Newspaper Page Text
COMMUNITY
Isakson celebrates Johnson
Ferry/Abernathy Road widening
BY DAN WHISENHUNT
danwhisenhunt@reporternewspapers.net
In many ways, the 40-year wait to
improve one of Sandy Springs’ major
east-west corridors mirrored the story
of U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s politi
cal career.
The road and Isakson’s political
fortunes faced the same adversary:
politics.
Isakson failed at running for higher
office after serving in the state House
from 1977 to 1990, losing a bid for
governor in 1990 and later, a bid for
U.S. Senate in 1996. The widening of
Johnson Ferry and Abernathy Roads
was on the minds of voters in 1977,
but politics delayed the project for de
cades.
“The politics were so bad between
Cobb and Fulton County about 20
years ago, that somebody shot out the
light with an elephant gun on the Cobb
County side of Johnson Ferry Road
Bridge, because of the tension between
the two counties,” Isakson said.
On April 29, Isakson, who became
a U.S. Senator in 2005, stood in front
of the completed road and said it was
worth the wait. It’ll be a smoother ride
from here on out, he told the crowd
gathered at an event to mark the proj
ect’s end.
The slow drizzle of rain wasn’t bother
ing him. Snow wouldn’t have even both
ered him, he said. The road was finished.
He wasn’t going to miss an opportunity
to cut the ribbon and close that chapter.
“I look forward to spending the rest
of my life riding on Johnson Ferry and
Abernathy, not being parked on John
son Ferry and Abernathy,” Isakson said.
The project cost $25.7 million, and
Isakson, who was elected to the U.S.
House of Representatives in 1999 be
fore becoming a U.S. Senator, helped
find the money to pay for it. Contrac
tors expanded Abernathy Road from
Johnson Ferry to Roswell Road, widen
ing the east to west corridor from two
lanes to four. The project included a me
dian, bike lanes and sidewalks, too.
The project also expanded Johnson
Ferry from Columns Drive, just across
the river, to Abernathy Road. Contrac
tors widened Columns to Riverside
Drive to six lanes, and Riverside to Ab
ernathy to four lanes. That portion of
the project also has a median, sidewalks
and bike lanes.
Eventually the city of Sandy Springs
will complete the Abernathy Greenway
Linear Park project along the intersec
tion of Abernathy and Brandon Mill
Road, a projected noted in Isakson’s
“thank you” speech. Residents’ com
plaints about portions of the road proj
ect helped to delay the park’s opening,
pushing it back to early 2014.
Isakson said the residents driving the
road four decades ago were furious when
the road was two lanes. He remembered
DAN WHISENHUNT
Sen. Isakson speaks to
reporters on April 29.
it well. After the press conference, one of
the reporters gathered around the sena
tor asked if there would be a traffic study
that would measure whether the expan
sion reduced gridlock.
Isakson looked at the reporter as if
he’d just asked whether the rain falling
from the sky would make the ground
wet.
“You must’ve never been out here be
fore,” Isakson said to the reporter. “You
don’t have to study it.”
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