Category Archives: Transportation

T-SPLOST public meetings coming up in a few weeks

The public meetings for Transportation Sales Tax Project List are coming up in a few weeks. The one in Lowndes County is:
Monday, September 19, 2011; 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.; at the Valdosta City Hall Annex; 300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia; presentation will begin at 10:30 a.m.
There’s a meeting in Fitzgerald later that same day, and an earlier meeting in Waycross on Wednesdday, September 7th.

If you’re interested in saying something about the 50% increase in the Old US 41 North widening project or about some of the other projects still on the constrained list, this would be the place to do it. You can also send in written comments. Here’s contact information.

-jsq

50% increase for Old US 41 North widening: now $12 million T-SPLOST

In addition to the Draft Constrained List for T-SPLOST draft constrained list of T-SPLOST projects, which doesn’t even include dollar estimates, this longer report contains details for each project. And the cost to widen Old US 41 North from North Valdosta Road to Union Road has gone up from the previous estimate in June of $8 million to $12 million in August, for a 50% increase! I wonder if the County Commissioners know about this rapid cost inflation.
PreviousCurrentDifferenceIncrease%
PE $650,000 $800,000 $150,000 23%
ROW $850,000 $1,200,000 $350,000 41%
CST $6,500,000 $10,000,000 $3,500,000 54%
Total $8,000,000 $12,000,000 $4,000,000 50%
Curious how when the components went up by odd amounts, the total went up by exactly 50%. It’s almost like the total was increased and then the components were arranged to add up to that.

Also curious how the biggest increase, percentage (54%) and total ($3,500,000) is for construction. I could see how Rights of Way (ROW) acquisition costs might go up because people might not want this boondoggle in their front yards, but why was it so hard to estimate construction costs the first time?

And curious how that construction increase is a bit more than Continue reading →

T-SPLOST Public Meetings Set —SGRC

Received yesterday. -jsq
For Immediate Release For More Information Contact:
August 25, 2011Corey Hull, 229-333-5277

Public Meetings Set for Transportation Sales Tax Project List

The Southern Georgia Regional Transportation Roundtable has set a series of public meetings to review the Draft Constrained Investment List for the following counties, representing the Special District for a proposed transportation sales and use tax: Atkinson, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brantley, Brooks, Charlton, Clinch, Coffee, Cook, Echols, Irwin, Lanier, Lowndes, Pierce, Tift, Turner, and Ware.

In 2010, Governor Sonny Perdue signed into law the Transportation Investment Act of 2010, a law prescribing a regional sales tax referendum for transportation projects. Jay Roberts, State Representative from District 154-Ocilla, and Chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said “This law gives

Continue reading →

Snake Nation Decision, Lowndes County Commission, Tonight 5:30PM

Here are videos of yesterday’s Lowndes County Commission work session. Tonight, come see the local government decide about a change order for routing around the sinkhole at Snake Nation Road. Agenda after the videos.

Here’s a playlist:


Snake Nation Decision, Lowndes County Commission, Tonight 5:30PM
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 22 August 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Here’s the agenda.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

  1. Call to Order
  2. Invocation
  3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
  4. Minutes for Approval
    1. Work Session — August 8, 2011
    2. Regular Session — August 9, 2011
  5. For Consideration
    1. Change Order to Snake Nation Road Contract
    2. Assistance to Firefighters Grant
    3. James Road Water Main Repair
    4. Capacity Fee Waiver for Country View Mobile Home Park
    5. SCADA Upgrade
    6. USGS Funding Agreement for Hwy 122 Stream Gauge
    7. Declaration of Merchandise as Surplus — Fire Department and Public Works
    8. Approval of TAN and Resolution
  6. Bids
    1. Training Tower for the Fire Department
    2. Asphalt Surfacing at Naylor and Clyattville Parks
    3. Striping and Signage on 29.34 Miles of Roadway
  7. Reports-County Manager
  8. Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address

-jsq

Atlanta’s T-SPLOST

Atlanta at least included some public transport in its T-SPLOST list, although most of its list will more likely make problems worse for pedestrians.

Ariel Hart wrote for the AJC 15 August 2011, Regional transportation list approved

If the projects are built, in just over a decade passengers could be riding trains from Atlanta to Cobb County or to Emory University, or traveling new, swifter ramps through the Ga. 400/I-285 interchange, or finding countless arterial roads wider and less clogged, from Henry County to Cherokee County and all points in between.
New swifter ramps! Countless arterial roads less clogged! Well, except by pedestrians trying to scurry through the faster traffic.

