Opinion: Pass the Prozac, Please

Two days after the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) and Mulkey Engineers and Consultants held their second public workshop at Mt. Pisgah Church to champion improvements on the Old Alabama Road corridor, the chairman of GDOT, Mike Evans, held a press conference downtown to release a new report that says the state faces a $51 billion transportation shortfall through 2035. Bummer.

But the bad news didn’t stop there.

In the “Future Mobility in Georgia” report conducted by the national transportation research group TRIP, spikes in population, deteriorating road and bridge conditions, and growing congestion, will all lead to a choking off of economic growth for the region.

“Because of the funding shortfall, many projects that are needed to improve roadway conditions, enhance traffic safety, boost economic developments opportunities, and relieve traffic congestion will not go forward,” according Frank Moretti who presented TRIP’s report.

The state’s transportation funding problems aren’t getting any better – and neither is traffic.

The report notes that Georgia’s long range transportation plan found that “the inability to meet the state’s ever-growing transportation needs, and the congestion which will result from this failure, will in all likelihood choke off or greatly reduce forecasted levels of economic growth and degrade the quality of life of its residents.” This isn’t sounding very good.

Georgia’s population increased by 45 percent, to 9.4 million people from 1990 - 2006. That was the fifth highest population growth in the nation and the largest east of the Mississippi.

The report also fingered the 10 worst intersections in metro Atlanta. Not surprisingly, four are in North Fulton.

And of the 10 most heavily traveled structurally deficient bridges in the metro area (carrying at least 5,000 vehicles per day), two are on the Johns Creek side of Old Alabama Road. Great.

Attending the Old Alabama Road forum gave hope that traffic relief might be within reach, even if it is a 10-year project. But the hard cold (lack of) funding reality quickly snatched away that anticipation of smooth flowing roadways.

The highs and lows of figuring out Johns Creek’s transportation conundrum might require some sort of stabilizing medication. We’re up. We’re down. We’re backed up!

GDOT’s proposal – and community input process – along the Old Alabama Road east-west connector shared by both Johns Creek and Roswell was awesome and extremely well-received by its 400 attendees in two workshops since July.

The area targeted in the proposal stretches from Ga. 400 to Medlock Bridge Road and includes an entire gamut of transportation destinations, including schools, shops, restaurants, churches, one nearby synagogue, and subdivisions.

GDOT initiated the project process for improvements to Old Alabama Road using a “context sensitive approach,” which requires identifying transportation improvements that are harmonious with the community, preserving aesthetics, history and the environmental resources, while integrating these innovative approaches with traditional transportation goals for safety and performance. I like this idea so much more than being “choked off.”

GDOT presented four road construction alternatives ranging from two-lane roads with improved intersections to the creation of a four-lane divided highway with roundabouts at intersections.

Johns Creek’s Robert Horne, former chairman of the Governor’s Commission for Johns Creek and now a member of the city’s citizens transportation planning committee, visited the Old Alabama Road project three times in a single day, making copious notes.

“I like these roundabouts,” said Horne with a smile. Uh-oh. He’s getting hopeful.

Ken Hildebrandt, Johns Creek’s director of Public Works, said that while he did not speak for the city council, he was pleased with the varied road improvement options put forward by GDOT.

“Those road improvements would have a huge impact [on traffic flow],” said Hildebrandt who said he liked how two scaled back proposals with lower environmental impact were being considered for Old Alabama.

“We’d definitely be in favor of pushing this project forward and moving it out of a long range [7-10 year] project into a shorter-range project,” Hildebrandt said.

Transportation insiders were hopeful the Old Alabama Road Project might find its way onto the short-range project list, too, saying that various projects around the state can be sidelined for a number of reasons, including environmental hold ups. That means that approved projects waiting in the wings might find their way onto a shorter list.

In fact, Evans returned this week from Washington, where he told federal officials that environmental regulations and project development processes are imposing undue costs and delays on desperately needed highway and bridge projects, and implored regulators to adopt a “more reasoned and practical approach.”

Participating in a White House Transportation Legislative Summit meeting, Evans said cash-strapped state transportation agencies can ill afford to waste time and money on confusing, duplicative and unnecessary bureaucratic paperwork.

“This is such a critical time for transportation in Georgia,” Evans said. “Our funding shortfall is at unimaginable proportions -- $7.7 billion in the next six years, as much as $200 billion in the next 30 years. There certainly are things we can do within the Department to improve our efficiency, and the Board is determined to make that happen, but there is much the federal government needs to do to help us. Exercising a little common sense in its regulations would be a great start.”

Evans said he doesn’t believe it is his role at GDOT to determine funding mechanisms. But Mike Kenn, chairman of Georgians for Better Transportation, said his organization is all about endorsing funding plans.

Kenn, who happens to be a resident of Johns Creek, said GBT is supporting a state constitutional amendment on the 2008 ballot that would initiate an alternative transportation funding mechanism.

“If we don’t address this by 2008, another opportunity won’t present itself until 2012,” Kenn said. “We are in a downward spiral.”

If the Old Alabama Road project doesn’t find its way on to somebody’s list, a “no-build’ strategy will translate to a 50-minute eastbound commute time by 2032.

In the meantime, Johns Creek, with its minimalist $700,000 road improvement budget for the coming year, has just completed a lovely repaving of Jones Bridge Road and is nearly finished with a repaving of Findley Road.

Knowing how wide-sweeping the funding shortfall is, and how complex it has become to build any road, I suppose I’m grateful for these small advancements. Hope floats. Now would someone pass the Prozac, please.