Category Archives: T-SPLOST

T-SPLOST meeting in Waycross today

Update 12:30 8 September 2011: SGRC provided a fixed link to the
public comment form.

The first SGRC public meeting about the T-SPLOST

Draft Constrained Investment List
is today in Waycross:


View Larger Map

Wednesday, September 7, 2011; 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.; at the Southern
Georgia Regional Commission Waycross Office; 1725 South Georgia Parkway
West, Waycross, Georgia; presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m.

If you live near Waycross, you may want to compare your local projects
in the

Draft Constrained Investment List
with the previous
unconstrained list
to see what’s still in there and if there are any

50% cost increases like the Old US 41 North widening.

The
VLMPO SGRC web page
includes a link to a
Public Comment Form
but as you can see that link gets “page cannot be found”.
Doubtless that’s an accident, given that VLMPO is and SGRC are among
the most devoted to transparency of local governmental organizations.

Fixed now, with this new link to the public comment form.

I’d like to point out VLMPO SGRC does T-SPLOST administration,
but is not responsible for the content of the project lists;
those come from your local governments and are selected by
the T-SPLOST regional committee and the Georgia Department of Transportation.

Here’s the

PDF public meeting notice
received 30 August from VLMPO SGRC along with the

cover letter already published.
HTML version is appended below.

-jsq

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50% increase for Old US 41 North widening: now $12 million T-SPLOST



In addition to the Draft Constrained List for T-SPLOST

draft constrained list of T-SPLOST projects, which doesn’t even include dollar estimates,
this

longer report
contains details for each project.
And the cost to widen Old US 41 North from North Valdosta Road to
Union Road has gone up from

the previous estimate in June of
$8 million to $12 million in August, for a 50% increase!
I wonder if the County Commissioners know about this rapid cost inflation.

Previous Current Difference Increase%
PE $650,000 $800,000 $150,000 23%
ROW $850,000 $1,200,000 $350,000 41%
CST $6,500,000 $10,000,000 $3,500,000 54%
Total $8,000,000 $12,000,000 $4,000,000 50%



Curious how when the components went up by odd amounts,
the total went up by exactly 50%.
It’s almost like the total was increased and then the components
were arranged to add up to that.

Also curious how the biggest increase, percentage (54%)
and total ($3,500,000) is for construction.
I could see how Rights of Way (ROW) acquisition costs might go up
because people might not want this boondoggle in their front yards,
but why was it so hard to estimate construction costs the first time?

And curious how that construction increase is a bit more than

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T-SPLOST Public Meetings Set —SGRC

Received yesterday. -jsq

For Immediate Release For More Information Contact:
August 25, 2011 Corey Hull, 229-333-5277

Public Meetings Set for Transportation Sales Tax Project List



The Southern Georgia Regional Transportation Roundtable has set a series
of public meetings to review the Draft Constrained Investment List for
the following counties, representing the Special District for a proposed
transportation sales and use tax: Atkinson, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien,
Brantley, Brooks, Charlton, Clinch, Coffee, Cook, Echols, Irwin, Lanier,
Lowndes, Pierce, Tift, Turner, and Ware.

In 2010, Governor Sonny Perdue signed into law the Transportation
Investment Act of 2010, a law prescribing a regional sales tax referendum
for transportation projects. Jay Roberts, State Representative from
District 154-Ocilla, and Chairman of the House Transportation Committee,
said “This law gives

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Atlanta’s T-SPLOST

Atlanta at least included some public transport in its T-SPLOST list,
although most of its list will more likely make problems worse for pedestrians.

Ariel Hart wrote for the AJC 15 August 2011,

Regional transportation list approved



If the projects are built, in just over a decade passengers could
be riding trains from Atlanta to Cobb County or to Emory University,
or traveling new, swifter ramps through the Ga. 400/I-285 interchange,
or finding countless arterial roads wider and less clogged, from Henry
County to Cherokee County and all points in between.

New swifter ramps! Countless arterial roads less clogged!
Well, except by

pedestrians trying to scurry through the faster traffic.

Why, in the second decade of the 21st century,
do we continue with a failed traffic model from the
middle of the 20th century?
Seems to me traffic safety should be
pertinent and should include pedestrians.
and instead of
more unsafe roads
making life unpleasant and unsafe for communities,
we could go for
roads that serve communities.

-jsq

T-SPLOST projects as of 15 August 2011

Here’s what’s still on the agenda for T-SPLOST funding for our T-SPLOST region:

Constrained Draft Project Listing, Southern Georgia


Most of Lowndes County’s boondoggle road widening
projects seem to have been bounced off the list.
This one is still on there:

$8 million to widen old US 41 North.



