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Published Sunday, January 29, 2012 in Local

Ever-changing road needs mean keeping SPLOST options open

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Newnan Times-Herald

Traffic flows and the conditions of roads are constantly changing.

An intersection that flows smoothly one year can become a congested nightmare the next. A road that seems to be in good shape can deteriorate quickly.

Or a road project that seems to be vital may become less necessary in the future, as other things change.

That's why Coweta County and its cities are keeping their options open when it comes to the transportation projects to be funded with the proposed 2013-2019 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

The vote on the six-year, 1-percent tax will be held on March 6. Absentee voting has already started, and early in-person voting begins on Feb. 12. The deadline to register to vote is Feb. 6.

The tax is expected to raise $120 million, which will be divided among Coweta and its cities and towns.

Transportation-related projects are expected to take up the bulk of the funding.

Coweta County is allocating $66.9 million of its $81.4 million to roads, intersections, bridges, culverts, and the Poplar Road interchange on Interstate 85 near the site of the new Piedmont Newnan Hospital.

Newnan is allocating $14 million of its $26 million to roads, intersections, sidewalks, parking, public works equipment and other transportation related items.

Coweta's smaller cities and towns are also setting aside large portions of their proposed SPLOST allotment for transportation-related projects.

Both the county and the city of Newnan have extensive transportation plans and intend to complete several projects from the plans with the SPLOST funds. The highest-priority projects have already been identified, and there are price estimates for many of them.

But the binding project lists simply list categories.

"Transportation is a whole different animal than appropriating for a building or something that you are going to build," said County Administrator Theron Gay. "Transportation is really dynamic. It changes quite often. It is kind of a work in progress. That is why we ride [the roads] every year and we put a grade on a particular road. We can have two roads today with the same grade, but, in reality, conditions can change. One may have more failure than the other, or a development could locate nearby."

"It is often very difficult to determine road rehab or improvement needs six to seven years into the future," said Cleatus Phillips, Newnan city manager. "The major projects and current needs are easy to identify, but roadway failure is difficult to pinpoint."

Coweta's transportation plan is "reevaluated every year based on need," Gay said. While the intersection, bridge, and culvert projects to be funded with the SPLOST are pretty definite, "we are going to do resurfacing and road maintenance on those roads that reach the highest priority and greatest need at that particular time. We can't really say seven years from now that 'this is how it is going to be.'"

How many of the projects in the transportation plan can be completed with SPLOST funds depends on whether or not a different sales tax is approved by voters.

The regional transportation sales tax, often called "TSPLOST," will be voted on in July. It would be a 10-year tax, and would pay for projects in the 10-county Three Rivers Regional Commission planning region.

Funding for the Poplar Road interchange is included on the project lists for both the county SPLOST and the TSPLOST, and so is Newnan's "five points" intersection.

If the TSPLOST is approved, the $15 million in the county SPLOST for Poplar Road will be used for other projects on the county's transportation plan list.

"It could be more intersections," Gay said. "It could be more bridges if they are needed, or it could be more road maintenance."

The same thing would happen if the interchange project ended up being cheaper than expected.

Of course, getting a lower or higher price than estimated could happen with any project.

"No one really knows today" what the prices will be on future projects. "We've got pretty good estimates, but we don't know exactly what it is going to cost," Gay said. Prices have been cheaper in the past few years because of the economy, but that could change.

The county and cities can also use SPLOST dollars to provide matching funds for future state or federal transportation money that might become available for projects.

While the road rehabilitation and maintenance portions of the county's SPLOST program haven't been prioritized, the intersection, bridge, and culvert portions are pretty much set.

However, those priorities can change in the future, depending upon what happens.

"Just because we've got this on the list doesn't mean we're not going to continue to look" at what is needed. "We've got an intersection right now that a year ago was not a problem," Gay said. "We're about to open a facility that is going to change traffic flow." That intersection wasn't on a list to be improved but it probably will need to be in the future.

Gay said county staff last week discussed a "complaint we got about creating a turn movement. We looked at it, we looked at it with the Department of Transportation," Gay said. "Quite honestly, it's something in the future we might have to address. While we can't do that project today, it may be a project that rises to priority level."

"That is why we evaluate our transportation plan every year," Gay said. "We have to be somewhat flexible in that because conditions change, circumstances change."

"By sharing this transportation plan, we are telling people 'hey, this is our plan right now, this is what we are looking at and trying to get done, using these dollars,'" Gay said. "Things may come up that may change the list and it's got to be flexible enough," he said.

Without that flexibility, the county could "be forced to spend money on maintenance projects that may not be necessary yet, and we wouldn't have funds to do projects that couldn't have been predicted years earlier -- projects that might create jobs through new industry in the area, increase economic activity or improve a safety problem that didn't exist just a few years ago."

The city of Newnan is currently dealing with a problem it never would have predicted -- the Newnan Crossing Bypass.

"It's a relatively new roadway," Phillips said. "When we built the road... we did everything imaginable to see that that road was built to the highest quality. And we are having early failure on it."

Because the city's list for the 2007 SPLOST was also flexible, it will be able to use some money from that SPLOST to start doing some work.

"When we put out the '07 list six years ago, obviously it was not on there," Phillips said. The road is being evaluated, and hopefully when the bids come in the city will "have available funds in the '07 road maintenance program. If not, we'll have to wait until, hopefully, we have success" on the upcoming SPLOST vote, Phillips said.

The problems with the bypass are "an example of how these change a lot quicker than the SPLOST term," he said.

• • •

COWETA'S BINDING SPLOST PROJECTS LIST

This is Coweta County’s binding list of projects to be funded with the proposed renewal of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax — SPLOST.

Coweta has a priority list of transportation projects to be done with the funding in the four categories, but it is not binding, and is flexible so that it can be tweaked if needs change in the future.

TRANSPORTATION

• Rehab and Paving, $34,846,000

• Intersections, $4,850,000

• Bridges, $10,010,000

• Culverts, $2,200,000

• Poplar Road Interchange, $15,000,000

Total — $66,906,000

RECREATION

• Central Community Center Phase III, $450,000

• Central Park Expansion Phase II, $650,000

• Passive Park, $150,000

• Whitlock Park Upgrade Lights, $600,000

• Arnco Sargent Upgrade Lights, $400,000

• New Fields, $4,000,000

Total — $6,250,000

SHERIFF

• Technology, $1,000,000

• Westside Precinct, $500,000

• Vehicle Replacement, $2,500,000

Total — $4,000,000

FIRE

• Four New Trucks, $2,000,000

• Renovations of stations, $300,000

• Firefighting Equipment (five year plan), $500,000

• Medical Equipment (five year plan), $50,000

• Training Equipment (five year plan), $150,000

• Turnout Gear (five year plan), $250,000

• Communication/Warning Devices, $150,000

• Computer Hardware (five year plan), $100,000

Total — $3,500,000

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

• Sirens, $400,000

SUPPLEMENT TO CITIES – $412,000

* * *

TOTAL COUNTY ALLOCATION — $81,468,000

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