After years of delays, revised changes, negotiations with property owners and other issues, the Cobb Department of Transportation on Tuesday is coming back to Cobb commissioners to approve a contract to make sweeping improvements to the Lower Roswell Road corridor in the Johnson Ferry Road area.
Several agenda items for Tuesday’s Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting include the recommendation of a low bidder, condemnation proceedings with two parcels at that intersection and preliminary utility relocation work.
Cobb DOT is recommending that a low bid of $7 million from Baldwin Paving Co. Inc. be approved. Five other bidders were involved, with the highest coming in at $10.1 million.
(You can view the agenda item by clicking here).
It’s not the first time Cobb DOT has sought to get started with a project that’s been more than a decade in the making.
Transportation officials say the Lower Roswell-Johnson Ferry intersection has a high number of crashes.
The project, with funding from the Cobb 2011 SPLOST, would add turn lanes, install a multi-use trail and make other changes along Lower Roswell between Woodlawn Drive and Davidson Road.
Cobb commissioners approved a conceptual plan in 2022. Further public feedback prompted DOT later in 2022 to redesign the project, including removal of a planned bike path and expanding a multi-use trail.
In February, commissioners voted to table a construction agenda item after citizens and some affected business owners objected.
According to a project update issued in March, the median remains one of the key components, along with intersection changes at Lower Roswell Road and Woodlawn Drive.
There is a proposed shared-use path extension of between 8 and 10 feet added on Lower Roswell between Davidson Road and Woodlawn Drive, for pedestrians and cyclists.
A proposed median along Lower Roswell from Johnson Ferry to Davidson Road has been the big stumbling block.
The project would add turn lanes from Lower Roswell into Parkaire Landing Shopping Center and the McDonald’s across the street.
In February, some business owners told commissioners the median remains “a bad idea.”
Joel Gilmer of the Barista’s Coffee Shop said traffic already threatens his employees in the Parkaire Triangle retail center at Lower Roswell and Davidson because it’s what he calls “the bypass.”
He predicted that motorists aren’t going to use the traffic light at that intersection as they are coming out of Parkaire Landing.
At that time, Cobb DOT officials said they were still negotiating with several business owners for right-of-way acquisition.
According to an agenda item for Tuesday, Cobb DOT is asking for condemnation authority for right-of-way at 4811 Lower Roswell Road.
That’s at the Johnson Ferry intersection and has three businesses—a dentist, a pizza place and a bagel shop. Another condemnation seeks right-of-way and temporary easements at the adjacent McDonald’s at 4819 Lower Roswell Road.
Cobb DOT said discussions are continuing with the property owners, but “additional rights-of-way and easements are needed to construct this project” and funding is also available in the 2011 SPLOST.
The commission meeting begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta), and the full agenda can be found by clicking here.
You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
Related:
- East Piedmont Road lane closures in effect due to sewer repairs
- Cobb adopts new policy for traffic-calming in neighborhoods
- Cobb approves ridership survey for transit tax referendum
- Cobb puts indefinite hold on Lower Roswell Road project
- Cobb commissioners set 2024 referendum for transit sales tax
- East Cobb transit center, bus routes on Cobb Mobility SPLOST project list
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Please for the safety of children at Dickerson MS VOTE NO. This Lower Roswell plan also includes adding another lane of traffic that will cross over Woodlawn at Lower Roswell and merge into one BEYOND the intersection. The intersection where I have seen on a daily basis Dickerson students almost get hit by cars as they walk home from school everyday. Cars turning right from Woodlawn onto Lower Roswell and not yielding to children legally in the crosswalk. And now the county wants to add an extra lane which will create a race of two lanes of traffic trying to beat each other through the intersection before the merge. Someone at DOT needs to post up at that intersection on any school day when the students at Dickerson in large packs try to safely cross Lower Roswell and avoid getting killed. The right turn drivers are not paying attention to the kids in the cross walk because they are turning right on red trying to get into one lane of traffic and now make it two lanes of traffic? As it is now cars are always slamming on their brakes when they notice children in the crosswalk. This is a terribly dangerous plan for the safety of children who have to walk home from Dickerson MS because they live within a mile of the school and the county does not provide them with a bus and now add more lanes to this intersection and it is only a matter of time before something awful happens.
At a minimum the county should disclose the actual safety statistics for the intersection compared to others. It seems they want the community to sign up for of lot of disruption not to mention money on the thinnest of justifications. The days of “just trust me” are over.
I’ve attended several meetings on this, the most recent this past Tuesday.
Cobb DOT says this is necessary to improve ‘safety’ in the corridor. Yet, they have refused to provide detailed accident history for the area (they do have it, but won’t share).
The serious explanation is the bike trail/multi-user trail. This is part of a network of such trails planned by ARC years ago. Cobb County denies this, but facts on the ground say differently.
$2 mllion for the Bridga ta Willeo Creek, a million for the roundabout adjacent, $8 million to add bike lanes on three miles of Lower Roswell, and now 7 million to filnally reach Johnson Ferry.
Cobb denies that the next phase will tuern down JOhnson Ferry to connect with bike lanes on Columns Drive and cross the river to connect wth bike lanes going into Sandy Springs.
Johnson Ferry remake will cost tens of millions of dollars and will disrupt more businesses and many homes. May 40-50 million dollars.
Are bike trails that important to Cobb County and ARC? Yes, they are.