Plans to widen Hammond Drive are back in a list of projects to be funded by a proposed penny sales tax.
The Atlanta Regional Roundtable, the group charged with approving a final list of transportation projects in the Atlanta area, on Oct. 6 added the widening Hammond Drive at the request of Sandy Springs city officials.
At the same meeting, the Roundtable tabled a proposed amendment to move money out of Georgia 400/I-285 interchange improvements and place them in the East I-20 Wesley Chapel transit project, increasing funding for that project by $297 million, according to the Perimeter Community Improvement Districts. The amendment will considered for approval at an Oct. 11 meeting. Yvonne Williams, president and CEO of Perimeter CIDs said the proposed change would jeopardize the project.
“This project is of major regional importance and must maintain its funding in order to qualify for federal aid dollars,” Williams said in an e-mail. “Chipping away at this project is essentially threatening its existence.”
In the e-mail, Williams urged CID partners to contact Roundtable members and ask them to maintain full funding for the interchange improvements.
Mayor Eva Galambos publically pushed for the Roundtable to add the Hammond Drive widening back into the list, and recommended the money come from funds allocated to another project on the list – adding collector and distributor lanes to improve traffic flow on Georgia 400. That project was budgeted at $200 million, but Galambos said the GDOT already has the right of way it needs and the cost was inflated.
According to documents on the Roundtable website, the Hammond Drive money will be pulled out of funds for the collector distributor lanes.
Galambos said she was pleased with the Roundtable’s decision, though the final list must be approved by Oct. 15.
“We’d be dead in the water if it didn’t get passed,” Galambos said. “We’ll probably need another $20 million (to finish it.) We’ll be looking for the sources.”
Galambos argued that the road needed to be widened because it’s a major east-west route in the city.
Here is the Roundtable’s justification for putting the project back in the list. The amendment was introduced by Union City Mayor Ralph Moore and seconded by Fulton County Chairman John Eaves :
JUSTIFICATION FOR INCLUSION OF FN-013, HAMMOND DR. WIDENING
1. The Hammond Dr. Widening is the priority item for Sandy Springs in the Tier One list of the ARC North Fulton Regional
Transportation Plan adopted by each city in North Fulton last year.
2. The ARC included this project in their high priority lists as they evaluated all the Roundtable projects.
3. The North Metro region is sadly lacking in good east/west connections. The Northern part of I-285 is one of the most congested
arteries in metro Atlanta, and this offer a needed alternative.
4. This project connects one of the highest employment centers of metro Atlanta (Perimeter) with downtown Sandy Springs.
5. Hammond Dr. now goes from 6 lanes to 4 lanes, to a 2 lane bottleneck stretch , which is the portion proposed for widening..
6. Two new ramps from Ga.400 to Hammond Dr. opened last month, and are spewing additional traffic on Hammond Dr. that needs to be accommodated