East Cobb Traffic & Roads

Cobb to consider Walton HS sports complex sidewalk project

by
Walton HS sports complex pedestrian bridge
The proposed sidewalk covers 0.1 mile on Bill Murdock Road across from the Walton HS campus.

Funding for a sidewalk connecting the Walton High School campus with a new sports complex for the school will be requested Tuesday by Cobb DOT.

The Cobb Board of Commissioners will be asked to spend $720,897 for the one-tenth of a mile sidewalk along the southern side of Bill Murdock Road, between Old College Way and Pine Road (see map below).

In an agenda item for Tuesday night’s meeting (you can read it here), Cobb DOT said $359,762 would come from the 2022 Cobb SPLOST School Zone Improvements component. Another $384,762 in Cobb DOT water system funding would be needed to relocate water lines.

The low bidder was Advanced Sports Construction, LLC of Woodstock.Walton HS sidewalk project

The sidewalk would extend to a $1 million pedestrian bridge that the Cobb Board of Education approved in April to the sports complex, traversing a creek located in a flood plain area near the Bill Murdock-Pine Road intersection.

The sports complex is located on property on Pine Road and Providence Road that the Cobb County School District has purchased to construct a $6.738 million sports complex, housing the Walton varsity tennis and baseball teams.

Walton’s tennis teams played home matches there this spring, but the baseball portion of the complex is still under construction.

Safe access to the complex from the school campus to the complex, which will have 80 parking spaces, is necessary for practices as well as competitions.

The Cobb school district tried to get Cobb DOT to increase pedestrian crosswalks, but to no avail. Cobb DOT also was looking at realigning Bill Murdock Road and Pine Road to straighten out a curve near the intersection, but that also will not be happening.

Traffic at the intersection is regulated by a three-way stop sign.

The Board of Commissioners meeting Tuesday will take place starting at 7 p.m. in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).

On the agenda will be a recognition of two students at Hightower Trail Middle School and another at Dickerson Middle School who have attained the Girl Scout Silver Award.

Another agenda item includes confirming the appointment of Georgia Bureau of Investigation director Michael Register as Cobb Public Safety Director. Register would be returning to a position he briefly held in 2018-19.

You can read through the full agenda by clicking here.

The meeting will be live-streamed on the county’s website, cable TV channel (Channel 24 on Comcast) and Youtube page. Visit cobbcounty.org/CobbTV for other streaming options.

Related:

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

 

Johnson Ferry-Shallowford design contract to be considered

by

Johnson Ferry-Shallowford design contract

The first phase of one of several major traffic improvements in the East Cobb area under the 2022 Cobb SPLOST goes before Cobb commissioners Tuesday.

A $495,292 engineering design contract to improve the Johnson Ferry Road-Shallowford Road intersection is on the agenda for a regular meeting of the Cobb Board of Commissioners Tuesday morning (agenda item here).

Cobb DOT is recommending that the work go to Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. of Atlanta, and the agenda item states the work includes the following details:

“The project will evaluate the need for intersection improvements to address operations and vehicular safety. The improvements may include, but are not limited to, addition of travel and turn lanes, and pedestrian improvements. The scope of services for the design-build delivery will include a traffic study, concept development, environmental document, preliminary design, and design services throughout construction of the project.”

Improvements at that busy intersection have been anticipated for several years, especially with the coming redevelopment of the southwest quadrant with East Cobb Church, retail shops and a single-family subdivision.

It’s one of several road projects in the 2022 Cobb SPLOST (Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax) that will be funded mostly with federal revenues.

Cobb government spokesman Ross Cavitt said in response to information requested by East Cobb News that the total budget of the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford project is $7.75 million, with $5 million in federal funding. Commissioners would have to approve funding for the local match in a separate vote, after the design work is finished.

Two other major projects in the East Cobb area also will have substantial federal funding. Improvements at the Roswell Road-Johnson Ferry Road intersection are projected to cost $15 million, with $10 million from the feds and and $5 million from the Cobb SPLOST.

Likewise, the widening of Roswell Road—one of the most expensive projects in the 2022 SPLOST at $60 million—will get $48 million from the federal government and $12 million locally.

There aren’t timetables for those projects (see full project list here).

The 2022 SPLOST was approved by Cobb voters in 2020, and is expected to collect $810 million from Jan. 1, 2022 through Dec. 31, 2027.

