Safety Improvements
to 316 Likely Depend
on T-SPLOST Passage
Despite continuing criticism of Georgia
state Route 316 as a dangerous road, little
seems likely to change unless voters approve
upgrades next year to be funded by a new
one*cent transportation tax. "T-SPLOST' - proj
ects could include upgrades to as many as 11
intersections along 316, based on suggested
projects submitted by the three counties—
Oconee, Barrow and Gwinnett—that the
40-rnile road crosses. But the final projects to
be submitted to voters
haven't yet been picked
from that larger list.
Voters will approve
or reject the new tax
region-by-region, and 316
straddles two regions:
Athens-Clarke County’s
12-county Northeast
Georgia region and the Atlanta region (which
includes Gwinnett County, where 316 meets
Interstate 85). So, the road could be upgraded
at one end but not the other. If voters fail to
approve the new tax, improvements to 316
could be a decade or two away.
So far, persistent concerns by citizens
and local elected officials—including a joint
resolution by commissioners in all three coun
ties and a legislative study committee—have
brought forth from the Georgia Department
of Transportation only a study of how to
improve the road. Tire 2003 study (itself cost
ing $900,000) recommended upgrading to
freeway standards and adding an H0V lane in
each direction—improvements that would cost
perhaps $P '0 millhAV to be funded with tolls.
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But charging tolls was widely unpopular—
even with GDOT's own board members, who
later passed a resolution barring tolls on
existing roadways. Without tolls. GDOT's con
sultant said, "full implementation could take
as long as 20-25 years."
The report also studied accident rates
along 316; it concluded that they are higher
than along other, similar Georgia roads. Most
serious accidents have occurred along rural
sections of 316. Fatalities were 32 percent
higher on 316 than along similar stretches of
Georgia roads, the report said; accidents caus
ing injuries, but not deaths, were 47 percent
mote frequent. The eastern end of 316, already
a limited-access freeway, has a fatality rate
only 38 percent that of a similar, nearby por
tion with only “at-grade”
intersections.
The busiest sections
of 316 are in Gwinnett
County; accident rates
there are also the h igh-
est. The Oconee County
end is statistically safer
(despite the recent
double fatality at Jimmie Daniel Road, caused
when an out-of-town driver ran a red light
at full speed). And while "nowhere near the
majority of drivers" on 316 drive danger
ously. according to Captain Phillip Gainey of
the Oconee Sheriff's department—most stay
within five miles per hour of the speed limit—
"far too many are engaged in other and sundry
things," he says.
“You're far safer wearing a seat belt."
Gainey says. "You're far safer, too, if you drive
the speed limit, or close to it. But if you're
doing all these other things,"—using phones
or Blackberrys; reading—"the laws of nature
will find you out." *
John Huie i
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Fatalities were 32 percent
higher on 316 than along
similar stretches of
Georgia roads.
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