Tunnel Love at the Capitol
Decatur Metro | December 9, 2009
Apparently discussion of the idea of putting a tunnel under East Atlanta neighborhoods – in an effort to funnel traffic away from the connector – is still going hot and heavy down at the Gold Dome. The AJC reported on this a couple days back, but it just caught my attention again when it popped up on the front page of AJC.com.
“The tunnel is the one project that absolutely, head and shoulders above every other P3, moves the needle the most on congestion mitigation and mobility,” said David Doss, who chairs the state Transportation Board’s committee on such projects. The reason it wasn’t listed at the very top of DOT’s project list was because of the “unknowns” involved in creating a new urban road tunnel here, he said.
Where to begin this time?
Um, how about more highway pavement doesn’t actually relieve congestion? It just encourages more folks to set up shop in the fragile exurb ecosystem? How about the cost to build and maintain the dang thing will be astronomical? How about the level of damage done to those east-side neighborhoods during construction and after? (Ben’s already done a great job of summarizing these points over at Terminal Station.)
Oh, and here’s the most deliciously insensitive part of this whole cockamamie idea.
Doss conceded that the highway’s northern stretch would be a tunnel in order to avoid disrupting those “old, established” neighborhoods that stopped it before. He could not explain why the tunnel may become a surface road to the south of I-20, according to preliminary drawings, in an area where demographic data show the population is less wealthy and less white. A spokesman for DOT, David Spear, said that land there is also more vacant and industrial.
Hello 1960? GDOT is holding for you on line two.
The one saving grace in this whole story is that folks at the Atlanta Regional Commission get the final say on whether to pursue this insanity. And luckily they already know the ins-and-outs of most of the points found here (between my spittle and exasperation). But just to be safe, some of the historic neighborhoods in the discussed areas might want to start looking into National Register nominations post-haste.
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This is also on Wendell Cox’s list.
How does routing more cars into an area faster reduce congestion?
Think “Big Dig”, and getting that kind of funding (even if it was the right thing to do) took Ted Kennedy. No offense Saxby, but you’re no Ted Kennedy.
sigh…
At least the Big Dig provided the benefit of getting rid of that massive concrete divider separating Boston from the North End, which in turn provided huge amounts of green space and reunited the city. If they’re talking about burying the connector, I would be all for it. But spending a billion dollars to aid pass-through trips while inducing more vehicle demand? Even if you can convince a private investor there’s a toll revenue stream involved for a PPP, it’s still a net negative for the city of Atlanta itself.
What an incredible waste of tax dollars. wow.
and poor planning besides that obviously…
if they are going to throw money towards idoicy like this why dont they instead cap the connector and sell the space above for more tax revenue or just make it green space.
Is the plan availabe online somewhere?
Below is a URL to a pdf on DOT’s site that includes a half-page summary of the plan. No doubt the DOT has more detailed supporting documents that are not online.
http://www.dot.state.ga.us/informationcenter/p3/Documents/GDOT%20P3%20Workshop%20Project%20Sheets.pdf
Thanks for the link Gursky! Here’s the text from the GDOT blurb on the tunnel…
“proposed project–12 miles
• The project will connect i-675/i-285 to SR 400/i-85. The proposed project will begin as a limited access surface roadway at i-675/i-285 and transition to a tunnel that extends to SR 400/i-85. The project is proposed to be a tolled facility.
• No intermediate access points are currently proposed.”
Project Need and Purpose
To provide through movement from the north side of the perimeter to the south side of the perimeter to help ease the congestion on the i-75/i-85 Downtown Connector.
Project Cost
$3,740,000,000
There’s already a wall of National Register districts across the east side, from the MLK park and district, to Inman Park, Atkins Park, Candler Park, and Druid Hills. Right there, you have enough noisy people to fill auditoriums for every public hearing from now til doomsday.
Noisy people are great, but lots of Federal-level red tape is even better!