Marietta Street Resurfacing (car, drive, road)

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by primaltech

I thought urbanists liked street parking? I can't keep up anymore.

This adds more street parking. It goes from having it only on one side of the street to having street parking (that protects bike lanes) on both sides.

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by alco89

EDIT:After looking at the document, the master plan only wants to remove the street parking and add bike lanes while keeping 2 traffic lanes in each direction. That's perfectly fine.

Originally Posted by jsvh

Yep:

Nope. Look again. It's only one travel lane in each direction. Then a parking lane in each direction. Then a protected bike lane in each direction.

I'm also curious about their drawing saying there is an existing 12' median. I mean, I'm just looking at Google Street View, but that doesn't look anywhere close to 12'. It also looks like they plan on moving that median over 3'.

[alco89]

Originally Posted by jsvh

This adds more street parking. It goes from having it only on one side of the street to having street parking (that protects bike lanes) on both sides.

Originally Posted by samiwas1

Nope. Look again. It's only one travel lane in each direction. Then a parking lane in each direction. Then a protected bike lane in each direction.

LOL well I take back my comment. This is NOT fine. Find some other way to protect the bike lanes.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by alco89

LOL well I take back my comment. This is NOT fine. Find some other way to protect the bike lanes.

So you have an issue with allowing on-street parking? Or more in the streets exist solely to maximize car throughput camp?

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

Apparently, I can't rep people any more. I've repped everyone I want to, and this stupid site won't allow it unless I "spread it around". I haven't been able to rep anyone in months!

Until the alternatives exist in a useful way, making the current option almost unusable is stupid. It would be like me stopping taking my medications now because someone said alternatives may be coming in a few years.

Appreciated, and I am not able to rep you anymore either, or hardly anyone. A lot of great contributors around here with good posts and points. I even rep up people like jsvh who it seems I only agree with half the time.

Anyway, like I said, I am just opposed to doing anything with Marietta St between the park and Five Points. I am not overly opposed to the much quieter section beyond that becoming a 3-lane instead of 4. And I've never been opposed to the Tech Pkwy bike lanes project.

Some people who need or want to get to Downtown, also live Downtown, but not everyone does. How about meet in a reasonable middle rather than screw over one camp for the sake of the other.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

Apparently, I can't rep people any more. I've repped everyone I want to, and this stupid site won't allow it unless I "spread it around". I haven't been able to rep anyone in months!

Until the alternatives exist in a useful way, making the current option almost unusable is stupid. It would be like me stopping taking my medications now because someone said alternatives may be coming in a few years.

What you fail to realize is this will improve the operation of the street. Left turn movements will have a protected phase and be removed from thru lanes. It will increase safety on the street as well, since there will be less weaving and left turns will have a lane. Viewing this project as just loss of a lane is narrow minded.

[atlHawks]

Promised Howell Mill overhaul may not happen

There’s broad agreement that the Howell Mill Road corridor could use a lot of road, sidewalk, bike lane and bus stop upgrades; but much of that proposed work is up in the air as the city steps back from some public works pledges.

Northwest Atlanta City Councilman Dustin Hillis wanted to hear that his constituents would get the road improvements. Instead, he said he was disappointed after seeing a presentation by the city’s Renew Atlanta office on Thursday night.

“You go out to the voters and you present a project list and ask for their vote, and maybe they see something in their neighborhood or in their Council district that may have been what got them to the polls to vote for it … and then come and say, ‘Oh I’m sorry we massively underestimated the cost?'” said Hillis.

The “Howell Mill Road Complete Street Project” idea would improve about 2.25 of corridor from Marietta Street to Collier Road with things like turn lanes, bike lanes, better sidewalks and crosswalks, better bus stops and new pavement. It’s supposed to be paid for out of $250 million that city of Atlanta voters authorized the city to borrow in 2015. The point of the Renew Atlanta project was to start on a much larger backlog of road, bridge, sidewalk and public building works across the city.

