Quick Poll

If a Tornado Warning was issued for Coweta, have you developed a storm plan and 'safe place' in your house in case it strikes?

Blogs

Angela McRae

Tea with friends

Deberah Williams

Everyday Finesse

Lorrie Lynch

Who's News

Published Saturday, August 02, 2008 in Local

Photo by Sarah Fay Campbell

Lake Coweta resident Lou Graner, right, and Sid Bedenbaugh of the Coweta County Development and Engineer Department view the plan. The intersection improvement project was discussed at a public information meeting Thursday night.

Intersection project met with approval

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Newnan Times-Herald

The response to proposed improvements to the intersection of U.S. 29, Hal Jones Road and Greentop Road was overwhelmingly positive at a public information session held Thursday night.

Approximately 35 people attended the drop-in session at Madras Middle School. Several people took extra comment forms and plan drawings to give to friends and neighbors who couldn't attend, according to Wayne Kennedy, Coweta County director of development and engineering.

The plan calls for a new section of Greentop Road, which will be built a bit north of Coweta County Fire Station number 1. The existing intersection of Greentop and U.S. 29 will be closed. The new Greentop intersection, and the existing Hal Jones intersection, will get turn lanes, and a traffic light will be installed at Hal Jones.

Construction on the project could begin in as little as nine months, said Kennedy, assuming there are no major problems with right-of-way acquisition. Once construction begins, Kennedy expects it to take six to nine months.

Access into the Exxon Station that sits between U.S. 29 and Greentop will be controlled with curb and gutter. Currently, cars can enter the station at just about any point. When the improvements are complete, there will be one driveway into the station from each side. The Georgia Department of Transportation "made us confine them to one drive," Kennedy said.

There isn't much that can be done about the other cut-through in the area -- the drive in front of the fire station. There's no way to really stop cut-throughs, said Third District Commissioner Randolph Collins. But with the intersection improvements, drivers won't have as much of an incentive.

The closing of the Greentop/U.S. 29 intersection means that residents of the Heritage Hills neighborhood will have to do a bit more driving to get home. But so far, that's fine with them.

Residents would have to drive down to the new Greentop, and then drive back up to the Heritage Hills entrance.

The consultants who developed the plan, Clough Harbour and Associates, had created a plan for a new entrance into the subdivision through an existing vacant lot. That road would have turned an internal cul-de-sac into a through road and allowed access from U.S. 29.

But none of the Heritage Hills residents at the meeting liked that idea.

"The consensus is, they don't want it," Kennedy said.

The residents are concerned about crime, Collins said. The new entrance would make it easy for possible burglars to enter one entrance and exit the other.

Residents seemed willing to drive a bit farther for a little more quiet and a lot less traffic.

The project will "totally improve safety," Collins said.

An additional safety improvement will be the installation of a guard rail along U.S. 29 just north of the Newnan Country Club, where there is a rather steep drop-off.

The county's development and engineering department will be accepting comments on the proposal for about two weeks, Kennedy said.

Copies of the proposal may be viewed at the engineering department, located in the Coweta Administration Building on the East Washington Street side.

Comments can be e-mailed to trans-rw@coweta.ga.us. Or for more information, call 770-254-3775. The comments could lead to some changes in the plan. The project was designed with right-of-way in mind, and there will be no displacements of homes.

The project will be funded by the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. The entire project, including right-of-way acquisition, should run about $2 million, Kennedy said. Replacement of the railroad bridge on Greentop will be part of a later project.