Ceremony for U.S. Highway 78 Upgrades

City, county and other local officials will gather today for a special ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate improvements to U.S. Highway 78 through Snellville.

The event will take place at 4 p.m., on the front lawn of , 2925 Stone Mountain Highway in Snellville.

The ceremony -- hosted by the Evermore CID -- is the culmination of five years of work and more than $1.5 million invested at the Cambridge Street and McGee Road intersection. The , state and federal grants and the 2005 and 2009 SPLOST sales tax programs funded the improvements.

The road project realigns and eliminates the need for dangerous U-turns, among other upgrades. The streets involved had several challenging spots, and according to a preliminary report, there were 116 accidents within the project area between 2004-2006, and nearly 50,000 vehicles that traveled the roads daily. 

The Evermore CID, a self-taxing association of property owners along U.S. Highway 78 through Gwinnett County, worked closely with Gwinnett County and the Georgia Department of Transportation bring the project to completion.

Speakers at the special ribbon-cutting ceremony will include: Evermore CID Board Chairman Chip Adair, Gwinnett County Board Chairwoman Charlotte Nash, County Commissioner Mike Beaudreau and Snellville Mayor Kelly Kautz.