A special House Subcommittee on Transportation Funding is meeting at this hour to hear testimony on Senate Bill 200. The measure - titled the Transforming Transportation Investment Act - would abolish the State Road and Tollway Authority and create the State Transportation Authority.
Senate Speaker pro tem Tommie Williams testified in favor of the measure, telling the committee that trying to appease board members, lobbyists and politicians means little gets done by the DOT.
SB 200 would also relegate the Georgia Department of Transportation to the task of road maintenance and inspections.
The bill also forces GDOT to compete alongside private contractors for transportation construction projects.
Atlanta's 14th Street bridge under construction, crossing Interstate 75. (Dave Bender/file)
Georgia’s Department of Transportation is putting a major Bibb County highway project on hold. The DOT has a shrinking budget.
That's why the department put the planned interchange at Interstate 75 and 16 in Macon back on the shelf. DOT spokesman David Spears says it could sit there upwards of a decade:
“Principally and primarily, of course, it’s about funding; that’s in excess of a $320 million dollar project, and we’ve been working on it 20 years and we need to get it built, but we just don’t have $320 million dollars that we can apply to it right now.”Macon officials expressed disappointment over the decision, but say there are smaller projects that could be dealt with before 2018.
“We have identified – just of our own projects within the department – about $2.2 billion dollars worth of work have begun, “shovel-ready,” so to speak, by sometime in the middle of next year,” Spears says.Spears says adding in other state transportation-related projects including aviation, MARTA, and commuter rail could bring the total to almost three and a half billion dollars.
Kia Motors assembly plant and new access road, along I-85 between West Point and LaGrange, Ga., December, 2008. (Dave Bender)
The interchange and connecting roads allow direct access to the Kia Motors assembly plant, between West Point and LaGrange in Troup Co.
GDOT Commissioner Gena Evans said at a ceremony held Wednesday at the site that the $80.7 million project was completed over a month ahead of its 18-month schedule:
“This effort proves that design-build can be successful when applied to the right projects,” Evans said. “Georgia DOT is proud to have played a role in helping to bring new jobs and improved mobility to the area. It is a great day for West Point, Troup County and the entire State of Georgia.”The project includes new frontage and access roads, two new bridges, improvements to connecting roadways and new traffic signals, according to a statement from the Governor’s Office, and is largest GDOT construction project so far.
Georgia lawmakers will soon consider a measure that would ban teenage drivers from texting and making calls on their cell phones while driving -- and suspend the licenses of violators found at fault in accidents.
Georgia would join 17 other states and the District of Columbia that have passed cell phone restrictions for teen drivers if legislators adopt the measure during the legislative session that begins in January.
The measure's Republican sponsors say it would help keep Georgia's rookie drivers safe from distractions that could lead to fatal accidents.
The House plan would ban motorists under the age of 18 from talking or texting while driving, except in the case of an emergency such as a life-threatening situation or a call reporting a road hazard.
Violators would be fined up to $175 for the first offense and up to $500 for a second one. Drivers found at fault in an accident while violating the law would have their licenses suspended for 90 days. Second offenders would lose their licenses for six months.
The bill could be expanded to include all drivers.
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(AP)
GDOT Commissioner Gena Evans explains a point in the draft budget proposal to reporters after a transportation board session that also dealt with major budget overruns, on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008. (Dave Bender)
A state audit of
The audit found the
The agency said it concurred with many of the findings and that
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(AP)
Railroad personnel stand alongside two overturned cars, at the site of the 12-car derailment. More photos are here. (Mike Haskey/Ledger-Enquirer)
There were no injuries, or HAZMAT dangers, according to Kimberly Larson, district spokesperson for the Department of Transportation. Larson said no motor vehicles from the nearby highways were involved in the derailment.
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The derailment took place near the red circled "A".
The cause of the derailment is under investigation, according to Rob Chapman, a spokesman from Norfolk-Southern. Chapman said the crew of the two-locomotive, 36-car train were unhurt in the incident.