Of that total, $361 million has been earmarked for road and traffic projects, including $227 million for repavings, along with bridge repairs, traffic management and sidewalk upgrades.

Also on Tuesday, commissioners will be asked to spend $8.132 million to purchase two vacant office buildings in an industrial park. The buildings are on 10 acres on West Oak Circle and West Oak Parkway and include 85,000 square feet. They would house official documents that are required for the Cobb County Records Services Division to retain and archive.

The agenda item states that various records are held in a number of facilities around the county and are at capacity: “This purchase of the two office buildings will allow the County to consolidate storage of records. In addition, the purchase will allow for storage of records in a climate-controlled environment, necessary for preservation of vital records.”

Once purchased, the buildings would need to be renovated at a cost of $1.362 million, pushing the total cost to $9.5 million. The Cobb Support Services Agency is recommending the funding come from the county’s reserve.

Another item would update the county’s policies on compensation, education incentive pay, nepotism, anti- harassment and discrimination, parental leave, performance appraisal and discipline. (details here).

The Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta). You can read through the full agenda by clicking here.

You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.

Related:

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

East Cobb traffic update: Lane closures on Johnson Ferry Road

by

Johnson Ferry Road lane closure

A heads-up if you’re traveling northbound on Johnson Ferry Road today just above Lower Roswell Road:

Work crews have blocked off the two right lanes in front of the Northside medical building due to power line work.

That reduces northbound traffic to one lane, up to Olde Towne Parkway.

Related:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Cobb hires consultants for 2024 transit sales tax referendum

by

The three Democrats on the Cobb Board of Commissioners Tuesday voted to spend more than $500,000 to hire three separate consulting firms to help the Cobb Department of Transportation prepare for a transportation sales tax referendum in 2024.Cobb transportation sales tax consultants

The contracts will be for developing project lists and providing planning and engineering services, as well as conducting community outreach.

Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid has proposed a one-percent, 30-year sales tax for transit, but the board’s two Republican members are opposed to anything longer than five years.

What’s been called the Cobb Mobility SPLOST, or M-SPLOST, would fund mass transit services as well as traditional transportation options, including resurfacing.

The county set aside $400,000 for consulting services for the M-SLPOST referendum, but on Tuesday spending that was approved totaled $529,839:

  • WSP USA, Inc., $207,205
  • Kimley-Horn & Assciates, $192,795
  • CDM-Smith, Inc., $129,839

Republican commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill voted against the contracts, objecting to the long-term nature of the proposed 30-year sales tax.

State law gives local governments that option, and they also could levy a five-year, one-percent tax for surface projects, which Birrell has supported.

While commending Cobb DOT director Drew Raessler and his department for their efforts, Birrell said that “all along I have said I cannot support a 30-year tax.  .  . . Getting anybody to get on the same page up here is a difficult task.”

The county held town halls and other public events in 2021 for a sales tax referendum targeted for 2022, but put that on hold when mayors of Cobb’s cities objected to a 30-year tax.

Gambrill asked Raessler why more outreach was necessary, and he said that it would be more targeted, especially to those in cities and community improvement districts to hear “what type of projects they would like to see.”

Cupid said that “I think we have a significant opportunity to invest in our future, at least just to ask the citizens the questions, to flesh out with the mayors what the options are.

“This isn’t a done deal yet. But hopefully we’ll get the data to support where we could potentially go, with additional help fleshing out what the [project] lists are.”

Related:

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Cobb approves design contract for Holly Springs Road project

by

Holly Springs road traffic project
The intersection of Holly Springs Road and Post Oak Tritt Road.

The Cobb Board of Commissioners Tuesday approved the hiring of a traffic engineering firm to start an improvement project in the Holly Springs Road corridor.

The board voted unanimously(5-0) to spend $166,100 for Southeastern Engineering, Inc. to conduct a traffic study, develop a plan concept and involve public feedback.

The funding comes from the 2022 Cobb SPLOST, as will the $3.3 million for the project, which will make improvements on Holly Springs between Old Canton Road and Sandy Plains Road.

A contract for construction would come to commissioners after the design is completed.

The Holly Springs project been prioritized as a “Tier 1” road project in the 2022 SPLOST, which was approved by voters in a 2020 referendum.

In 2021, Cobb DOT completed a nearly $1 million project to make improvements at the Holly Springs-Old Canton intersection, including the construction of pedestrian refuge islands, a guardrail, signage and striping at a three-way intersection.

