GAINESVILLE – Like a schoolyard bully wanting everyone’s attention, the traffic problem in the Dawsonville Highway corridor has pushed its way to the front of the line.
A strong metaphor, possibly, but to the people affected by the challenging congestion that occasionally brushes gridlock status, the metaphor, and the frustration, cannot be expressed strongly enough.
Wednesday morning the Gainesville-Hall Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Technical Coordinating Committee unanimously approved a request made by the GHMPO’s Policy Committee to move the Dawsonville Highway/SR53 at McEver Road Operation from “mid-term status” to “short-term status”.
(NOTE: Mid-term status: implementation during calendar years 2024-2032. Short-term status: implementation now through calendar year 2023)
“What we’re looking at, ladies and gentlemen, is a tragedy that can be averted, but only if you take action,” said Clyde Morris, Gainesville attorney and area resident, during public comment.
Gainesville Public Works Director Chris Rotalsky said the city was keenly aware of the problem and acting as swiftly as possible to bring remedy and/or relief.
“We have sent a request to the office of the Commissioner of GDOT (Georgia Department of Transportation) for the funding of the Dawsonville Highway at McEver Road operations,” Rotalsky explained.
Rotalsky’s remark about a submitted request not yet answered by GDOT Commissioner Russell McMurray necessitated the GDOT members on the TCC to abstain in their vote over moving the project forward to short-term status.
Kaycee Mertz, GDOT Transportation Planner, said, “They (the city of Gainesville)…submitted a request to the GDOT Commissioner for funding…so there are some details to work out in the mechanism of the update. We don’t disagree with the change in priority at all…there’s just some details that need to be worked out.”
“I wasn’t aware that a request was even given to him. That was news to me,” Mertz added. “It hasn’t trickled down to my level yet.”
At this writing cones were being placed along Dawsonville Highway between Shallowford Road and Green Hill Circle as crews prepared for the construction of a second left turn lane, an immediate effort to reduce a portion of the daily back-up of commuters and shoppers wanting to make that turn.
How transportation experts solve the problem long term - especially in light of the fact that another half-dozen parcels along the corridor are ready for new commercial construction, as well as a hotel and a planned 820-unit housing development - remains to be seen.
Morris said, “I am 63-years-old…I will probably be dead before the project ever comes into play, but I would prefer not to die in traffic between now and then.”
