New Traffic Pattern Comes To College Drive And Walnut Avenue Intersection

Change is coming to the College Drive/Walnut Avenue intersection, where traffic has backed up during peak hours for the past several years.

But the solution won’t be the much talked about roundabout, local officials reported.

“We knew we had a major traffic issue at College Drive, Walnut Avenue, Dug Gap Battle Road,” said Dalton Public Works Director Benny Dunn. “We had backups over the hill on College Drive. It was a high accident intersection, and we had all kinds of unsafe movements. We’ve seen a lot of cars come down from College Drive in the right turn lane, make a right turn, go up toward the trade center about 200 feet, make a U-turn, and head back into town. It was just very unsafe.”

Mr. Dunn was one of the speakers during a press conference updating local road projects, sponsored at Dalton City Hall by Rep. Roger Williams, a member of the Georgia Department of Transportation board.

State and federal officials came up with the idea of a roundabout to solve the congestion problems at the intersection several years ago, but Mr. Dunn and other local leaders grew more concerned by the day about whether that was actually the best solution.

“At first, we were all on board,” Mr. Dunn said. “We thought this is going to be great, it’s going to really fix the problem. But the longer we looked at this thing, the more nervous we got about it. First of all, the Walnut Avenue interchange is the gateway to Dalton, so we got nervous about impacting our gateway and our economic access to I-75.”

Also, this would be the first time that an interstate ramp had been designed to have a roundabout “so that scared us a little bit,” Mr. Dunn said, “and  then  it was a multi-lane roundabout. Just think about it – if you’re a tourist headed to Florida south-bound, you get off at our exit, you’ve been running 80mph and  you’ve got about three seconds to decide which lane to get in, in order to go whichever direction you want to go. We just got nervous about how people were going to navigate through this.”

Then there was the time issue involving a roundabout. Last year, the Georgia Department of Transportation agreed to take over the design of the roundabout, but during the past seven years, standards have changed, forcing a completely new design that would not be ready until 2018, further delaying construction until 2020 or 2021.

Fortunately, the years of delay making a decision on the best solution also had a positive effect. One of the reasons for the roundabout in the first place was that earlier plans to move the intersection west and line it up with West Bridge Road were nixed because the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce building was in the way. Four years ago, however, the city acquired the Chamber property and tore the building down. “That’s not an issue anymore,” Mr. Dunn said.

That meant now the roundabout wasn’t the only game in town.

Andrew Parker, assistant public works director for the city of Dalton, came up with an alternative that should be several million dollars cheaper, and much faster to build.

The new idea is to realign College Drive with West Bridge Road (which runs to Red Lobster), moving it 275 linear feet from the existing I-75 soundbound ramp, Mr. Parker said.  A new traffic signal will be installed at the new College Drive/West Bridge  intersection and coordinated with the existing light at the I-75 off-ramp, maximizing traffic flow through those two intersections, according to Parker.

“Our plan also includes dual left-turn lanes coming out of the new College Drive, which would maximize the storage capacity for folks leaving College Drive during peak hours,” Mr. Parker said. “Additionally, we are proposing to install a third lane which would allow folks to turn right and go west up Dug Gap Battle Road or go straight through to West Bridge Road.”

West Bridge Road will be shifted about 50 feet west to tie in better with the new College Drive.

“We feel very strongly that the realignment project, once constructed, will provide a much more intuitive traffic configuration for local and out-of-town drivers,” Mr. Parker said.

The project can also be delivered more quickly since it doesn’t affect federal or state right-of-way, reducing the permitting and approvals process and making the intersection more simple to design and engineer.

Design costs will drop to about $200,000 – compared to the $1.5-$2 million with the roundabout, and  “we will save big money on construction costs because it will be much easier to construct this way,” Mr. Parker said. “One of the roundabout problems was that the intersection had to remain open at all times during construction, and that raises the cost considerably. Construction costs should be less than half the projected $5 million for the roundabout.”

Best of all, Mr. Parker says that since the project was one of the main parts of the 2007 T-SPLOST (Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax), the money is already in the bank, meaning the new intersection could be ready for motorists to use just 18 to 24 months from now.

GDOT has given its blessings on the project, and design work is expected to begin shortly.

Also during the meeting, officials gave updates on several projects, including:

The Veterans Drive extension project. “Not a lot of people know about this project but it’s going to be very beneficial to residents,” Devon Brooks of Dalton Public Works pointed out in her presentation.

While it’s called Veterans Drive extension,  the project actually consists of the widening of Fields Avenue from Morris Street at its intersection with 5^th Avenue and it’ll cross MLK and tie into Underwood at Veterans Drive extension.

“Currently, this is a very heavily traveled north-south commuter corridor, and it’s really going to benefit people that travel that corridor and residents in that area,” Ms. Brooks said. “It will widen Fields Avenue from a two-lane section now to a three-lane section and will add sidewalks to both sides.”

The project will include a signal at the intersection of MLK and Fields as well as additional left turn lanes and crosswalks, Ms. Brooks said. “It’s going to improve safety for vehicles and more importantly pedestrians.”

Currently, right-of-way acquisition is nearly complete, and officials hope to let the project this summer, with a construction time of about 18 months.

Reconstruction of the Rocky Face Interchange at I-75.  Glenn Warlick, area engineer for GDOT, said the project is slightly behind schedule for various reasons and is 42 percent complete, compared to the expected 49-50 percent. Still, he believes work will be done by the deadline of Oct. 2, 2016.

“We’re trying to increase visibility and increase traffic flow through this interchange,” Mr. Warlick said.

Besides a new I-75 bridge over U.S. 41, construction will include two extra lanes on U.S. 41 as well as two ramps (one going north and one going south)  to get onto U.S. 41 from I-75 southbound.

Resurfacing of I-75 from the Rocky Face interchange to the Tennessee line, with bids going out this fall and work beginning in spring 2016.  A second phase will follow to repave I-75 from the Red Bud Road exit in Gordon County to the Rocky Face interchange.

Reconstruction of the interchange of I-75 at Carbondale Road. Mr. Warlick said this is expected to go out for bids in October.

Brooker Road extension. Whitfield County Engineer Kent Benson said the project name is a bit of a misnomer as it is an extension of Pleasant Grove Drive, connecting the North Dalton Bypass to Dawnville Road.

Construction began in July 2014  and is expected to be done by Dec. 1, 2015. “Right now, it may look like we’re nowhere close, but in the next three weeks, you’ll see a lot of base going down so that new road will be covered with rock in a few weeks and then  you’ll see some asphalt going down shortly,” Mr. Benson said. “You’ll be amazed at the difference over the next three months.”

Construction of a local access road in the Carbondale Business Park. The current road into the park ends in a culdesac, but a new road will go from Nexus Drive to Carbondale Road at I-75, Benson said. Two Appalachian Regional Commission grants totaling $1.3 million will be used to pay for the project, with the county matching that amount.

A contract is expected to be let in October or November, Mr. Benson said, and he expects a 10-12 month construction contract, meaning the road should be open by late 2016.

Realignment of State Route 201 from Lees Chapel Road to U.S. 41, straightening a 90-degree curve as drivers leave Tunnel Hill and head for Varnell.

“This is a new road that will extend from that curve westward over to U.S. 41,” Mr. Benson said, adding that construction will be in 2018-19 with a project budget of $6.5 million coming from the 2015 SPLOST.