The initial plans for the 2022 SPLOST project were to make improvements at the Holly Springs-Post Oak Tritt Road intersection.

But an agenda item for Tuesday’s meeting said SPLOST funds “will be used to make operational and safety improvements at intersections and corridors throughout the county.”

Related:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

 

 

 

East Cobb traffic update: Johnson Ferry lane closures at Woodlawn

by

Johnson Ferry lane closures
Georgia 511 camera photo

If you travel northbound on Johnson Ferry Road at Woodlawn Drive, you might want to take another route for the time being.

Work crews have closed off the two left northbound lanes at that intersection, reducing traffic in that direction to one lane.

It’s causing a backup that extends to Little Willeo Road near Johnson Ferry Baptist Church.

We’re trying to find out more about how long the closures will remain in place.

Related:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Sinkhole closes sidewalk, shoulder on East Piedmont Road

by

East Piedmont Road sinkhole
Open Street Map

Cobb DOT has closed off a portion of a sidewalk and a shoulder on southbound East Piedmont Road due to a sinkhole.

Cobb government sent a message Monday evening that no traffic lanes have thus far been affected, but that work crews will be monitoring the site this week due to rainy weather in the forecast.

The sinkhole is located in front of the Sprayberry Square Shopping Center, just south of the intersection of Sandy Plains Road.

The problem was caused by a failed joint in a drainage pipe, and the Cobb message said repairs will start when the rain moves out.

There’s a 100 percent chance of rain Tuesday afternoon, followed by a 40 percent chance of rain Wednesday and a 100 percent chance again on Thursday before sunny weather returns later this week.

Related:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

 

Cobb DOT to request funding for Lower Roswell redesign work

by
Lower Roswell Road project redesign
A proposed raised median would prevent left-turn traffic coming out of Parkaire Landing to Lower Roswell Road in a high-accident area.

Back in October we reported on Cobb DOT’s plans to have parts of the Lower Roswell Road project redesigned after a good deal of community feedback, including at a robust town hall meeting.

At that town hall, organized by Commissioner Jerica Richarsdon, Cobb DOT director Drew Raessler said the bike lanes would be taken out in favor of a wider multi-use trail, among other things.

On Tuesday, he’ll be asking the Cobb Board of Commissioners for $192,810 for new engineering design work to reflect those changes.

The additional redesign work is expected to take 6-8 months. A major transportation program that has been nearly a decade in the works will be delayed yet again, with a tentative completion timeframe—barring any other setbacks—for 2026. 

The agenda item can be found by clicking here; some of the other suggestions and complaints expressed at that town hall at the East Cobb Library aren’t included, including continuing concerns over a proposed median along Lower Roswell between Johnson Ferry Road and Davidson Road. 

The commission meeting will take place in the second floor board room of the Cobb Government Building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.

The full agenda packet can be viewed by clicking here.

You also can watch on the county’s website, Facebook Live and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.

Related:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

East Cobb traffic alert: Lower Roswell Road crash blocks lanes

by

Lower Roswell Road crash
Georgia 511 screenshot.

Cobb Police are asking motorists to find an alternate route along a busy portion of Lower Roswell Road Tuesday afternoon.

A crash on Lower Roswell eastbound near Fairfield Drive has blocked two lanes of traffic in a congested area at the East Cobb Government Service Center and Mt. Bethel Church.

Police said in a social media posting that traffic is getting by, but there are delays and “please use an alternate route.”

Early voting continues at the East Cobb government center until 7 p.m., and the parking lot was nearly full when we went by earlier Tuesday afternoon. There was a backup of traffic trying to access the entrance at Lower Roswell and Fairfield.

UPDATED, 5:15 P.M.: Cobb Police are reporting that all lanes of traffic are open.

Related:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Cobb DOT to propose redesign for Lower Roswell Road project

by

Lower Roswell Road project redesign

The long-delayed start to the Lower Roswell Road traffic project could be pushed back further after Cobb DOT officials said Thursday they’ll be proposing a redesign for part of the project.

During a community meeting at the East Cobb Library organized by Commissioner Jerica Richardson, Cobb DOT director Drew Raessler said budget issues and public feedback have prompted a number of possible changes.

The $9 million project, first proposed more than a decade ago, would add turn lanes and enhance traffic flow along Lower Roswell between Woodlawn Drive and Davidson Road, and in particular at the intersection with Johnson Ferry Road.

The objective has been to improve safety in an area with a high number of crashes.

