Last Friday, the Georgia DOT awarded the contract to build 2 new "flyover" ramps to allow free flow of traffic from GA 400 southbound to I-85 northbound (and I-85 southbound to GA 400 northbound) to Archer Western Contractors Ltd. for $21,423,500. (GDOT Project ID 762380)

Georgia's State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA) estimated that the cost would be $40,000,000 and used that for their justification for extending the GA 400 toll collection to 2020.

Even if the contract were awarded for the $40,000,000 price, there was already approximately $46,000,000 in toll proceeds that could have paid for it without having to extend the tolls, so that alone IMHO debunked any reason SRTA gave for extending the tolls. For that matter, it was extremely shortsighted on the part of GDOT and SRTA not to build those ramps in the first place... and Buckhead paid for it with crappy traffic as drivers have to use surface streets to make their way from I-85 southbound to GA 400 northbound.

Furthermore, SRTA director Gena Evans had told a legislative panel that if the tolls were not extended, then it "could impair the state's bond rating as well as confidence with investors in public-private toll projects". GIMME A BREAK!!!

Forgive me for sounding like a "broken record", but our politicians here in Georgia don't give a rat's butt about promises made to their fellow Georgians, who BTW pay their salaries. If GA 400 were to be a toll road in perpetuity (e.g. Florida's Turnpike), that would be one thing. But the fact is that those tolls were put into place first and foremost to pay off the bond indebtedness incurred to build the GA 400 extension in the first place. Our illustrious former governor Sonny Perdue snubbed his nose at us. I guess it's a lot more important to him to get business from the Port of Savannah for his trucking business during his time as governor than it was to work for his constituents.

In the meantime, SRTA is getting ready to renovate the GA 400 toll plazas, installing new equipment for the Peach Pass transponders. During that time, the toll will be briefly suspended, but then "reactivated' as the "new" toll. If I had it my way, I would have ordered those plazas torn down to fully satisfy the 20-year-old promise of dropping the GA 400 toll, but those "snake-in-the-grass" pols of ours, in cahoots with SRTA, decided different.

Speaking of tollways, there is now a proposal to build a 113-mile (181 km) Western Commercial Connector tollway from I-75 in Cartersville to Dallas, Villa Rica, Newnan, Griffin, and ending at I-75 near Barnesville. Now I'm not sure that this would be a good idea at this point, but at least if it were built as a permanently toll-funded highway, at least our pols and SRTA would be telling us the truth. However, I expect to see pigs fly or for Hell to freeze over before SRTA gets a single ounce of integrity.

As for GA 400, did the toll really need to be increased, after all? I don't think so. I've given up any sliver of hope that SRTA will ever get better... or better yet be eliminated altogether. Thank you, Sonny, thank you, Gina, and thank you SRTA for giving us the shaft!!!

Before I get my blood pressure too much higher, that's it for now. Thank you all for reading and please come back often.

SOURCES:
- "Ga. 400/I-85 to be rebuilt, but was new toll needed?", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 6, 2011
- "Construction at Ga. 400 plaza could suspend toll", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 10, 2011
- "Local officials consider tolls to pay for road projects", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 2, 2011

 

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