Gilltrans.net

An obvious question you may be asking is, “Why hasn’t something been done already?” Actually, this intersection has been identified as a problem since the early 2000′s.  My intent was to perform a traffic study without being prejudiced by prior details on what has already been attempted.  I have virtually completed the data gathering phase, so I feel free to reveal the backstory.
 

Until late 2006, this intersection was located in unincorporated Fulton County, Georgia.  In December 2006, the City of Milton, Georgia was incorporated.  One of the outcomes of this change was to shift the 20% share responsibility from the county to the new city.
 

Another development in late 2007 was a change in commissioners at the Georgia DOT to Gena Evans.  This change was initiated by Governor Sonny Perdue.  I wish to avoid making this blog political, so I will give a high-level opinion on what occurred at this point.
 

Over the years, GDOT had placed a huge number of road projects on the to do list.  This may have been done to help local politicians – that happens everywhere, all the time, right?  There was also some issues placing projects in rural areas of the state and neglecting metro Atlanta.  Road funding is divided equally by US Congressional districts.  As you can imagine, metro Atlanta has more needs per capita that rural areas so you can see where there would be a great need for GDOT to try to say ‘yes’ to metro projects.  The new commissioner was brought in to make the department solvent.  therefore some projects were cut and others were delayed.  Projects continue to be delayed.
 

Back to this project.  With two strikes against this intersection receiving the funding, it is understandable that nothing has been done.
 

I did some investigation and found out the following:
 

GDOT hired a consultant to redesign the intersection.  The project description on the books reads:  “This project is an intersection improvement on SR 372 at Providence/New Providence Road. The current intersection is non-signalized and the lack of turning lanes and increased traffic volumes contribute to congestion along the corridor. The project consists of realigning the intersection, improving the sign distance along SR 372. It will also signalize the intersection with dedicated turning for each leg. Further improvements include curb and gutter, sidewalks, and pedestrian crossings.”
 

I realize that it is GDOT’s standard to put curb, gutter and sidewalk everywhere but this is somewhere you probably don’t want to encourage pedestrians.  However, if this project ever occurs, it will be built this way.  I would like to suggest that another ‘must include’ is a conduit lay along Birmingham Highway – in case Milton ever has a TMC and wants to remotely control traffic signals or install and monitor traffic cameras at intersections.
 

This is some information from the 2009 budget plan for the City of Milton.  [The project is programmed for 2013.  It had previously been programmed for earlier construction - the earliest I found was 2008.]
 

2009 Milton Budget includes $240K for completing the concept plan and starting the environmental and final design.  I do not know if this has been completed at this time.
 

Appendix D of the 2009 Budget noted that this intersection was ranked #1 in public demand.  I can certainly understand why!
Appendix E   of the accompanying Milton Transportation Plan noted that this intersection had 10+ injuries in the time period: 2006-2008.  there was a fender-bender the day I did my traffic count.
 

The entire project is programmed to  $3,500,00 (Milton’s portion $706,000) not including the purchase of property ROW.  I did some research of the Fulton County Tax Assessor site and determined that three lots that would need to be purchased were assessed at a little under $1,000,000 last year:
 

* 22 396008470201 NW Corner of intersection Value $263,000
* 22 396008470102 NE Corner of Intersection Value $254,100
* 22 396008470144 Parcel east of …102     Value $450,500 –> Total $967,600
 

According to the GDOT project description, ROW aquisition cost is $1,648,000 (Milton’s portion: $329,600)
None of these lots were owned by GDOT as of 2009.
 

The resulting project totals:
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* GDOT $4,142,400 (Project 0005448)
* Milton $1,035,600
 

So, Milton will have to find $1,000,000 in this poor economy to get this intersection fixed.  Possibly a more difficult task, GDOT will have to allocate $4,000,000.
 

I have some opinions beyond this, but that is better saved for a future post.

I have now processed the number and the mean and Median Speeds were 50 MPH.  The posted speed limit is 45 MPH and there is an advisory speed of 35 MPH.  The 85th Percentile speed is 60 MPH, which is 15 MPH over the posted speed.  Whenever the 85th percentile speed is more than 5 MPH over the posted speed one or more of the following measures are recommended:

·  Adjust the posted speed limit.

·  Increase speeding enforcement.

·  Initiate traffic calming measures.

·  Conduct public awareness efforts.

Option 1 is not going to happen so one or more of the other three might need to be considered.

On Thursday, Jan. 28th I performed a spot speed study of traffic approaching the intersection from the south – the direction of concern.  As shown in a prior photo, the prevailing speed is 45 MPH.  however there is an advisory sign 500 feet to the south of the intersection indicating an intersection <+> and 35 MPH.

I marked off 264 feet from the stop bar as indicated by the 4th photo in the prior post and stood on an embankment to the west of Birmingham Highway.  I used a stopwatch and timed traffic from my position to each vehicle’s passing of the photo location.

My general observation is that traffic approaching that did not turn was usually 10-20 MPH over the speed limit.  Only when vehicles were turning left or right were approach speeds more temperate.

I counted 103 cars, 4 buses and 7 trucks over a 45 minute period.  Some were in platoons of 2 to as many as 4 vehicles.  Frequently vehicles were traveling in the 55 to 60 MPH range, which meant that they took 3 to 4 seconds to crest the hill and arrive at the intersection.

I will tabulate all the results and include them in a future post.

This photo shows the flasher control at the intersection.  Birmingham Hwy has a yellow flash and providence has a red flash.  if this ever became a 4-way stop the signal change required would be minimal.