Tag Archives: “transportation investment act”

Whittling Down the Wish List

4 Jun

Georgia DOT issued the latest version of the regional transportation wish list Thursday. The roster of prospective projects will be funded by the one-cent sales tax that comes up for a vote next summer.

State Transportation Planning Director Todd Long had the task of adding and subtracting projects from the original list, compiled in April. The new version will now go before the 21-member regional roundtable, whose members have to slice approximately $15 billion worth of projects from the list’s current total of $22.9 billion – a reduction of about 65 percent. The reductions will bring the projects’ price tag in line with the $8 billion that the transit tax is expected to generate in its 10-year lifespan.

Here’s a searchable database of the new wish list as well as an interactive map for locating projects in your area. Fact sheets for the projects on the updated list will be available here on June 9.

What’s on, what’s off ?

Afternoon commuters pass through the plaza at Five Points Station. The transportation tax would fund improvements like removing the non-functioning sign from the ceiling.

So far bus rapid transit for the portion of Piedmont Road between Roswell Road and Lindbergh Station is still on the list, as are funds for improvements to Five Points Station. Those improvements will include removing the mammoth yellow contraption – once a sign – hanging from the ceiling in the plaza, as well as fixing the skylights.

A circulator bus system for Fulton and DeKalb counties, on-board security cameras for all of MARTA’s bus, rail and paratransit vehicles, and and set-up of a distance-based rail fare system are also still included.

An extension of the Silver Comet Trail from Cobb County to Centennial Olympic Park and an ad system for MARTA’s rail tunnels were both axed.

What’s next?

An Atlanta Regional Commission informational meeting will be held June 9, followed by a meeting of the executive committee for Atlanta’s regional roundtable. The executive committee meeting will be open for public input on the first round of changes to the wish list.

A “telephone town hall meeting” for Fulton County residents is scheduled or June 22.

Details are on the roundtable’s meeting page.

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Transportation Investment Inter(Act)ive

2 May

If you’re having trouble wrapping your head around the wheres and whats of the Atlanta Regional Roundtable’s transportation project “wish list,” or if you’d just like a quick, easy way to get more information on projects close to you, check this out:

The Roundtable has created an interactive map of all 437 projects that were submitted for funding. (Keep in mind that this list will be trimmed considerably during the next several months.) Just use the text, graphic or address function to specify an area and the map produces a list of proposed projects submitted for the area you highlighted. Alongside each item on that list is a link to its project submittal form. The project submittal form provides a description of the project as well as information about the purpose, submitting agency and cost and completion time estimates.

After you finish playing with the map, make sure to take the quick transportation priorities survey  here or here.

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South Fulton County transportation survey for HB 277

15 Mar

Between e-readers and the availability used books for almost nothing online,  many of us don’t spend much time at public libraries any more. So, you could easily have missed the south Fulton County transportation survey that’s linked from the Atlanta-Fulton County Library home page. The survey’s purpose is to gather residents’ opinions on transportation project  priorities.  (Here’s a link to the PowerPoint presentation that the library’s site mentions.)

The “Transportation Investment Act of 2010,” also known as HB 277, requires each of the state’s 12 regions to vote next year on whether to assess themselves a 1 percent sales tax for 10 years to fund local and regional transportation projects. Residents will vote on the sales tax during the primary election in spring or summer of 2012. If the new tax is passed,  funds should become available for use in 2013.

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