But signs are that across the city, Renew won’t be able to pay for all the projects on its list.

Renew is doing a reboot or a rebaselining of its entire program, said Michele Wynn, a top manager at Renew Atlanta, presenting the Howell Mill update at that public meeting in northwest Atlanta. Part of that is identifying priority projects, she said.

On Howell Mill particularly, timing the lights is a top priority, she said. It’s a somewhat separate project from the rest of the “complete street” work.

“For the complete street, we may look at doing a phasing of that, so it may be that we construct a phase of it early and then we go out and seek additional funding for doing construction on another phase,” Wynn said.

If so, complete street works would start in segments at the Marietta Street end of Howell Mill.

At-large Atlanta City Councilman Andre Dickens lives in northwest Atlanta and was also among the 30 or so people watching the presentation, neighbors sick of the gridlock.

“Howell Mill Road is completely congested most parts of the day and the evening, and it wasn’t like that before, and so we put it on the list of projects and it was well-supported,” Dickens said.

But he said that according to informal conversations he’s had with Renew and other things he’s heard, there’s just not enough money and some things are going to fall off the list.

Both he and Hillis said their top priority is to at least get Howell Mill’s traffic lights synchronized so traffic moves faster.

Asked why Renew isn’t going to cover all that was promised, Wynn said doing a rebaselining on something like this is kind of normal. Constructions costs change, designs change and scopes change, she said.

Unpredictable things happen, she said, like a boom in the construction industry just now, so that contractors can pick and choose projects.

“I think that the challenge, with, again, any program, is managing expectations and then understanding how projects change,” Wynn said.

But city auditors have had some unflattering things to say about Renew. For example, fire station repairs are costing more than the insufficient amount that was set aside for them in the first place, according to an audit published in September.

Design circumstances did change there, like when the fire department decided they wanted gender-neutral bathrooms. So designers went back to drawing boards. But auditors did find cases of design costs far exceeding guidelines and that controls to track and limit design costs weren’t working.

Last year, road works were found to be missing documentation that the city needs to control costs and schedules. In 2016, auditors found that contracting didn’t comply with best practices or fully protect the city’s interests.

Roughly $19 million of Renew Atlanta bond premiums (money paid by buyers over the face value of a bond) went to pay for a controversial, budget-busting bridge over Northside Drive that wasn’t on the original list.

According to a 2017 document, Howell Mill Complete Street construction was supposed to have started in May, 2018. But the design isn’t finished yet. Wynn said draft maps presented Thursday night will be on Renew’s website in the coming days.

Renew Atlanta’s former leader, Faye DiMassimo, left City Hall in April for a private sector job. Shortly after that, former city deputy COO Tom Weyandt took over as Renew’s interim general manager. Wynn confirmed rumors that she’s to be the interim general manager starting Oct. 17.

Personnel from Renew (plus another infrastructure program) were scheduled to give a regular update to the Atlanta City Council’s Transportation Committee on Wednesday, but no one from the programs stepped up to the mic.

Committee Chair Dickens said he knew Renew was still working on some data but that he had urged them to show up and present as much as possible. He said he wants to hear about Renew’s expenditure and budget, what has gotten done and why some things maybe won’t.

[cqholt]

This is what happens when a program like this is ran under the Mayor's office and not by a department that has to answer to City Council! #herzzoner

[jsvh]

"Roughly $19 million of Renew Atlanta bond premiums (money paid by buyers over the face value of a bond) went to pay for a controversial, budget-busting bridge over Northside Drive that wasn’t on the original list."

Ugh. Stop building stupid shiny stuff and use that money to repave / re-stripe roads and sidewalks with sane lane patterns that flow better. We got to stop trying to think we can throw money at things and have it all. Road diets are far better solution for better flow of many-modes through an area than pedestrian bridges are.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by atlHawks

Promised Howell Mill overhaul may not happen

Our city government needs a f-ing enema.