About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (May 23, 2018)
Wednesday, May 23,2018 dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 3A GDOT holds open house for roundabout plans Allie Dean Dawson County News Georgia Department of Transportation Project Manager Heidi Schneider talks to a citizen about proposed roundabouts at Hwy. 9 and Dawson Forest Road during an open house May 15. By Allie Dean adean@dawsonnews.com Dawson County residents trickled into the lunchroom at Riverview Elementary School last Tuesday to see and hear plans for a double roundabout planned at the intersection of Hwy. 9 South and Dawson Forest Road. Representatives with the Georgia Department of Transportation stood at vari ous stations, passing out infor mation and comment cards to attendees and answering ques tions about the proposed traf fic changes. Julie Hughes Nix, Dawson County’s District 4 commis sioner, was one of the first to arrive, and talked with a GDOT representative about the proximity of her home and property to the new round abouts. Nix lives on Dawson Forest Road East just before the intersection, but was told that the only thing that would impact her directly would be a few feet of paving at the end of her driveway. In fact, no right of way will have to be acquired for the project, which is estimated to cost around $4 million. The double roundabout is estimated to open in the sum mer or fall of 2021 after 18 to 24 months of construction. GDOT will award the con tracts for the work in July of 2019, with a potential start date for construction later that summer. The reason that two single lane roundabouts are neces sary at the crossroads is due to the existing structure of the two intersections. According to the project plans, there are two intersec tions on Hwy. 9 prior to the main intersection, and both provide right-turn access to Dawson Forest Road via a connector street. There are also two intersections on Dawson Forest Road prior to the main intersection and both provide left turn access to Hwy. 9 via a connector street. The proposed project would replace the existing unsignal ized intersections with the roundabouts, which will be constructed independently of each other since the existing intersections are offset from each other. One big roundabout, as one citizen suggested at the open house, wouldn’t be feasible. Many of the citizens present at the open house were merely curious about how the traffic would flow around the inter section (something difficult to describe even when watching the GDOT-provided video dia grams) or how construction would affect their commute to work, and the question and answer session proved fruitful as many had their queries answered. Some, however, remained resolute that the concept of two roundabouts is too much in a county still reeling from a certain Continuous Flow Intersection located at Ga. 400 and Hwy. 53, which was com pleted last May. “I went to the original meet ing for the (CFI), what it ended up with isn’t what they originally showed,” said Sarah Reed, county resident. “It’s common sense versus GDOT. People in the U.S. aren’t used to traffic circles unless you’ve lived in D.C. It’s an accident waiting to happen.” Reed’s pessimism was shared by many, but according to Katie Strickland, District One communications officer with GDOT, once completed, the roundabouts will actually reduce conflict points and enhance safety. “You’re not going to have the high-speed angle crashes, you’re not going to have the left turn crashes, you’re not going to have the head-on col lisions. So those three will be eliminated from these round abouts.” Since 2009, there have been 40 crashes, 30 injuries and no fatalities at the intersection, according to Strickland. “Converting this to the roundabout could result in reducing crashes by 45.6 per cent, and that was part of the study that (GDOT) did,” she said. Strickland also said that the traffic capacity of the intersec tion will last for 20 years. GDOT is still in the engi neering and designing phase of the project, and are wel coming any suggestions or comments from the public. Comments will be accepted until May 30, 2018. To leave a comment online, go to www. dot.ga.gov/PS/PublicOutreach. From the menu, select “Dawson County” and click “Go.” Then select “State Route 9 at Dawson Forest Road Roundabouts.” Fastly, click “comment” and follow the instructions to leave your comments. Comments can also be mailed to Eric Duff, Georgia Department of Transportation, 600 West Peachtree Street NW, 16th Floor, Atlanta, Ga. 30308. New member appointed to Board of Elections For the Dawson County News Marie Head was recent ly appointed by the Dawson County Democratic Party to fill a vacant seat on the Dawson County Board of Elections. She took the official oath on May 16 at the board of elec tions office. Head is fill ing the remaining term of Spencer Maddux, who retired in April after 13 years on the board. The term ends in December. Head joins Chairwoman Glenda Ferguson as well as Katrina Holbrook, Dan Pichon and Dale Holland on the board. KINETIC INTERNET HIGH-SPEED INTERNET FOR YOUR HOME •Speeds up to 100 Mbps • Reliable connection to stream on multiple devices at once • Unlimited Internet with no data caps HELLO, DAWSON VI HE. GOODBYE, SLOW INTERNET. 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