Neighborhood leaders meet to discuss transportation planning

January 6, 2010

Tuesday night nearly 90 people from intown Atlanta gathered at a meeting convened by Representative Pat Gardner to hear about the GDOT and ARC planning with regard to a north/south tunnel under Atlanta and current plans to relieve congestion in our area.

Presenters included the Commissioner Vance Smith of DOT, Georgia’s new Planning Director Todd Long, ARC President Tad Leithead and new Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.

The tunnel continues to be a concept with no clear planning since it is not included in either the twenty year plan or the shorter five year plan.  Anything promoted as a concept by the state DOT would need to go through extensive research at the regional or ARC level before DOT approval and implementation.  

Last year’s SB 200 required the new Planning Director appointed by the Governor to present a Statewide Strategic Transportation Plan 2010-2030 and the draft of this plan gives congestion issues in Metro Atlanta a high priority.   The draft plan is available at http://www.it3.ga.gov and a summary by Richard Pettys follows this report.  It is important to note that on page 6 of this transportation plan the investment priorities addressing  today’s “burning platform” in the area of ”People mobility:  metro Atlanta” include HOT lanes, BRT/Express and a Core Transit System that must be fully functional.  A tunnel concept would fit in a category they call a “Metro ‘big ticket’ road project” and this twenty year draft plan includes none of these.

There was broad opposition to the tunnel concept from the group that included a few of the pioneers who led the fight against I-485 and helped create the Freedom Parkway, new City Council members Alex Wan and Aaron Watson, Representative Kathy Ashe and Senators Nan Orrock and Vincent Fort, and leaders from many of the intown neighborhoods.    Future developments will need to be carefully monitored.