{"id":1865,"date":"2011-06-23T16:40:21","date_gmt":"2011-06-23T20:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/3-million-t-splost-for-sprawl-on-cat-creek-road.html"},"modified":"2011-06-23T16:40:21","modified_gmt":"2011-06-23T20:40:21","slug":"3-million-t-splost-for-sprawl-on-cat-creek-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/3-million-t-splost-for-sprawl-on-cat-creek-road.html","title":{"rendered":"$3 million T-SPLOST for sprawl on Cat Creek Road"},"content":{"rendered":"Three million dollars buried on page 90 of the\n\n171 page T-SPLOST Unconstrained Investment List\nfor the Southern Georgia Region<\/a>\nto funnel traffic along Cat Creek Road to Moody Air Force Base, promoting sprawl in far north Lowndes County,\nin an area the Comprehensive Plan says should be for agriculture\nand forestry.\n

\nIn amongst the boilerplate and the red herrings (“potentially reducing\nthe incidence of crashes”, “mitigating congestion”) is the real purpose\nof this project:\n

\n\n<\/a>\nAlso as a part of the project, protected left turn lanes will be added at\nvarious intersections along Cat Creek Road. The proposed intersections\ninclude Pine Grove Road, Radar Site Road, New Bethel Road, and Hambrick\nRoad.\n<\/blockquote>\nThere’s a more long-term reason, too, which is hinted at with this\nfurther unnecessary work:\n\n\n
\nThis project will widen Cat Creek Road from\n10.5′ lanes to 12′ travel lanes and add a two foot wide\npaved shoulder with ground in place rumble strips. The entire\nlength of Cat Creek Road will be resurfaced as a part of\nthis project.\n<\/blockquote>\nWhat is that more long-term reason?\n
\n“could potentially maximize the full utility of an existing transportation facility(s).”\n<\/blockquote>\nTranslation: promoting development in an area that,\naccording to the Comprehensive Plan,\nis not supposed to be developed.\nIn plain language: sprawl.\nThat’s what Lowndes County wants your $3 million in tax dollars for.\n

\nYes, I know, half of any SPLOST comes from outside Lowndes County.\nBut why is that any excuse to promote sprawl that will cost the county\nmoney and end up increasing our property taxes while decreasing our\nquality of life?\n

\nAs I wrote in February 2010,\n

\nState highways 122 and 129 (Bemiss Road) make a nice fast route from\nHahira to Moody. A few improvements at Walker’s Crossing (where 122 and\n129 intersect) would seem much more appropriate. The MPO could request\nfor the state to do that.\n<\/blockquote>\nSo why doesn’t Lowndes County do that, considering it would cost a lot\nless to fix up one intersection than four plus widening a whole road?\nBecause it wouldn’t promote development, which trumps everything in\nLowndes County.\n

\nWe didn’t know how much that boondoggle would cost back then.\nNow we do.\n$3 million dollars is far too much for a project to benefit developers at the expense of everybody else.\n

\nThe complete project description is appended.\n

\n-jsq\n

Project Sheet

<\/center>\n
\n\n
\nProject Number:<\/b><\/i>\n<\/td>\nRC11-000069\n
\n
\nProject Name:<\/b><\/i>\n<\/td>\nCat Creek Road Additional Lane Width and Turning Lanes
\n
\n
\nGDOT ID:<\/b><\/i><\/td>\n
\n
\nProject Description:<\/b><\/i>\n<\/td>\nCat Creek Road is classified as a major collector road that traverses from\nBerrien County into Northern Lowndes County and terminates at\nState Route 125. This project will widen Cat Creek Road from\n10.5′ lanes to 12′ travel lanes and add a two foot wide\npaved shoulder with ground in place rumble strips. The entire\nlength of Cat Creek Road will be resurfaced as a part of\nthis project. In some areas, drainage structures will have to\nbe extended. Also as a part of the project, protected\nleft turn lanes will be added at various intersections along Cat Creek\nRoad. The proposed intersections include Pine Grove Road,\nRadar Site Road, New Bethel Road, and Hambrick Road. Finally,\ndeceleration lanes will be added at various intersections and\nat entrances into major subdivisions. The proposed intersections\nwill include the four roads listed above and the proposed major\nsubdivisions will include Chandler Place Subdivision, Roswell\nSubdivision, Pebble Creek Subdivision, Pebble Ridge Subdivision, and\nFairington Place Subdivision. Limited ROW will need to\nbe acquired in areas where deceleration lanes and left turn lanes are\nbuilt.\n
\n<\/td><\/tr>\n
\nRegional Commission:<\/b><\/i><\/td>\nSouthern Georgia<\/td><\/tr>\n
\nUnconstrained List:<\/b><\/i><\/td>\nYes\n
<\/td><\/tr>\n
\nCounty:<\/b><\/i>\n<\/td>\nLowndes County
\n<\/td><\/tr><\/table>\n\n
\nPhase<\/b><\/td>\nTotal Project Cost<\/b><\/td>\nTotal Amt Requested<\/b><\/td>\nComments:<\/b><\/i><\/td><\/tr>\n
\nPE<\/td>\n$150,000<\/td>\n$150,000<\/td><\/tr>\n
\nROW<\/td>\n$100,000<\/td>\n$100,000<\/td><\/tr>\n
\nCST<\/td>\n$2,750,000<\/td>\n$2,750,000<\/td><\/tr>\n
\nTotal<\/b><\/td>\n$3,000,000<\/b><\/td>\n$3,000,000<\/b><\/td><\/tr>\n<\/table>\n\n
\nPublic Benefit<\/b>\n<\/td>\nNotes<\/b>\n<\/td><\/tr>\n
\nEnsuring Safety and Security\n<\/td>\nThis project would benefit the public by potentially reducing the incidence of crashes along this roadway segment,\ncorridor, and\/or intersection.\n<\/td><\/tr>\n
\nMaximizing the value of\nGeorgia’s Assets\n<\/td>\nThis project could potentially maximize the full utility of an existing transportation facility(s). In some cases, bypasses\nwill be necessary. Example benefits could be: mitigating congestion (e.g. operational improvements) and optimizing capital asset management (e.g. resurfacing, rehabilitation). The impacts would apply to this roadway segment, corridor, and\/or intersection.\n<\/td><\/tr>\n<\/table>\nProject Location<\/b><\/i>
\n\n<\/a>\n
\n<\/td><\/tr><\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three million dollars buried on page 90 of the 171 page T-SPLOST Unconstrained Investment List for the Southern Georgia Region to funnel traffic along Cat Creek Road to Moody Air Force Base, promoting sprawl in far north Lowndes County, in an area the Comprehensive Plan says should be for agriculture and forestry. In amongst the […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[88,1177,449],"tags":[3177,4319,4322,1334,1968,8701,2289,7,8734,625,1329,2291,4320,4323,4321,1167,8822,60,4318],"class_list":["post-1865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-t-splost","category-transportation","tag-afb","tag-bemiss-road","tag-boondoogle","tag-cat-creek-road","tag-developers","tag-georgia","tag-hambrick-road","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-mike-fletcher","tag-moody-air-force-base","tag-new-bethel-road","tag-pine-grove-road","tag-quality-of-life","tag-radar-site-road","tag-sprawl","tag-t-splost","tag-tax","tag-walkers-crossing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-u5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}