Eye on the Street
Decatur Metro | November 14, 2010
Shoal Creek @ South Candler Street (photo submitted by Lee)
Shoal Creek @ South Candler Street (photo submitted by Lee)
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Can someone explain what’s happening here? Is the road moving over to this bridge? Is it becoming 4 lanes? I don’t understand…
This began as a simple request to repair the pedestrian bridge. DOT expanded the scope of the project to improve drainage in the area and add a traffic light at the Midway/S. Candler intersection in addition to installing the new pedestrian bridge. There is no planned road widening north of this site and to my knowledge the traffic bridge will remain two lane. This photo shows what I believe is the expanded storm water culvert under the bridge but I’ll double check.
Actually, the bridge will be 3 lanes wide now. http://tomcat2.dot.state.ga.us/PublicOutreach_ex/projectInfo/projectInfo.cfm?projID=752900-&projNum=STP-9014(24)&projName=Proposed%20culvert%20recon%20on%20SR%20155%20over%20Shoal%20Creek
It looks like they’re planning to temporarily slide Candler onto half of the culvert (visible) when they build the other half.
http://tomcat2.dot.state.ga.us/PublicOutreach_ex/projectInfo/752900-/JPG/752900%20PHOH%20Display.pdf
I marveled at how the pedestrian bridge magically hopped from the west side of Candler to the east side a few weeks ago.
As a resident who lives on South Candler Street a few houses down from these “improvements,” I can tell you that this entire project has been an unmitigated disaster. The roadwork looks like complete garbage, as do the yards of the homeowners unfortunate enough to live next to this portion of road. Moreover, given the glacial pace of the DOT’s efforts(there are no more than a handful of DOT workers around on any given day, and they always seem to be on smoke breaks), I don’t expect the work to be complete until 2014. And for what? New pedestrian bridges? A turn lane into Driftwood Terrace? (Ponder that last one for a minute — are there really that many people blocking southbound traffic by turning right into Driftwood Terrace that the DOT needs to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a new turn lane? Really?)
I don’t know what I hate more about this project: (a) the fact that it looks like hell and has undoubtedly impacted the value of my house; (b) the fact that I won’t be able to sell said house until 2014 when this work is complete; or (c) the fact that increasing the length of the two-lane southbound portion of South Candler Street (via the new turn lane) will cause even more southbound drivers to treat those lanes as their own personal racetrack.
I think (c) is the worst. Don’t believe me? Come sit in my front yard for a minute and imagine your dog or cat or child getting hit by a Marta bus going 60 miles an hour.
I feel your pain, neighbor.
No wonder Georgia is broke, with DOT projects like this one.