This entry was posted on 6/19/2008 4:00 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
After reading about the proposed
Ronald Reagan Parkway extension, which mentioned the
Sugarloaf Parkway Extension (SPE) , I got curious and did a little "googling" today to find out more.
According to the
Gwinnett County Government, the Sugarloaf Parkway extension from GA 20 to US 29/GA 316 (University Parkway) will be a 6 mile (10 km) limited-access highway built in 4 phases.
The first phase, from GA 20 to New Hope Road (2.7 miles/4.3 km), is currently being built by longtime Atlanta-area road contractor
E.R. Snell Contractor, Inc., at a cost of $23.5 million.
Georgia DOT chipped in $2.5 million and the remainder ($21 million) is funded by a
Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) Gwinnett County levies.
The project, which was begun last December, is expected to take 30 months to complete. By that estimation, this means that SPE Phase I should be open to traffic on or before June, 2010... and with
NO $#@!&% TOLLS... WOO-HOO!!! 
SOURCE: "
SPLOST: Sugarloaf Parkway Extension Gets Underway", Gwinnett County Government, December, 2007.
For the past several months, as Mary and I have traveled down Sugarloaf to visit my folks, I've noticed the construction that has begun in extending the parkway. For quite a while, it was my understanding that Gwinnett wanted to extend the parkway to 316, but I wasn't sure when they'd start (that is, until late last year).
I do give kudos to both Gwinnett and GDOT for building this as a limited-access road... and especially for the idea of building an interchange at its northern end at 316 (as opposed to one more dadblame traffic light on a stretch of
road that GDOT, IMHO, should never, ever have bulit as anything short of a limited-access, interstate-grade highway).
Next time I'm down that way, I'll be sure to snap a picture of the construction and post it for y'all.
Tomorrow (Friday) night at 9:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time, I will be hosting another "
GRG On BTR". I hope you will tune in (or at least download the episode once it's done).
That's it for now. Thanks for visiting and please come back again.
