Residents push back against widening of Hwy 20 to six lanes in Cherokee and Forsyth counties (Atlanta: 2013, homes)

[Born 2 Roll]

From WXIA-TV 11Alive Atlanta:

Concerned residents in Cherokee County are pushing back against a plan (by the Georgia Department of Transportation) to widen Highway 20 from two lanes to six lanes. GDOT officials say the project will relieve congestion and improve safety.

"That would make it larger than I-575 and wider than Georgia 400 in some parts north," said resident Justine Chapman. "It is absolutely unnecessary in this area."

Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Russell R. McMurry [took] questions from residents on [Monday night] during a town hall meeting.

[The meeting was held] at 6 p.m. at the Cherokee County Administration Building, located at 1130 Bluffs Parkway in Canton.

GDOT officials said they have to consider how the road will perform 20, 30, 40 years from now.

"Not only are we beyond capacity, but the road's becoming unsafe," said Natalie Dale, spokeswoman for GDOT.

GDOT posted several videos on its website to help residents visualize the plans.

They include red dots to mark the homes and businesses that would have to be torn down.

"We understand that development is inevitable, but we want it to be development that's consistent with the area," Chapman said. "This is a mostly rural community where neighbors know each other."

Chapman moved to Cherokee County about a year ago and began digging into the plan.

Through an open records request, she found an internal memo from last September that indicates GDOT would consider scaling back the widening project from six-lanes to four-lanes if there's "significant pushback" from the public.

"And so we are the community pushback," Chapman added.

The back-and-forth on this project has been going on for years.

GDOT began drafting different plans and holding public meetings in 2013.

"We've been through many alternatives that the community flat out said 'no' to. We have walked back on those, and we have come up the a compromise," Dale explained. "This is one of the best examples where we listened to community input."

The widening project involves about 24 miles of road from Cumming to Canton.

If the six-lane plan goes forward, work could start by the end of the year.

"Residents push back against six lanes on Highway 20" (WXIA-TV/11Alive Atlanta)
Residents push back against six lanes on Highway 20 | 11alive.com

[Born 2 Roll]

Here is the link to the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) page for the Highway 20 improvement project (...page includes project maps and video illustrations of what the proposed project would look like after it was finished):

"SR 20 Improvements" (Georgia Department of Transportation)
*SR 20

[Born 2 Roll]

It appears that the Georgia Department may be attempting to compensate for not being able to build the old Northern Arc/Outer Perimeter superhighway (proposals that were killed due to much public pushback in the late-1990's and early-2000's) by attempting to widen Georgia 20 to as many as six-plus lanes between Canton and Cumming.

Though, it is very likely that GDOT may be attempting to increase their chances of making a GA 20 widening project a reality by pushing forth the most-unpopular option (the option of widening GA 20 to six-plus lanes) and then falling back to the less-unpopular option (the option of widening GA 20 to four-plus lanes) when the certain public pushback occurs

[fieldm]

If they want to sit in traffic let them

[DJDeadParrot]

I can count on one hand the number of times I've made that drive in either direction in the 18 years I've lived in Georgia. That said, even I can see the need to make improvements.

[arjay57]

Folks moved out there to get some elbow room and now it's being threatened. You can't blame them pushing back.

[fieldm]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Folks moved out there to get some elbow room and now it's being threatened. You can't blame them pushing back.

Same as people moving to Alpharetta 30+ years ago. Look at the traffic there now. The average citizen is too dumb to analyze predicted future growth so it should be up to the government to educate the dummies. Hell if we are to let the residents dictate the future we would still have slavery here

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by fieldm

Same as people moving to Alpharetta 30+ years ago. Look at the traffic there now. The average citizen is too dumb to analyze predicted future growth so it should be up to the government to educate the dummies

and same as people moving to Sandy Springs/North DeKalb 50 years ago, SWATS 60 years ago, and Inman Park a century ago.

Gotta love sprawl.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Folks moved out there to get some elbow room and now it's being threatened. You can't blame them pushing back.

Yet, they'll complain about the worsening congestion.

[Mutiny77]

If this was needed when I lived in Canton in 2010-2011, I know it's even more needed now.