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.
The state government is making progress in providing "sunshine law" public information on the Internet, but conditions are still partly cloudy in Georgia, according to a survey by The Associated Press.
The survey of 20 categories, ranging from death certificates to political campaign contributions and expenses, was part of a national campaign by the American Society of Newspaper Editors to gauge Online access of public information in all 50 states. It was conducted in February as a runup to Sunshine Week, March 15-21.
It did not include the Web site www.open.georgia.gov, which was unveiled at the beginning of the year as a gateway for information and documents concerning state expenditures to provide services to its citizens.
That site "speaks to the level of transparency that state government is trying to achieve," said Michael Clark, communications director of the Georgia Technology Authority.The AP survey found some excellent Online resources in some cases, and stumbling blocks on other agency Web sites.
Authors of the survey report said Sunshine Week surveyors "discovered some states that are doing a fantastic job of providing information to the public; some are outstanding only in certain categories. The survey teams also found some states weren't so good, and others that are working on getting better."Georgia was ranked in the top third among the 50 states with its Internet access to public information. With data supplied in 14 of the 20 categories, the state tied with five others in 10th place. Texas ranked the highest, with all 20 catergories, followed by New Jersey with 18.
"For some agencies, we provide the content management system," Clark said. "You're looking at the IT infrastructure, and we don't have authority over the content. We provide the tools. What they do with it is up to them."
He said he has found "there's a great deal of information out there on the state Web sites. I don't know if I have a strong sense of what gaps exist. That's not something that I've researched."Overall, Clark said, the agencies are doing a better job of providing services online than they did when he started with the Technology Authority in 2000.
"It's a continual evolution in making more available," said Bert Brantley, spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue.He said the Open Georgia Web site contains things like salaries and payments to contractors that always has been available but difficult to access. But it costs money to select information that can be uploaded easily to a site that can be searched by the public.
"There's a push and a pull between having information and records available" and the use of taxpayer money to make it available, Brantley said.
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.
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)
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(AP)
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…”
The Georgia Department of Transportation is considering a tiered pay program for Atlanta’s 44-miles of interstate High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes.
GDOT spokesperson Ericka Davis says the program would allow large car pools to ride the lanes for free, but would likely charge smaller carpools and single vehicles.
The fees would be used to pay for the system, and fund mass-transit projects.
GDOT officials recently returned from a visit to Texas to examine similar programs in that state, and is currently "in the middle of working out the logistics" of the plan, Davis said.
Davis said the plan would cost upwards of $470 million dollars.
GDOT Commissioner Gena Evans and officials from the Governor's Office also met with U.S. DOT Secretary Mary Peters to discuss the plan, Davis added.
Click here for more GPB News coverage of Georgia transportation issues.
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.
Georgia's interstate highway system. Click on the map for more information. (DOT)
The Georgia Department of Transportation has named I-185 a Scenic Byway, ensuring that billboards and other visual blight will not be allowed along the thoroughfare.
The highway passes through Troup, Harris and Muscogee counties, and ends at Ft. Benning, near Columbus.
GDOT Board member Sam Wellborn says of the move: “This is a very important event for our entire region, not only will this designation preserve an already prestigious corridor but it will forever prevent billboards and will increase tourism.”
GDOT Commissioner Harold Linnenkohl will present a proclamation to Wellborn and Gloria Weston-Smart, Executive Director of Keep Columbus Beautiful Commission, in support of the I-185 Scenic Byway designation, at a ceremony in Atlanta on Thursday. A ceremony will be held Friday morning at a welcome center along exit 12.
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.
Click here for more GPB News coverage of Rep. Smith and, and here for state transportation issues.