Chapman said 12 cars went off the tracks, and that several of the cars that were laying on their sides spilled wheat, bagged rice and plastic pellets.
Georgia Department of Transportation investigators are at the scene, as are the Columbus Fire Department and Police Department.
Railroad workers, using heavy equipment are working on the tracks, and clearing the damaged rail cars and sections of track.
Larson estimates that the area will be cleared by late Monday.
There are traffic delays along Highway-80, and other roads in the area, according to the Georgia Navigator website: http://www.georgia-navigator.com/perl/incidents
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TV monitor at budget hearings showing page of proposed 2009 draft budget, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008. (Dave Bender)
Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Gena Evans today laid out proposals for recouping her department’s $456 million dollar deficit – in part.
GDOT has to cut that sum from the 2009 fiscal year, to make up for that sum in the '08 budget.
GDOT Commissioner Gena Evans holds up a folder containing the 2009 budget, at a meeting with the transportation board on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008 where she put forth budget-cutting proposals. (Dave Bender)
Among the tough proposals Evans offered the board was slashing over 500 jobs – a road not taken by the transportation board:“Oh, we’re ecstatic. We’re really thrilled. I mean, to me, every time you saw a list from us, the last thing we wanted to do was lay off employees. It’s a very difficulty decision for the board between those state aid projects, that are local, community-driven projects versus laying off employees.”
Evans explains a point in the draft budget proposal to reporters after the GDOT transportation board session on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008. (Dave Bender)
Evans says a one-day employee furlough program was also ruled out.
GDOT spokesman David Spears, however, says the Local Assistance Road Program (LARP), which funds local and county road repairs, including pot holes, was among the major cutbacks the board agreed to:
“It’s a total of 52 million dollars that we’ll be unable to distribute to local governments in the coming year. We’re hoping we’re going to be able to identify new funding sources or new savings as we go from month to month in our budget process, and be able to redirect some of that money back into local assistance.”Evans faced tough questioning from the board members during the morning session, including issues of protocol.
Evans: “Ms. Lemon, I’m not sure when we would have possibly been able to get any more information…”Officials say that rocky interchange is but a verbal example of the bumpy road drivers can expect on Georgia’s highways and interchanges in the coming fiscal year.
Lemon: “Gina, we get inundated all the time with stuff from you guys, so we could have seen it; we might not have been able to address it at a meeting, but we all could have at least looked at it, reviewed it…”
Bennie Conley gave out his first gallon of gasoline less than an hour into his afternoon shift.
"I didn't get one this early yesterday," Conley said as he helped another driver stranded without fuel alongside Interstate 285 east of Atlanta.Conley works for the Georgia Department of Transportation as a highway emergency response operator.
"The majority of them probably figured they could make it to an exit," Conley said. "Due to the traffic volume when they chose to get on the highway, it just wasn't possible."A 5-gallon canister used to last Conley's entire eight-hour shift. Now, he fills up the tank once, and sometimes twice a day.
"It's not uncommon for me to run into people who ask for more," Conley said. "That's not possible."Because taxpayers foot the bill for the fuel Conley and the other crews give out for free, the surge in stalls is taking its toll, according to state communications specialist Monica Luck.
"You've got a 5-gallon gas container, it used to be you could take five dollars and fill that up," Luck said. "Now, we're having to spend $20 a can."In Georgia, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline is $3.95, slightly less than the national average of $3.98, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.
(The Associated Press)"Once you get off the job and get home, you've got to look at yourself and say, 'I've got to make sure I don't end up in that predicament,"' he said.
State Republican Representative Vance Smith, of Pine Mountain, wants to be the next commissioner of the Department of Transportation. Smith announced his interest in the position to Governor Sonny Perdue last week.
Current commissioner, Harold Linnenkohl, who has held the post for the last four years, is stepping down as of Nov. 30.
Smith is the president of Smith Construction Company, a construction and earthmoving concern, according to the state legislature website.
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