But Raessler said at a meeting attended by a few dozen citizens that all of the construction bidders came in over budget—the lowest bidder was $1.9 million over.

Lingering issues over access along a portion of the project also are being considered.

“We’re going to go back and do a small redesign to bring the scope to budget,” said Raessler, adding that he is planning to ask commissioners for funding for a redesign in November.

Lower Roswell Road project redesign
Drew Raessler, Cobb DOT director

The main redesign changes would include removing a planned bike path and expanding a multi-use trail to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists.

The multi-use trail would be eight feet wide, but Raessler said the expansion could be “as wide as we can get it.”

Those changes have come about only in the last couple of weeks and are not yet reflected on the project’s fact sheet.

After commissioners approved the project’s conceptual plan last year, DOT had set a construction timetable to start this year and finish in 2023.

But Raessler and Karyn Matthews, a DOT transportation engineer who covers the East Cobb area, said the redesign work is expected to take 6-8 months. He estimated that the work could start in the first quarter of 2024 and be completed by early 2026.

Until recent months, little public opposition had been expressed. Most of the concerns came from business owners worried about traffic access that would be limited with a raised median on Lower Roswell between Davidson and Johnson Ferry.

Cobb DOT has proposed one left-turn lane in either direction, but that didn’t quell some of the citizens in attendance.

Some worried that traffic that now comes out of Parkaire Landing to turn left on Lower Roswell westbound would cause backlogs on Davidson Road with a median installed.

Lower Roswell Road project redesign
A proposed raised median would prevent left-turn traffic coming out of Parkaire Landing to Lower Roswell Road in a high-accident area.

One citizen wondered if a roundabout could be built there, saying that “you’re trying to retrofit something and a lot of it is unsolvable.”

When he suggested that that portion of the project be put on hold, Raessler said safety concerns have to be addressed.

Between 2016-2018, Cobb DOT said 61 crashes were recorded along the project route, 49 of them between Johnson Ferry and Davidson, primarily due to more than a dozen curb cuts.

That doesn’t include crashes in the Johnson Ferry-Lower Roswell intersection.

“There is a safety problem there,” he said.

Raessler said the median would be landscaped to add to a “sense of place,” providing some greenery and reducing the amount of impervious surface.

Some have asked the county to ditch the project altogether, wondering about trail access for a project deemed necessary for safety reasons.

“We’re not a pedestrian culture, we’re not a biking culture,” a resident said. “This is laden with so many hangups.”

Another component of the project is a passive green space area at the southeast corner of Lower Roswell and Woodlawn, where the Frasier house once stood.

Matthews said Cobb Parks and Recreation will soon be requesting funding to begin design work.

Larry Savage, a former Cobb Commission Chairman candidate has been a critic of the project’s trails component, said after the meeting that doing a redesign is a good step.

“But there are still a lot of conflicting goals,” he said. “They want to make it safer but then they’re going to reduce the speed limit for pedestrians and cyclists and that’s going to affect traffic flow.”

Lower Roswell Road project
For a larger version of the project route, click here.

Related:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Public meeting scheduled for Lower Roswell Road project

by

Lower Roswell Project public meeting
Cobb DOT has revised a proposed raised median on Lower Roswell Road between Johnson Ferry Road and Davidson Road to include left-turn lanes in either direction.

Cobb Commissioner Jerica Richardson said Friday she’s holding a public meeting next week to discuss the planned Lower Roswell Road improvement project.

The meeting is Thursday from 6-7 in the community meeting room at the East Cobb Library (4880 Lower Roswell Road, Suite 510-B), in the Parkaire Landing Shopping Center.

The meeting is a follow-up to a virtual meeting held in June following comments from some East Cobb residents questioning the need for the project.

Cobb DOT initially proposed a variety of improvements along Lower Roswell between Woodlawn Drive and Davidson Road that cost $9 million and have been earmarked in Cobb government’s 2011 Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).

But the project has been delayed for years due to acquiring right-of-way and concerns from business owners about a raised median along Lower Roswell between Johnson Ferry Road and Davidson Road.

During the June virtual meeting, Cobb DOT director Drew Raessler said the raised median has been revised to include left-turn lanes in either direction, to the McDonald’s heading eastbound and into Parkaire Landing from westbound lanes.

(You can watch a replay of that meeting by clicking here).

Lower Roswell project public meeting
Cobb DOT markings where crashes commonly occur on Lower Roswell Road near the Parkaire Landing entrance.