Why, in the second decade of the 21st century, do we continue with a failed traffic model from the middle of the 20th century? Seems to me traffic safety should be pertinent and should include pedestrians. and instead of more unsafe roads making life unpleasant and unsafe for communities, we could go for roads that serve communities.

-jsq

Snake Nation Road at Lowndes County Commission Monday 8:30AM, Tuesday 5:30PM

No rezonings this time, but plenty of money to be spent on this and that. The one I wonder about is
5.a. Change Order to Snake Nation Road Contract
We heard last time from Joe Pritchard that the county had received some estimates for resurfacing on Snake Nation Road, but he needed some time to organize funding before presenting details. OK, fair enough, but why is it a Change Order? Didn’t they just vote on realignment of Snake Nation Road in June? Why two months later a Change Order, which usually means have to do it right now with no competitive bids?

Here’s a backgrounder from the VDT about a sinkhole being discovered on Snake Nation Road last December. And here’s the VDT in May on costs for fixing it:

“We are purchasing the property to the north, 5.22 acres, for $40,000 to reroute the road,” said County Manager Joe Pritchard.

Rerouting the road will cost approximately $300,000 versus at least twice that amount to reinforce the hole, put in concrete supports, and fill it to prevent the road from collapsing again.

Here’s the agenda for this morning and tomorrow evening.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2011, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor
Continue reading →

T-SPLOST projects as of 15 August 2011

Here’s what’s still on the agenda for T-SPLOST funding for our T-SPLOST region: Constrained Draft Project Listing, Southern Georgia Most of Lowndes County’s boondoggle road widening projects seem to have been bounced off the list. This one is still on there: $8 million to widen old US 41 North.

Some of the other projects may also be boondoggles for all I know, but at least all the ones to widen roads right to the north edge of the county and thus drive development all the way into agricultural and forest areas are gone. Here’s the list: Continue reading →

Growing talent instead of population

What are some ideas for economic and cultural growth that don’t require huge population growth? Richard Florida has many ideas for large and mid-sized population areas in the article discussed below. Who’s the Richard Florida for places the size of Lowndes County?

Richard Florida wrote in the Atlantic in December 2009, How the Crash Will Reshape America:

Big, talent-attracting places benefit from accelerated rates of “urban metabolism,”
The question we need to address is how to be a small talent-attracting place, and even more a smallish place that grows its own talent and jobs.

This part is especially relevant: Continue reading →

Retrofitting suburbia —Ellen Dunham-Jones

There are many jobs in this. The Five Points redevelopment is an example of what she’s talking about. It’s a lot better than building more sprawl: safer, less expensive, more jobs, less energy cost, more energy independence, better health, and more community.

Georgia Tech Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones spole January 2010 at TEDxAtlanta, Retrofitting suburbia

In the last 50 years, we’ve been building the suburbs with a lot of unintended consequences. And I’m going to talk about some of those consequences and just present a whole bunch of really interesting projects that I think give us tremendous reasons to be really optimistic that the big design and development project of the next 50 years is going to be retrofitting suburbia. So whether it’s redeveloping dying malls or re-inhabiting dead big-box stores or reconstructing wetlands out of parking lots, I think the fact is, the growing number of empty and under-performing, especially, retail sites throughout suburbia gives us actually a tremendous opportunity to take our least-sustainable landscapes right now and convert them into more sustainable places. And in the process, what that allows us to do is to redirect a lot more of our growth back into existing communities that could use a boost, and have the infrastructure in place, instead of continuing to tear down trees and to tear up the green space out at the edges.
Here’s the video: Continue reading →

Do we need more of the same unsafe roads?

Many T-SPLOST projects submitted by Lowndes County would make traffic safety worse.

More from Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones of Georgia Tech:

Even Buford Highway, she says, could be transformed with medians, trees and buildings set closer to the road. Changes that are known to slow traffic. But outside of the ivory tower, change does not come easily. Or quickly.

Last year Georgia spent more than two billion dollars on transportation, but only a tiny fraction, less than 1 percent, went specifically to pedestrian safety.

And what Lowndes County has sent in for T-SPLOST funding includes: Do we need more of the same unsafe roads?

-jsq