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ACC12_SEC13Booster

ACC12_SEC13Booster 2 weeks ago on Work approved for long-awaited Ga. 20 widening

Work approved for long-awaited Ga. 20 widening

Because construction of the Northern Arc is a political impossibility (and has been since 2002), the long-delayed widening of the 2-lane GA 20 into a divided 4-lane highway is more than likely the best that we'll ever get.

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ACC12_SEC13Booster 2 weeks ago on Work approved for long-awaited Ga. 20 widening

Work approved for long-awaited Ga. 20 widening

Previous politicians (specifically, former Governor Roy Barnes and the Democrats) did support the Northern Arc and got thrown out of power head-first by a bunch of angry voters and replaced with Georgia Republicans who understandably equate any support of the unpopular Northern Arc with certain political death after seeing what happened to the Democrats after they supported it.

There are too many very-powerful and well-connected people with large and powerful anti-Northern Arc/anti-Outer Perimeter constituencies opposing the Northern Arc for it to ever be built.

This is particularly the case in Forsyth and Cherokee counties where the right-of-way of the proposed road was intentionally filled with high-end residential development so as to make construction of the unpopular road physically and politically impossible.

This is also the case in Bartow County where the ultra-powerful and affluent Rollins Family (of pest control fame) continues to successfully lead the ongoing local effort to block the Georgia Department of Transportation from constructing the unpopular I-75/US 411 Connector (a northwestern remnant of the former Northern Arc) through their land which includes some historic sites and prime land in the form of heavily-wooded mountain ranges.

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ACC12_SEC13Booster 2 weeks ago on Work approved for long-awaited Ga. 20 widening

Work approved for long-awaited Ga. 20 widening

Traffic on GA 20 also would move faster if the state constructed separated-grade intersections on GA 20 at P'tree Industrial Blvd and Buford Hwy while widening GA 20 to 6 lanes between the I-85 junction in Buford and the GA 316 junction in Lawrenceville.

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ACC12_SEC13Booster 2 weeks, 1 day ago on Work approved for long-awaited Ga. 20 widening

Work approved for long-awaited Ga. 20 widening

{{"Work approved for long-awaited Ga. 20 widening"}}

...Well it's about [freakin'] time.

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ACC12_SEC13Booster 1 month, 2 weeks ago on Crowd light at HOT lanes open house

Crowd light at HOT lanes open house

Excellent points. The only problem is that new expressway construction is of a much different nature, politically and emotionally than the other publicly-funded proposals you describe that taxpayers might be opposed to as the construction of new expressways is regarded by most of the public to have much more of a significant (often negative) impact on quality-of-life than sidewalks or nature trails.

And speaking of the proposed Ronald Reagan Parkway extension to I-85, here's a report from only two months ago in February 2013 that has deemed the road to be unfeasible at this time.

A key excerpt from the report: {{"As a stand-alone project, the Ronald Reagan Parkway Extension does not result in enough travel time savings to make paying a toll a perceived value-added option. Although the T&R study indicated that 45,000-50,000 vehicles per day would use the road if it were in place today with no toll, the traffic was projected to drop off dramatically at the initiation of any tolling. Toll sensitivity models take a variety of factors into account. In this case, the factors that negatively affected users’ willingness to pay included the current state of the economy, an overall reduction of trips in the corridor (less congestion than anticipated) and the highly congested conditions on I-85 at the terminus. As a result of these forecasts, it became apparent that it is not economically feasible to move the Ronald Reagan Parkway Extension project forward as a stand-alone toll-funded, public-private initiative at this time. However, the study did indicate that the project could have potential merit in the future and is worth considering at such time that traffic conditions and the economy dictate."}} http://www.reaganextension.com/documents/Feasibility_Study_Results.pdf

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ACC12_SEC13Booster 1 month, 2 weeks ago on Crowd light at HOT lanes open house

Crowd light at HOT lanes open house

{{"I feel a Ronald Reagan Parkway if it were to be funded should be done so via a toll similar to the of Ga 400."}}

You make a good point as the sale of bonds paid off with tolls would help get an extension to Ronald Reagan Parkway built and operational much quicker and much sooner than through conventional means of financing.

The only problem is that the public does not seem to be all that hot on anything that seems to be a large-scale road expansion as Gwinnett County floated the idea of extending Ronald Reagan Parkway to I-85 along with the idea of extending the expressway portion of P'tree Industrial Blvd and extending Sugarloaf Parkway from 316 up through new interchanges at Interstates 85 and 985 and on up to P'tree Industrial Blvd all with tolls and the proposals were not received all that well by the public, mostly out of concern that the projects would only be to the benefit of land spectulators and real estate developers.

At this point, there just does not necessarily seem to be enough public support to extend Ronald Reagan Pkwy to I-85 and Sugarloaf Pkwy from 316 to PIB with or without tolls because of a declining appetite and tolerance for new large-scale road construction (particularly expressways) and an understandable increase in the mistrust of an unethical county government.

