. He said it “remains to be seen” how much aid she can provide the county.
