Business Report Covering Savannah, The Low Country The... -
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Published on: 10/16/2003
Last Visited: 10/16/2003
"Federal dollars spent on projects are prioritized by CUTS," said Mark Wilkes, director of transportation at the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission, or MPC, which provides administrative support to Chatham Urban Transit Study committees.
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Projects would be in the form of context-sensitive design," said Wilkes, who noted the Chatham County Commission has already passed the resolution and that the Savannah City Council would likely do the same at its Oct. 2 meeting.
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"The decision was to leave it in the long-range and analyze it more fully," said Wilkes, who explained CUTS would further explore congestion management possibilities along the busy stretch.
"We've had several requests over the years to remove the project from the long-range plan," Wilkes said.
The Savannah Tree Foundation has lobbied officials to cancel the project because construction would require cutting down a strip of palm trees that provide canopy cover for Victory Drive.And the City of Savannah, Chatham County and the Georgia Department of Transportation have found it difficult to reach agreements with Victory Drive property owners over property purchases.
Wilkes said as a means to compromise, Victory Drive's traffic congestion problem could be somewhat fixed by improvements to intersections along the street.
Islands bridge
Another action item involving the Long Range Transportation Improvement Plan had the Policy Committee debating whether to replace the Islands Expressway/Wilmington River Drawbridge.No project for a new structure yet exists in the long-range plan.
The drawbridge would be replaced by a "high-level, fixed-span bridge," said Wilkes, similar to the arching bridge leading onto Tybee Island.
"You basically eliminate the delays caused by the drawbridge.I don't think this will be a controversial decision," Wilkes said.
The CUTS Citizens Advisory Committee will take up the matter next, posing the new-bridge idea to citizens during scheduled public forums.If the Citizens Advisory Committee gets a positive response from the public, Wilkes said, the Policy Committee would vote to add the project to the long-range plan in November.
I-16/I-516 interchange
The Policy Committee approved a mid-year amendment to the 2004-2006 Transportation Improvement Program to fund preliminary engineering for reconstruction of the I-16/I-516 interchange.
Wilkes said the decision enables CUTS to capture $1 million in congressional funding earmarked for the project.Substandard bridges, merging lanes and other features have made reconstruction of the interchange a federal priority.
"It's time we think about where we want to go with the project.The concept can now be developed," Wilkes said.
Other business
In regard to the much maligned traffic congestion on roads running east and west across the region, members of the Policy Committee said discussions concerning the East-West Corridor Study would not go on until the City of Savannah concluded a "public involvement effort."
Wilkes said: "We're not going to see much on this until the city finishes its public effort."
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