Raessler said the raised median is necessary to reduce the number of crashes along that strip of Lower Roswell. He said data collected between 2015-2017 showed the number of crashes was four and a half times the statewide average and that a raised median would reduce crashes by. more than 50 percent.

He said the crash totals have been so high because there are 14 separate access points along Lower Roswell in that area.

Raessler said Cobb DOT continues to work with local business owners to purchase final parcels of right-of-way and to improve their access and visibility.

He noted that his office is negotiating with Tijuana Joe’s, a popular restaurant on the southeast corner of Johnson Ferry and Lower Roswell, to keep its “iconic” sign that can be seen in all directions.

Right-of-way considerations may require having the sign to be relocated on a small property with “a driveway that’s difficult to get into even now.”

If you’re interested in attending Thursday’s meeting, please RSVP with Richardson’s office by clicking here.

Related:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

 

East Cobb traffic update: Wheeler, Walton homecoming parades

by

Wheeler, Walton homecoming traffic
A float and participants at Walton’s 2021 homecoming parade. Photo courtesy of Amanda Brown

Two high schools in East Cobb are having homecoming parades this week that will affect traffic in some areas.

On Wednesday, a portion of Holt Road will be closed from 6-7 p.m. for the Wheeler homecoming parade.

The route starts at Grace Marietta Church (675 Holt Road) and heads south to the school (375 Holt Road) and the student parking lot behind the football stadium.

That’s where a festival will be taking place until 8 p.m. There will be food, games and other activities that are open to the public.

On Friday, the Walton homecoming parade takes place, starting at the Target store at Merchants Festival at 2:15 p.m. The route continues westbound on Providence Road, then to Pine Road and Bill Murdock Road before arriving at the school (1590 Bill Murdock Road).

The class councils for each grade will compete for best float, and the Walton band will lead the athletic floats and homecoming court in the parade.

Both football teams are battling for playoff berths in the Georgia High School Association’s Class 7A Region 5.

Wheeler is 4-3 and will be playing Osborne, which is 5-2. Walton is 5-2 and will be playing host to Cherokee.

Kickoff times for both games are 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Walton 2022 homecoming parade map

Related:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

 

Windy Hill-Terrell Mill connector opens to traffic on Friday

by

Windy Hill-Terrell Mill connector opens
Starting Friday morning, commuters can begin using the Windy Hill-Terrell Mill connector.

It’s less than a mile, but is expected to alleviate traffic in a busy corridor of East Cobb along Interstate 75 and the Northwest Express Lanes.

Local dignitaries, including elected officials, county transportation and development leaders and civic participants took part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday afternoon.

The four-lane connector costs $45.8 million, with nearly $30 million coming from the 2016 Cobb SPLOST (special local-option sales tax) and the rest from Georgia Department of Transportation and the Georgia State Road and Tollway Authority.

The connector is accessible on Windy Hill Road by the Spectrum Circle/Interstate North Parkway and moves northbound to Terrell Mill, ending at the intersection of Bentley Road.

The road also features a multi-use trail on the west shoulder that connects to the Bob Callan Trail system, which ultimately hooks up with the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area trails.

Among those on hand for the ribbon cutting were Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid, former Commissioner Bob Ott, Cobb County Manager Jackie McMorris, Cobb DOT director Drew Raessler, Cumberland Community Improvement District executive director Kim Menefee and Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance president Patti Rice.

Related:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Ribbon-cutting scheduled for Windy Hill-Terrell Mill Connector

by

The Cobb Department of Transportation will be holding a ribbon-cutting event next Thursday, Oct. 13 for the newly completed Windy Hill-Terrell Mill Connector.Windy Hill-Terrell Mill Connector ribbon cutting

The event takes place at 11 a.m., and you’re asked to do two things—park at 1950 Spectrum Circle and take a shuttle to the venue, and wear comfortable shoes.

Construction has been underway for the last three years on the $45.7 million, 0.7-mile project, which was built with 2016 Cobb SPLOST funds as an alternate route from Windy Hill Road to access the I-75 Northwest Corridor Express Lanes.

The four-lane connector stretches from the intersection of Windy Hill Road and Spectrum Circle, and continues north to the intersection of Terrell Mill Road and Bentley Road. The connector also has a raised center median that includes a sidewalk and multi-use trail.

