How can cities prevent outdated transportation plans?

The Georgia Department of Transportation has been planning to convert Ga. 20/Main Street and C.S. Floyd Street in Loganville into one-way thoroughfares since the ’90s.

Plans were drawn up and traffic studies performed in 2002, 2004, and 2009 and again as recently as fall of 2016. Partial funding for the project dates back as far as 1999. Latest updates from GDOT put construction approved to begin in 2022 at a cost of a little over $22 million.

The problem is things have changed in the nearly 20 years this project has been hanging in limbo. In a letter dated Nov. 28, 2016, Loganville Mayor Dan Curry thanked GDOT for its ongoing commitment to the project while noting crucial concerns about how the project might negatively impact the city’s efforts to redevelop its city center.

Lawrenceville experienced similar road “improvements” a few years back converting Perry Street and U.S. 29/Crogan Street into oneway streets around the town square. Now the city is using federal grant money, city tax dollars and SPLOST funding to slow traffic through downtown by converting the streets back to two-way operation.

GDOT’s response to Loganville’s concerns state the department is currently obtaining updated traffic studies and survey enhancements that will be available in October. Time marches on and more money is spent before a single shovel full of dirt is moved. How should cities work with state and federal agencies to prevent transportation plans from languishing or becoming obsolete?

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