Gwinnett County also looks to be permitting new residential development to go up in the right-of-way of the proposed Sugarloaf Pkwy extension between GA 20 and I-985, which if that is the case means that a Sugarloaf Pkwy extension, tolled or untolled is increasingly-unlikely as the county had previously been very meticulous in making sure to keep the right-of-way of the abandoned Northern Arc free of development because of plans to extend Sugarloaf Pkwy from 316 to PIB through the Mall of Georgia area.

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ACC12_SEC13Booster 1 month, 2 weeks ago on Crowd light at HOT lanes open house

Crowd light at HOT lanes open house

{{"How about I throw in this bone for debate. It probably was likely that the HOT lanes were simply a back up in case the TSPLOT failed."}}

HOT Lanes were not just a back-up in case the T-SPLOST failed, HOT Lanes were coming anyway, whether or not the T-SPLOST passed, maybe even moreso if the T-SPLOST passed which is one of the reasons why the T-SPLOST was voted down so heavily as T-SPLOST funding was likely to be used to extend the HOT lanes north on I-85 as is being proposed now and to construct new reversible HOT lanes on Interstates 75 & 575 in Cobb and Cherokee counties.

Remember, while the I-85 HOT Lanes did not become operational until October 2011, the $110 million in funding for the I-85 HOT Lanes was approved in November 2008 by the outgoing Bush Administration after the State of Georgia had approved and been rejected for funding for the I-85 HOT Lanes on 3 previous occasions.

The November 2008 Bush Administration approval of funding for the I-85 HOT lanes was almost a year-and-a-half before the series of T-SPLOST referendums was greenlighted by the Georgia Legislature at the very end of the 2010 session of the Georgia General Assembly.

Also, the plans for HOT Lanes in Georgia first appeared in the proposal for the first edition of the I-75/I-575 Northwest Corridor (then called the I-75/I-575 NW HOV/BRT project) which was conceptualized beginning in November 2001 and finalized as a concept in 2006-07. http://www.nwhovbrt.com/Pages/History.htm

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ACC12_SEC13Booster 1 month, 2 weeks ago on Crowd light at HOT lanes open house

Crowd light at HOT lanes open house

Though, I think I know what you mean when you say that the Georgia 400 tolls are "effective" as it appears that you are referring to the fact that the Georgia 400 tolls are "effective" (relatively somewhat) at keeping excess traffic off of the road and paying for the road's entire cost of construction and maintenance, unlike the HOT Lanes which have to be heavily-subdized by the taxpayers, will only recover a very small part of their construction costs and will never pay for their own construction and maintenance no matter how long they operate.

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ACC12_SEC13Booster 1 month, 2 weeks ago on Crowd light at HOT lanes open house

Crowd light at HOT lanes open house

Politicians aren't taking their time to remove the tolls from Georgia 400 because of their "effectiveness".

Politicians are taking their time to remove the tolls from Georgia 400 because they simply don't want to give up the money that the tolls take in.

The tolls coming off of GA 400 means that the state, via the Georgia Department of Transportation, will have to maintain that road (GA 400) like every other state-maintained road in Georgia but WITHOUT the revenues from the tolls that currently to pay for the road's maintenance.

After paying for that road's maintenance, the remaining revenues from the tolls from GA 400 are then applied to the Georgia Department of Transportation's general funding, almost all of which (except for the GA 400 tolls) is collected from the increasingly-meager proceeds of the Georgia state fuel tax.

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ACC12_SEC13Booster 1 month, 4 weeks ago on Crowd light at HOT lanes open house

Crowd light at HOT lanes open house

{{"A good question is if the TSPLOST passed, would HOT lanes been eliminated... probably not, but definately delayed."}}

Also, had the T-SPLOST passed, HOT Lanes still would be coming into existence as the plans for a regionwide network of HOT Lanes pre-date the formation of the T-SPLOST. http://www.dot.ga.gov/informationcenter/programs/studies/managedlanes/Documents/FINALREPORT.pdf

There is also much legitimate and valid spectulation that, had it passed, T-SPLOST funds would have been used to fund the construction of new HOT Lanes on I-75/I-575 North in Cobb and Cherokee counties and the HOT Lane Extension that is now in question on I-85 North in Gwinnett County.

One of the (many) major reasons that the T-SPLOST failed was because there were many voters in Gwinnett and Cobb counties that understandably thought that T-SPLOST revenues would be used to fund the construction of new HOT Lanes on I-85 in Gwinnett and, to a lesser extent on I-75 in Cobb.

Another major reason that the T-SPLOST failed was because it was going to be used to fund the aforementioned extension of Sugarloaf Parkway from 316 over through the Mall of Georgia area to P.I.B.

Because the Sugarloaf Pkwy Extension was being constructed in the right-of-way of the abandoned highly-unpopular and controversial Outer Perimeter/Northern Arc, many voters thought that the T-SPLOST was a backdoor way to fund and build a new Northern Arc, a perception that drew very-stiff political opposition to the T-SPLOST both inside and outside I-285.

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