Walton High School is visible in the background from a construction site for a new field for the school’s baseball teams.
Tennis courts at the new Walton athletics facility at Pine Road and Providence Road have been completed and are in use.
Connecting the latest addition to the Walton campus to the main facilities on Bill Murdock Road is the final piece of a long process of overhauling most of the school’s facilities.
It’s also proven to be challenging.
The baseball field was reconfigured in the design stage after nearby residents were concerned about noise and lighting issues.
Safety and traffic considerations also have factored in. Cobb DOT was planning to realign and straighten out the intersection of Bill Murdock and Pine Road, but that project has fallen through.
The school district also tried to get Cobb DOT to increase pedestrian crosswalks, but Cobb County School District Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said that was a “no go.”
Last week, the Cobb Board of Education approved spending $1 million for a dedicated raised pedestrian bridge, a project included in the Cobb Education SPLOST V.
The construction contract was awarded to Lewallen Construction Co. on Bells Ferry Road, and details of the project are still being worked out. The expected timeline is to begin construction this summer and finish in December.
When Cobb DOT announced the Pine-Bill Murdock plans last spring there wasn’t a set price tag.
“Originally, the design was going to have students, teachers, parents, everybody who parks at the school walk all the way up Bill Murdock, cross it, then walk all the way up Pine Road,” Ragsdale said during a board work session last Thursday.
“We know high school kids. They’re not going to make that journey on the sidewalk. We had to provide a safer path that we knew kids would take.”
Cobb government spokesman Ross Cavitt told East Cobb News that Cobb DOT and the school district “agreed last year on a more cost-effective option over a realignment.”
The path will include a sidewalk along Bill Murdock, with the bridge traversing a creek located in a flood plain area near the intersection.
School board member David Banks, whose post includes the Walton attendance zone, said the Pine-Bill Murdock intersection is dangerous.
“That curve is a very high-level safety concern,” he said. “You’ve got to find some way of slowing people down where they can see around the curve because those students, they’re not always going to look.
“The people who live around Walton, they know the danger. We need to find ways to to minimize this,” he said, suggesting the school district consider a crosswalk in the future.
Related:
- Lassiter HS senior accepts appointment to U.S. Naval Academy
- Longtime Mountain View ES principal to retire
- Proposed Cobb schools FY ’24 budget includes millage rate cut
- Cobb school board candidate: ‘You have to be passionate to do this’
- Cobb schools FY ’24 budget, facilities contracts on agenda
- East Cobb activist declares intent to run for school board
- Banks undecided about seeking re-election to Cobb school board
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