Columns Drive traffic project to remove and replace trees

Here’s another update to the Columns Drive traffic safety improvement project that we’ve been reporting on (here and here) in recent months:

Starting Friday Cobb DOT will begin work to remove roughly a third of the trees in the medians that have been deemed unsafe.

DOT said in a statement Wednesday that 47 of the 157 trees in the Columns Drive medians that are within the right-of-way will be taken down. Work crews will be clearing away tree stumps, dead trees and what department officials are saying is the “selective pruning of dozens of others.”

DOT said it was responding to a number of reports of falling trees.

But more than 1,000 residents in the area signed a petition in protest, entitled “STOP Cobb County’s Plans to Cut Down Trees on Columns Drive Median.”

That prompted community meetings with Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, and traffic engineers consulted an arborist who identified the trees that posed a threat to motorists.

She said in a message to East Cobb News on Wednesday that the project will continue into January. After the initial phase, 50 new trees and mulch will be installed in the medians and “hundreds of shrubs” will be planted near the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area entrance at the end of Columns Drive.