GDOT Building $55M Roadway in Stockbridge; Five Ga. Towns Get Federal Funds for Water Upgrades

The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is building a new roadway in the Henry County town of Stockbridge, just south of Atlanta. When complete, the four-lane Western Parallel Connector (WPC) will provide motorists with an alternative to Interstate 75.

Construction on the project started in August, following GDOT’s approval of the new, $55 million road in early July.

The state transportation agency issued the notice to proceed on Aug. 12, which allowed the builder, E.R. Snell Contractor Inc., based in Snellville, to start work. Since then, crews have begun land clearing activities near Jodeco Road, reported MHF News, an online news site for Henry County residents.

The construction company is building the new road for $44.7 million. Other factors, such as engineering and right of way, have added another $11 million to the total cost.

Although only 3.3 mi. in length, the WPC is designed to connect Hudson Bridge, Jodeco, and Jonesboro roads just to the west of I-75.

The project will construct four travel lanes with a center median. In addition, there will be a 5-ft. sidewalk for pedestrians that will run the entire length of the connector road’s east side. Another west-side concrete walkway will allow folks to access the more-developed sections of the corridor, such as can be found along both Hudson Bridge and Jodeco roads.

In addition, the state transportation department is slated to build a trio of new roadway bridges over Walnut Creek, Pate’s Creek, and a Pate’s Creek tributary as part of the project.

GDOT told MHF News that the WPC is also being constructed to provide needed traffic improvements from Hudson Bridge Road to Jonesboro Road without local residents having to access the congested I-75 corridor.

MHF News noted Sept. 13 that November 2016 has been targeted as the WPC’s estimated completion date.

The idea for the WPC originated from a 2012 study by Henry County planners.

The project not only aims to provide local residents with an alternate route to I-75 but improve their overall north-south connectivity.

Henry County officials first met with GDOT in November 2015 to request their assistance in funding the project. As a result, the WPC is being paid for by the state’s transportation funding act of 2015.

Rural Georgia Towns Getting Water Infrastructure Upgrades

Five small communities in rural Georgia will soon receive much needed upgrades to their drinking water infrastructures, due to the efforts of the state’s two U.S. senators.

Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock announced Sept. 13 that they are delivering over $1.8 million to the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA) through the federal EPA’s Small Underserved, Disadvantaged Communities (SUDC) grant program to upgrade drinking water systems across the state.

The monies from the Environmental Protection Agency will be used to upgrade water quality in the underserved towns and help ensure Georgia families have access to safe, reliable drinking water.

“Clean, safe, healthy drinking water is not a luxury — it’s a necessity,” said Ossoff. “For families, for seniors and for businesses in the community, any interruption of safe drinking water is an emergency. “

In his remarks, Warnock added, “Clean water is critical to promoting healthy communities — and it is especially important we are doing the work in Washington to make sure our rural communities across Georgia can count on having clean and safe water to drink, care for themselves and their homes, and keep local businesses and economies going.”

Following is a list of the Georgia communities that will benefit from the federal funding, along with a breakdown of each project in those towns:

• Damascus, in Gordon County, will see construction of a chemical feed building, the replacement of its electrical control panels, piping from the well head to the chemical feed building, and installation of water meters to meet and comply with U.S. regulatory standards.
• A well construction in the Lowndes County town of Hahira should remove DDB contaminants related to Haloacetic acids 5 (HAA5), a group of five chemicals that are the most common acids found in drinking water, to comply with regulatory standards.
• Doerun, a community in Colquitt County, is due to get construction of a well and chemical feed building, in addition to a replacement of the electrical control panels to remove Coliform bacterial contaminants to meet and comply with regulatory standards.
• In the Oglethorpe County town of Lexington, crews will install a water treatment system and construct a treatment building to remove radionuclides and volatile organic compounds in the groundwater.
• Byromville, in Dooly County, now has the money to pay for the installation of a well to remove iron and manganese contaminants related to sulfuric acid to comply with regulatory standards.

The new federal funds are the latest successful efforts by Ossoff and Warnock in their ongoing work to upgrade drinking water for Georgia residents.

In July, the senators introduced the City of Atlanta Water Infrastructure Enhancement Act to upgrade water facilities for families and businesses across the capital city. Congresswoman Nikema Williams, D-5th District, introduced the companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Ossoff and Warnock also delivered the Coastal Georgia Flooding Prevention Act in June to upgrade water infrastructure for families and businesses across the Peach State’s coastal region.

Finally, the team of Ossoff, Warnock, and Williams helped secure $993,500 through the federal bipartisan infrastructure law for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to review Atlanta’s aging water infrastructure earlier this summer. The effort was made following a recent series of water main breaks that left hundreds of thousands of Atlanta families and businesses without water.