Snellville Transportation Projects on Wish List

More than $90 million in upgrades for Snellville-area roads is included in a list of 73 potential projects that Gwinnett County officials recently submitted to the Atlanta Regional Commission and the state transportation director.

The Snellville-area projects are:

• Expanding Highway 124 (Scenic Highway) from four lanes to six lanes, from Main Street (U.S. Highway 78) to Ronald Reagan Parkway, at an estimated cost of $10 million. Requested by Gwinnett County, Evermore CID, and the city of Snellville.
• A continuous-flow intersection at U.S. Highway 78 and Scenic Highway, at an estimated cost of$19 million. Requested by Gwinnett County and the city of Snellville.
• Expanding U.S. Highway 78 from four lanes to six lanes, from Scenic Highway to Grayson Parkway, at an estimated cost of $33.7 million. Requested by Gwinnett County and the city of Snellville.
• Expanding U.S. Highway 78 from four lanes to six lanes, from Grayson Parkway to the Walton County border, at an estimated cost of $29.1 million. Requested by Gwinnett County and the city of Snellville.

The four Snellville-area projects will be considered for inclusion in the metro Atlanta region’s project list for the Transportation Investment Act of 2010.

Gwinnett County, along with the nine other counties in the metro Atlanta area, submitted potential transportation projects to the Atlanta Regional Commission. The projects, if selected, would be funded by a 1 percent transportation special purpose local option sales tax (TSPLOST) that voters will be asked to approve next year.

Officials estimate the sales tax would generate as much as $7 billion over the 10-year period. Of the money, 85 percent would be committed to regional projects and 15 percent would go to local projects.

The project wish list also includes $257.5 million for an extension of Ronald Reagan Parkway from Pleasant Hill Road to Interstate 85. In addition, four light rail projects are requested that would extend service from the Doraville MARTA station to the , with stops to include Gwinnett Place Mall. The light rail is estimated to cost more than $1 billion.

For a complete project list from Gwinnett, click on the pdf attached to this story.

The list will be reviewed by Todd Long, planning director for the state Department of Transportation before being submitted to the Metro Atlanta Regional Roundtable for final consideration. The roundtable includes the mayor of Atlanta, mayors from each of the 10 counties and 10 county commission chairs including Gwinnett County's new chair of the board of commissioners, Charlotte Nash.