Related:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

East Cobb Traffic Update: Powers Ferry Road closed between Delk, Terrell Mill

by

Powers Ferry Road
Source: OpenStreet Map

From Marietta Police at 5:24 p.m.:

“AVOID Power Ferry Road between Terrell Mill & Delk Road. An accident has that entire area closed.”

Related:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Electric vehicle charging stations installed at Parkaire Landing

by

Parkaire Landing electric vehicle charging stations

A handful of public electric vehicle charging stations in East Cobb are primarily centered along Johnson Ferry Road.

The latest are at Parkaire Landing Shopping Center, where two free Volta charging stations have been installed in the corner of the parking lot closest to the East Cobb Library.

They provide a Level 2 charge, delivering 6.2 to 19.2 kilowatts, requiring a 208-240 Volt, 40 Amp circuit.

According to Evocharge, an EV charging station manufacturer, a Level 2 charge typically provides 32 miles of driving range per hour of charge, and takes an estimated 6-8 hours to fully charge.

Most electric vehicles are equipped with a Level 1 charge that provides a 1.2 kilowatt charge using a common household 120-volt circuit and provides typically four hours of driving range per hour of charge. The estimated time for a full charge is 11-20 hours.

Based in San Francisco, Volta has nearly 3,000 free EV charging stations across the country, including nearly 200 in metro Atlanta. Volta also has installed six chargers at Six Flags Whitewater and four at Town Center at Cobb.

Other EV charging stations in East Cobb charge customers to use their stations.

SemaConnect has installed two Level 2 stations at Woodlawn Point Shopping Center (1100 Johnson Ferry Road) that costs $1.50 an hour.

The same cost applies for two Level 2 chargers at the Koala Express Shell Station (1280 Johnson Ferry Road).

At Merchants Walk (1311 Johnson Ferry Road), there are two ChargePoint Level 2 chargers at the front entrance to the Kohl’s department store. The cost is $1.25 an hour.

The AAA Car Care Plus at 1197 Johnson Ferry Road has two EVGo Level 3 chargers. Those are considered the fastest chargers. An EVGo membership is required, and there are various levels of charging rates available.

Charge Hub, which helps EV drivers find charging stations, has created an interactive map. Other East Cobb-area EV stations include the Walgreens at 2975 Delk Road, the Franklin Gateway Sports Complex and GE Complex at Wildwood Office Park.

EV owners are encouraged to check with each charging station provider for availability, pricing and reservations before heading to the pumps.

More information can also be found at Drive Electric Georgia and Kelley Blue Book.

According to Axios, an estimated 30,000 electric vehicles are registered in Georgia, around three percent of all vehicles, and that number has grown rapidly.

Rivian, an electric truck manufacturer based in California, is building a $5 billion plant in Morgan and Walton counties in Georgia. It’s expected to open in 2024, and is aiming to produce 400,000 vehicles a year there and employ more than 7,500 people.

Rivian, which received more than $1.5 billion in state tax incentives in the largest industrial project in Georgia, has drawn opposition for environmental reasons, and from locals who don’t want their rural way of life to be affected.

California recently became the first state in the country to ban the production of gasoline-fueled vehicles, by 2035, and other states could follow suit.

Georgia is not among those states that have tied state laws to federal vehicle emissions standards.

Related:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

 

East Cobb Traffic Alert: Gordy Parkway closed for drainage repairs

by

Gordy Parkway closed drainage repairs

A portion of Gordy Parkway near a busy traffic area of Northeast Cobb was closed Monday afternoon for drainage repairs.

Cobb County government said Monday afternoon that Gordy Parkway is closed between Shallowford Road and Edenbourgh Place, right behind the Home Depot store at the Highland Plaza Shopping Center.

The closures are in both directions and there is no through-traffic on Gordy Parkway, but streets surrounding the closure are open via a temporary detour.

The Cobb government message said work crews were repairing an 84-foot drainage pipe  and was unsure how long the closures would last.

Related:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

Johnson Ferry Road repaving work prompts night lane closures

by

Johnson Ferry repaving project

Cobb DOT is repaving a 3.4-mile stretch of Johnson Ferry Road in East Cobb and will have evening and overnight lane closures.

Cobb government sent out a message Wednesday saying that the closures will take place between Roswell Road and Post Oak Tritt Road from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., Sunday—Friday.

Johnson Ferry is a four-lane road with a median, and one lane will stay open when the repaving work is underway.

The project is expected to be completed in September, but there might be delays due to weather.

