This entry was posted on 6/6/2009 7:40 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
Today, I decided to visit my first ham radio show (hamfest) in 13 years, so I headed to Jim R. Miller Park in Cobb County for the
Atlanta Radio Club's (ARC) annual Atlanta Hamfest.
Just before I reached the park on Callaway Road, I noticed that there was a new underpass being built, but no entrance or exit ramps.
As a roadgeek, I was naturally curious as to what it was all about. Suspecting that it was a local (as opposed to state) project, I went to the Cobb County Government website to learn more. Well, lo and behold, what I saw was, indeed, a local road project... the
Windy Hill/Macland Road Connector.
According to the
Cobb County DOT (CCDOT), this will be a 2-mile (3.2 km) limited-access road that will directly connect Macland Road (GA 360) to Windy Hill Road at its western end at Austell Road (GA 5).
Please click here to learn more.
From the looks of the plans, and the seemingly cramped space I observed under the new underpass, it will be 2 lanes in each direction with an extremely narrow median (not exactly Interstate-grade). Given the intent of the road, there will be no access to or from Callaway Road. This factor, alone, will make it a truly limited-access corridor for its short distance.
While I did not know exactly what this new road was, I do recall that, several months ago, WSB-TV did a report about a westward extension of Windy Hill and possible negative impact on Milford Elementary School, located at the Windy Hill/Austell Road intersection.
IIRC, local residents were concerned about the safety of the children at that school once the new road is completed. Since it will be limited-access, those fears are understandable. Hopefully, CCDOT will put in some kind of effective barrier alongside the school in question to keep any children from potentially entering the roadway, and that no bicycles or pedestrians will be allowed on the new roadway, period.
And now for some "non-roadgeek" stuff...
- Kudos to the ARC for putting on a wonderful and well-attended hamfest today. Hamfest chair John Talipsky, Jr., Club President Bill Perkins, and all the volunteers really did a great job in both execution and making all of us feel extremely welcome. It was great to see them, plus a few old familiar faces, including Mark, a former co-worker/boss from early in my IT career 20 years ago at BellSouth (now AT&T).
- This week, we lost a fellow ham, Dave Kinsell, who was a credit to the Atlanta-area ham community and was one of the guys I enjoyed chatting with on the ARC 146.82 MHz repeater as I make the 40-mile (65 km) drive from my "real job" to GRG HQ. Dave, we miss you and may you rest in His eternal peace. My thoughts and prayers are with Dave's family.
That's it for now. Kudos again to the ARC for a wonderful hamfest, my condolences to Dave's family, and thank you all for reading. Please come back again.
73! (That's "ham-speak" for, "Bye, y'all!")
