Local transportation officials gave fellow officials and the public a look at several future road projects that could be coming to Gainesville and Hall County over the next several years at the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce's annual Transportation Forum Thursday.
The hour and a half forum was held at the University of North Georgia's Gainesville campus and featured presentations from the Georgia Department of Transportation as well as city and county officials.
Georgia Department of Transportation
GDOT's District 1 Assistant Engineer Brandon Kirby spoke first. He said that while the department is continuing its work to widen Interstate 85 in northern Gwinnett County and Jackson County, it is also preparing for a future widening of Interstate 985 in Gwinnett and southern Hall County.
Kirby said GDOT is planning to widen 985 from two lanes in each direction to three from the I-85 split in Gwinnett County to Mundy Mill Road in Oakwood. He said the work would also add electronic signage and traffic cameras in that stretch of the interstate.
"We're expecting that to be about an $86 million investment," Kirby said. "We're hoping to have that ready to build for letting in Fiscal Year 2023 and we're currently doing preliminary engineering on that project.
Hall County
Srikanth Yamala, Planning Director for both Hall County and the Gainesville-Hall Metropolitan Planning Organization, spoke second, saying the county was getting ready for construction on several major projects.
The largest is the upcoming widening of Spout Springs Road. Yamala said that all of the necessary right-of-way has been acquired by the county and construction of the first phase of the project, which will widen the road from Hog Mountain Road to Union Circle, is expected to start this Summer. He said funding has not been secured yet for the roughly $53 million second phase of the project, which would finish widening the road from Union Circle all the way to Friendship Road.
Yamala also said the county is preparing to build a roundabout this Summer at the intersection of Martin Road and J.M. Turk Road.
"There's one thing this project will be taking away: the title of 'the worst intersection in Hall County'," Yamala said. "Whoever came up with this intersection, it should have never been, but without a stop sign, I don't know how people navigate it."
Another project that Yamala said the county is looking to secure funding for is the "sardis connector", which would bring improvements to Sardis Road to create a better thoroughfare from Dawsonville Highway to Thompson Bridge Road.
Yamala also said that a study has been completed for the potential extension of Gainesville and Hall County's "Highlands to the Islands" trail network, which would connect Gainesville to the south end of the county.
Gainesville
Last to speak at the forum was Gainesville City Manager Bryan Lackey. He started by naming two corridors in the city that were most in need of transportation solutions.
The first was Green Street. Lackey said that two proposed roundabouts, one at the south end of Green Street at E.E. Butler Parkway and one at the north end at Thompson Bridge Road, are in GDOT's concept phase.
"We're waiting for word from them, when they do move into that preliminary engineering phase," Lackey said. "Once we know that that trigger's been pulled and they move into that phase, we've got to really start thinking about what to do with the corridor."
Lackey said that city officials have proposed putting a small median into Green Street that would cut off left-hand turns with the exception of the turn at the Ridgewood Avenue red light as well as improved sidewalks and storm water infrastructure.
The second corridor Lackey named was Dawsonville Highway near the intersection of McEver Road. He said a study into the feasibility of an alternate road to connect McEver and Dawsonville Highway did not yield any cost-effective solutions and city officials are looking at other options.
In the meantime, Lackey said the city and GDOT are moving forward with a project to widen Dawsonville Highway by an extra lane in each direction from north of Ahaluna Drive to south of Shallowford Road.
"We think that's the quickest delivery of a project for our community," Lackey said.
Also in the city's future plans, according to Lackey, are potential partnerships with ride-share services and a study on traffic in the growing Jesse Jewel Parkway corridor between Limestone Parkway and I-985.
Kit Dunlap, President and CEO of the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce said over 250 people attended Thursday's forum. Each department and jurisdiction set up booths outside the presentation room to interact with any members of the public who had questions.
