County Sends Road Wish List to State

Cherokee County might be riding easy within a few years.

The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners approved a wish list of projects to send to the Georgia Department of Transportation to consider as part of the Georgia 2020 Transportation Act.

According to the Transportation Investment Act summary by the Georgia Municipal Association, "The legislature passed a transportation funding bill that will allow voters in regions to decide on a one-percent, 10-year, regional sales tax for all types of transportation improvements."

The summary says 15 percent of the money raised in metro Atlanta would go to cities and counties for local transportation projects based on a formula of one-fifth population and four-fifths center-line road miles.

The Cherokee Tribune reports that county residents will vote on the 1 percent sales tax in November 2012. The tax is commonly known as T-SPLOST, for Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

County commissioners must compile a list of preferred projects to submit to GDOT's planning director, who will rely on a roundtable to prioritize the regional list, commission Chairman Buzz Ahrens said.

For more information on the process of deciding which projects get funded, see the PDF with this article.

"I think we have a really good probability of getting our priority projects on the list," Ahrens said.

Those priority projects, totaling almost $300 million, include:

• Increasing the capacity of Bells Ferry Road from Southfork Way to Victoria Road.
• Upgrading the bridge on Bells Ferry Road at Little River.
• Increasing the capacity on Ga. 20 from I-575 to Scott Road.
• Increasing the capacity on Ga. 140 from I-575 to East Cherokee Drive and from East Cherokee Drive to Mountain Road.
• Upgrading the bridge on Ga. 20 and Ga. 372 at the Etowah River.

The commissioners also want to increase the roadway capacity of Reinhardt College Parkway from Lower Burris Road to Riverstone Parkway.

One problem facing Cherokee County right now is that public transportation has to stop at the county line, Ahrens said.

The proposed projects that would connect Cherokee, Fulton and Forsyth counties include:

• Increasing the roadway capacity on Ga. 20 between Hightower Road in Cherokee and Post Road in Forsyth County.
• Increasing the capacity on Ga. 140 from Mountain Road in Cherokee to Ranchette Road in Fulton County.
• Increasing the bridge capacity on Ga. 140 at Little River on the Fulton-Cherokee line.

and officials reviewed the list, Ahrens said.

Check back with Patch for continuing coverage of the transportation projects in Cherokee County.