Work begins on College Station Rd bridge!

At last:

Workers began clearing out trees this week to make way for a new bridge off College Station Road near Riverbend Road.

The bridge will provide access to an Athens-Clarke sewer treatment plant under construction beside the North Oconee River near Horsehoe Bend and will open up an adjacent tract of University of Georgia-owned land for development.

UGA and the Athens-Clarke government will split the $3 million cost of the bridge, said County Manager Alan Reddish.

Construction will take about a year, and the bridge will include bike lanes and a pedestrian walkway that Reddish said can be tied into the county's river greenway program.

-from the ABH

More about the TIP

ABH covers the Transportation Improvement Plan:

State funding for transportation is hard to come by lately as the Department of Transportation prioritizes a backlog of projects it cannot fund with declining fuel taxes. A proposed six-year transportation plan for Clarke, Oconee and Madison counties includes only a fraction of the projects listed in years past.

Among the projects that are scheduled to move forward over the next three years:

► Buying land for a new Athens Perimeter-Peter Street-Olympic Drive interchange scheduled for construction in 2014.

► Extending the North Oconee River Greenway from Oconee Street to College Station Road.

► Turning an abandoned East Athens railroad into a walking trail.

► Buying land to eventually widen Mars Hill Road.

► Completing Jennings Mill Parkway, which runs parallel to Atlanta Highway.

► Rebuilding the College Station Road bridge over the North Oconee River.

Those projects mostly are federally funded, but some also include funding from state and local governments.

red = not so much
green = yes, please

BikeAthens will host a TIP review & analysis meeting on Thursday, Oct. 1st, 6 pm at Trappeze.

All are welcome!

Greenway news

In "a couple of years," you'll be to walk/ride the Oconee River Greenway from Sandy Creek Nature Center to College Station Rd.

Thanks to the Greenway Comission for patiently pursuing the property for this extension!

UGA-ACC land deal opens door for greenway expansion

From the Banner-Herald:

The University System Board of Regents today should approve the University of Georgia's decision to donate 1.35 acres of land off East Campus Road to the Athens-Clarke County government.

[R]iverside acreage [will] extend the North Oconee River Greenway from Oconee Hill Cemetery all the way south to College Station Road.

Athens-Clarke will get land along the North Oconee River to extend the North Oconee River Greenway from Oconee Hill Cemetery to College Station Road. The planned bridge will allow cyclists on the greenway to get to bike lanes on College Station Road.

$500K available for alt trans projects in Athens

Athens-Clarke County has $500,000 to spend on bike, pedestrian, and transit projects, and we want to hear from you on which projects you'd like to see happen.

Read the post below and then please fill out the poll on our blog home page.

Details & project descriptions via the ABH:

A standing committee of five commissioners is deciding how to spend $500,000 the commission earmarked for alternative transportation - walking, biking and buses - in 2006.

Officials said they want to spend $75,000 to update a plan for future bike lanes written in 2001, expanding it beyond the three-mile radius from downtown that was mapped out eight years ago. They also want to hold back $25,000 for incidental expenses.

Projects that parks, transportation and Athens Transit officials said could be funded with the remaining money include:

► $400,000 to buy land for a future expansion of a planned, federally funded park-and-ride lot at Oconee Street and the Athens Perimeter.

► $400,000 to widen College Station Road between Research Drive and Barnett Shoals Road to add lanes for bike riders.

► $400,000 to build 1.3 miles of sidewalks along Oglethorpe Avenue, Whit Davis Road, Cherokee Road, Research Road and Cedar Shoals Drive.

► $400,000 to build a trail connecting the Multimodal Transportation Center to a planned rail-trail project in East Athens.

► $400,000 to supplement sales tax revenue earmarked for the North Oconee River Greenway.

► $400,000 to build paths in a proposed park along Pulaski Creek.

► $400,000 to build a bike lane along West Broad Street/Atlanta Highway from Alps Road to greenspace near the Middle Oconee River.

► $400,000 to build an off-road path connecting Milledge Avenue and Milledge Avenue Extension.

► $200,000 to buy land for bus shelters at stops where the local government does not own right-of-way.

► $50,000 to promote Athens Transit bus service.

► $20,000 to buy and install 40 bike racks around Athens.

More parking decks at UGA

Awwww.... come on!

The University of Georgia will add two more parking decks, one near the intramural fields off College Station Road and one near the Performing and Visual Arts Center on East Campus.

If approved today as expected by the University System Board of Regents, construction crews will begin work within weeks and finish as early as August, said UGA spokesman Tom Jackson.

The $9.2 million, 490-parking space deck near the intramural fields is scheduled to be finished in time to furnish overflow parking for UGA home football games, Jackson said.

UGA is supposed to be discouraging automobile use. These decks are utterly at odds with the university's demonstrated commitment to 1) expanding greenspace, 2) increasing walk- and bike-ability on campus, and 3) encouraging on-campus living.

The increased automobile traffic they create will make cycling on College Station's bike lanes far less safe.

This is a terrible, backwards-ass idea, and it sounds like it's being done to appease the tailgating Escalade convoys from out of town, and that it's too late to oppose it.

Not only is this asinine from a transportation perspective- it demonstrates a callous mis-allocation of money for the university. The state keeps shoveling money at UGA, but only for megalithic student centers and wrongheaded parking decks. Meanwhile, academic departments and student service offices are facing unprecedented cuts, including potentially widespread layoffs.

Is it sane to build a monumental campus, full of hapless students in empty, un-staffed buildings, while cash and bourbon-fueled donors park their land yachts in awful, modernist parking decks?