You can view an interactive map of all Cobb DOT repaving projects by clicking here; more alerts, road projects and travel advisories are updated here.

Related:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

 

Cobb DOT to start Bill Murdock Road-Pine Road realignment

by

Proposed Bill Murdock Road-Pine Road realignment
Cobb DOT will remove the “S” curve intersection and place it nearer to the new Walton sports complex.

Design work for a planned realignment of the intersection of Bill Murdock Road and Pine Road at Walton High School will be the subject of a public hearing Tuesday by the Cobb Board of Commissioners.

It’s one of several Cobb 2022 SPLOST projects by Cobb DOT that requires public hearings because the engineering and design costs exceed $100,000.

Design and engineering work for other road projects in the East Cobb area on Tuesday’s agenda include the following:

  • Holly Springs corridor improvements
  • Shallowford at Gordy Parkway West
  • Canton Road corridor improvements
  • Barnes Mill Road sidewalk

Those are specified as line items in the Cobb 2022 SPLOST notebook. The Bill Murdock-Pine Road project is not, as it’s lumped into a category for improvements in a school zone.

The realignment is part of ongoing construction at Walton of a new sports complex, which will house a varsity baseball field and tennis courts.

We asked the county for more details about the realignment, and Cobb DOT said that “S” curve will be removed, and pedestrian movements between the school and Pine Road will be improved in coordination with the Cobb County School District.

There’s not a cost estimate for the design or construction work included in Tuesday’s agenda item. A total of $4.1 million has been designated for SPLOST collections for school-zone DOT projects countywide through the end of 2027.

Construction on the Walton athletic complex is just getting underway with groundclearing of the nearly 25-acre tract. That project, which costs $6.7 million and is funded through the Cobb Education IV SPLOST, is expected to be completed by December.

Access points will be on Pine Road for the baseball field and Providence Road for the tennis courts. There will be parking for 80 vehicles.

The Holly Springs Road project is estimated to cost $3.9 million and includes improving the intersection at Post Oak Tritt Road.

The Canton Road corridor improvements have a project cost of $2.4 million and will stretch along much of that route.

Improvements at Shallowford Road and Gordy Parkway West are estimated to cost $700,000.

Those are all “Tier 1” projects in the Cobb 2022 SPLOST, which began collecting sales-tax revenues in January after being approved by voters in 2020. It is expected to generate $750 million in revenues both for county projects and those in Cobb’s six cities.

The Cobb DOT public hearings Tuesday will take place at the start of the meeting, which begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).

The full agenda can be found by clicking here; also on the agenda is a final draft of the 2040 Cobb County Comprehensive Plan 5-Year Update to be submitted tothe Atlanta Regional Commission. Agenda item here; final draft here.

The hearing also will be live-streamed on the county’s website, cable TV channel (Channel 24 on Comcast) and Youtube page. Visit cobbcounty.org/CobbTV for other streaming options.

Related:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!

East Cobb Traffic Update: E. Piedmont Road repaving continues

by

East Piedmont repaving work continues
A Cobb government spokesman said a repaving project along East Piedmont Road is scheduled to resume next week.

A reader checked in this week to ask about the East Piedmont Road repaving project, which we noted when it began in June that full completion was expected to take until August.

The reader said the top level of the road has been stripped off for some time along the stretch to be repaved—between Allgood Road and at the intersections of Pinkney Drive and Mainsail Road just below Sandy Plains Road—and wondered when work would resume.

“Aside from skipping a portion of the road that needed repaving a few years back, the local politicians are all blaming each other as to why it is taking three weeks to pave less than a mile of road between Allgood and Sandy Plains,” the reader said. “The road has been torn up since mid June and it is now mid July. Work is simply not occurring.”

We drove along that same route Friday morning heading to a previously scheduled appointment, and there are construction signs and cones all along the median and sides of East Piedmont. It is indeed a rough ride.

Later, we checked with Cobb County government, which passed along this information late Friday afternoon:

“The Contractor is scheduled to be back on East Piedmont Road early next week after the completion of Sandy Plains Road. Weather permitting Sandy Plains will be completed tomorrow night—crews are scheduled to work tonight and tomorrow night. The next activity on East Piedmont Road will be deep patching to repair soft areas. This will take a few weeks to complete, and then the final surface course will be placed. Completion by the end of August is still a valid date as long as the contractor remains on the project.”

Related stories:

 

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!