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November 20, 2009

SPLOST progress frustrates citizens, officials

Jamie Jones

Several paved roads, a traffic light on Shugart Road, a new entrance to the Morris Street freight depot.

More than two years have passed since Whitfield County voters passed a special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) to fund road and transportation projects. So far, Whitfield County has spent about $3.42 million on completed projects, with almost $3 million spent on paving in the county and city of Dalton. Many projects are in the pre-construction, right of way acquisition, engineering or environmental study stages. Collection of the three-year, 1 percent sales tax began in January 2008 and was projected to raise $48 million for some 50 projects.

Commissioner Harold Brooker understands the frustrations of some county residents about the perceived slowness of the SPLOST projects.

“I wish it was a whole lot faster, but the engineering, the environmental that you’ve gotta go through and all that, it just takes longer to do something,” Brooker said. “If (President) Eisenhower would have done the interstate highways today, with all of the environmental issues and all that, we wouldn’t have them. When they did it, they just drew out the maps and said, ‘This is where it’s going to go. They didn’t worry about snail darters.’”

Commissioner Randy Waskul also said he would like to see more completed projects that are readily visible to the public.

Currently, there are six projects under construction, including the intersection of Cross Plains Boulevard and Dixie Highway, lighting at exit 333 off I-75 and a new road from the south bypass to Cavender Road.

Project construction is expected to ramp up in the coming year, county engineer Kent Benson said.

“There will be a lot of work done in 2010 and 2011,” Benson said.

The proposed roundabout at College Drive and Walnut Avenue near Dalton State College is still in the works. Preliminary design work will be forwarded to the state Department of Transportation for approval. If all goes as planned, construction could start by Labor Day next year. Benson said county crews have studied two roundabouts in Chattanooga and said they seem to handle traffic effectively.

The Brooker Drive road extension is in the planning stage. Benson said it’s too early to say when construction will start, but it may be 2011 before building on the project begins.

For more about the SPLOST including a detailed project list, visit www.whitfieldcountyga.com and click on “SPLOST information.”

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