Wednesday, December 9, 2009
News The proposed tunnel under east Atlanta... it's... it's alive!
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 5:39 PM
The AJC's Ariel Hart sends a shiver down our spines this morning, reminding us that a proposed toll tunnel under east Atlanta — an underground road that's similar to what GOP gubernatorial hopeful John Oxendine discussed earlier this year — is still very much a possibility.
A controversial concept to link Ga. 400 to I-675 by digging under east Atlanta has for a couple of years found its way onto some policymakers’ wish lists. But this month it found itself someplace better: Among the state Department of Transportation’s top toll projects pitched to private investors and road-building companies.“The tunnel is the one project that absolutely, head and shoulders above every other [public-private partnership program], moves the needle the most on congestion mitigation and mobility,” said David Doss, who chairs the state Transportation Board’s committee on such projects. The reason it wasn’t listed at the very top of DOT's project list was because of the “unknowns” involved in creating a new urban road tunnel here, he said.
One of those "unknowns" is the number of pitchforks that angry residents would shake in protest should the Atlanta Regional Commission decide a subterranean highway — replete with ventilation ducts popping up in intown neighborhoods and spewing out carbon monoxide — is just what metro Atlanta needs. Doss tells Hart that the northern stretch of the road would be a tunnel to appease "old, established" neighborhoods and that the southern segment would be a surface road. (Read Hart's report for all the details surrounding the proposal.)
An interesting sidenote: Bob Poole, the free-market think tank Reason Foundation's transportation wonk and a big proponent of tunnels, is scheduled to make a presentation about managed lanes at tomorrow's state Transportation Board meeting. He'll follow that up with a Georgia Public Policy Foundation panel discussion at the Commerce Club that's sure to be attended by Gold Dome movers and shakers. Don't be surprised if Poole offers his thoughts on the tunnel proposal, as well as some other ideas that right-of-center lawmakers might find intriguing several weeks before the session begins.
Comments (9)
Showing 1-9 of 9
These Lexus lanes skew good policy and transportation planning. Is the project moving forward because its the best project or because the way it is set up they can charge tolls? And like 400 the private funding probably won't pay 100% there will still be substantial gov. aid. Also a concern in the article is that they are seeking interest from investors in projects such as the northern quadrant of 285 before the public input and expert analysis is complete. The private investors are interested in the road for only money. But these roads have impacts beyond the cost of the road bed.
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This particular project is a bad idea, but don't completely discount the idea of public-private partnerships for road construction. Any future road construction in the metro area should contain a toll component and we should be looking at putting tolls on the whole of GA-400, as well as 75, 85, and 285. We should also consider a congestion charge for coming inside of 285.
Damn it! I just bought a house in East Atlanta. Looked like a nice, vibrant, up-and-coming neighborhood. And now I found that it's actually a future highway. Just lovely.
Here we go again! Neighborhoods mobilizing as we speak and we've got more than pitchforks. And we'll be representing for ALL the affected neighborhoods, above and below 20.
problem with the Lexus Lanes is that they then want to use them to meet the transit element. On 285 example they would propose to do the Lexus Lanes and run "express" bus and allow 3 or 4 plus HOV. Another proposal for 285 has either Light Rail or Bus Rapid Transit BRT. BRT is far better than express bus because it has a dedicated lane, leaves the highway in areas to drop people off near office buildings and has prepay stations. In other words BRT is much like a rail line and it can't be discontinued as easily so it can influence land use. Express Bus is just a bus in an HOV lane - it can be changed at a moments notice and thus will not alter land use patterns. Plus it doesn't offer stations or easy drop off points. Also the Lexus Lanes take up a lot of space, and along 285 they will inflict a great deal of damage to existing communities.
The Northern Arc would have gone a long way to relieving traffic congestion in Atlanta. Now it's the ITPers turn. In another decade, they'll try again with the OTPers. Is it me, or is it nearly impossible to carry out a transportation project in GA? One only needs to look at the beltline; we'll all be dead and buried before that thing ever gets completed.
"GDOT tells Hart that the area there is more vacant and industrial". Translation: There are no loud white rich politically connected people down there so we dont have to keep going under ground there and we can run all over them and do whatever we want to do. The reason why south of 20 can never seem to get a break is becuase politics keeps dumping all the unwanted crap there even though they won't admit that's what they are doing. Don't look to politically connected, friend of Shirley Franklin, Kasim Reed to solve this problem either. He will cave for political favors too and agree to dump the crappy part of this project south of 20.
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