Some of the other projects may also be boondoggles for all I know,
but at least all the ones to widen roads right to the north edge
of the county and thus drive development all the way into
agricultural and forest areas are gone.
Here’s the list:

Continue reading →

Do we need more of the same unsafe roads?

Many T-SPLOST projects submitted by Lowndes County would make traffic safety
worse.

More from Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones of Georgia Tech:



Even Buford Highway, she says, could be transformed with medians,
trees and buildings set closer to the road. Changes that are known
to slow traffic. But outside of the ivory tower, change does not come
easily. Or quickly.

Last year Georgia spent more than two billion dollars on transportation,
but only a tiny fraction, less than 1 percent, went specifically to
pedestrian safety.

And what Lowndes County has sent in for T-SPLOST funding includes:

Do we need more of the same unsafe roads?

-jsq

Why should traffic safety not be a pertinent fact?

We’ve seen that
traffic safety is a big problem in Atlanta and elsewhere,
and

Virginia is leading the way in traffic redesigns to fix such problems.
Meanwhile,

Lowndes County
doesn’t consider it even pertinent:



Traffic on Old Pine will be regulated by the amount of people who
use the highway;
traffic on Bemiss since you and I moved out there forty years ago.

…

I’m not going to argue Bemiss Highway, it’s not a pertinent fact.

That’s right, traffic and traffic safety are considered not pertinent
to building subdivisions, according to the Chairman of the Lowndes County
Commission, and the actions of the Commissioners and staff.
The developer gets to consider only their one property and
the neighbors get to deal with all the effects on all the related roads.
Privatization of profits and socialization of problems
such as traffic accidents.
Does that seem right to you?

If not, it’s going to go on until more people argue and
debate.
In fact, many of Lowndes County’s T-SPLOST tax request would make the problem worse.
See
next post.

-jsq

Lowndes County has transparency issues —John S. Quarterman @ LCC 28 June 2011



No unfinished drafts will be published while Ashley Paulk is chairman,
or so he told us.

I asked him how he recommended citizens provide input to the
budget process?
He said at every meeting.

So I said I wondered why the county attorney seemed to be overbudget.
No response.

Then I got to my main point, which was that the county seems to have
a number of transparency issues,
such as



the missing ordinances he’d just heard about,



or Vince Schneider’s Foxborough McDonald’s issues,



or the animal shelter issues,
or



the T-SPLOST list that the Commission approved
on the basis of a one page list of one-liner with no details
that turns out to include things like

$10 million to widen New Bethel Road to Lanier County.

I said I would like to compare the county’s submissions for T-SPLOST
funding to the county’s Thoroughfare Plan
and the Comprehensive Plan; if I could find those plans online.
The Chairman said my five minutes were up.
I said “Alrighty” and moseyed back to my seat.
As you can see for yourself, it was actually 4 and a half minutes.

-jsq

Here’s

the video:

Continue reading →

VLMPO meets 12 July 2011 —Corey Hull

Corey Hull of VLMPO sent this 27 June 2011. The TIA item is about T-SPLOST, and there is opportunity for citizen participation. -jsq

Good Afternoon,

The Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Committee
will be holding its next regular meeting on July 12, 2011 at 1:30 p.m.
at the SGRC office (address below). Please find attached the agenda.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at
chull@sgrc.us or at 229-333-5277.



Corey Hull, AICP

MPO Coordinator

Valdosta-Lowndes MPO

327 W. Savannah Ave.

Valdosta, GA 31601

Visit our

Facebook Site!

229.333.5277

229.300.0922 (c)

229.333.5312 (f)

chull@sgrc.us


www.sgrc.us/transportation

That agenda is appended. -jsq

Continue reading →

$7.5 million T-SPLOST for a bus system

What costs less than

$10 million to widen New Bethel Road from 2 to five lanes
and less than

$8 million to widen Old US 41 North?
The answer is $7.5 million for a Valdosta Urbanized Area Transit System


…including the creation and maintainance of a Public Transit System in the City
of Valdosta and Greater Valdosta-Lowndes County.

What would be the benefits?

This project will provide mobility options for all travelers; improve
access to employment; and help mitigate congestion and maximize the use
of existing infrastructure by promoting high-occupancy travel.

And that’s the entire description for this project.
Nothing about promoting sprawl.
Would actually promote dense close-in development.
Can’t be very important, then, right?

Not when the sprawl plans for

Val Del Road
and

Cat Creek Road
add up to $6 million, or almost enough for the entire bus system.



Last time the transit system was being considered by the county,
I was asked by a prominent local politican, “would you ride it?”
Not every day.
But more often than I would drive on the $10 million five lane New Bethel Road.

If you’re interested in a potential bus system, here is
a lot more information about it.

Here’s what Lowndes County submitted for
T-SPLOST funding, extracted from the
171 page PDF.

Project Sheet

Continue reading →