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This project will be huge for Macon-Bibb and all of Middle Georgia. If I-14 is eventually built, this extension will tie into it.
Quote:
The more than $55 million project, referred to as the Sardis Church Road extension, would provide a route from the Sardis Church Road interchange at Interstate 75 over to Ga. 247.
The 6.3-mile route includes construction of five bridges, a four-lane divided east-west connector with a median, 4-foot bike lanes as well as 5-foot sidewalks on both sides of the roadway, according to an email from Kimberly Larson, a communications officer with the Georgia Department of Transportation.
Contractor C.W. Matthews’ bridge crew has poured the decks on two bridges, and workers are now pouring the barrier wall, Larson said. A roadway crew is laying pipe near the Ga. 247 side of the project. Another contractor will be moving in during the beginning of 2017 to do culvert work on Avondale Mill Road.
“C.W. Matthews anticipates placing asphalt on the extension sometime in March 2017, weather cooperating,” she said.
Macon-Bibb Mayor Robert Reichert said he thinks the DOT conceived of the extension from I-75 “as another way to get traffic from I-75 to Robins Air Force Base without having to drive through the city of Warner Robins.”
The project will not only bring about more efficient traffic patterns, he said, but will have a major impact on another mode of transportation.
“We were very enthusiastic about it because it would make Middle Georgia Regional Airport easily accessible to I-75,” he said. “You don’t have to know your way to try to get from the airport to I-75 or from I-75 to the airport.”
Macon-Bibb County’s plans to lengthen the runway at the airport would not be hampered by the Sardis Church Road extension. The 6,500-foot runway now ends on a hill above Avondale Mill Road, which is part of the road extension.
Reichert said it has been determined that if the runway is lengthened, there “is more than enough room to put in a tunnel (on Avondale Mill Road) and still have about 10 feet of fill on top of the tunnel to get up to the top of the runway.”
The estimated cost of the tunnel and the runway extension is about $32 million.
The economic impact of the extension is expected to radiate outward even farther.
“It would have, in my opinion, an extraordinary impact on Middle Georgia as far as making us a transportation and logistics hub that would serve not only this Middle Georgia region but the entire state,” he said.
Think this is really going to have a great impact on this area and how it will tie into the airport ext project..... It will make the area much more marketable to industries looking at Macon.
I honestly believe that the 2020s will be a good decade for macon and all of middle georgia. Too much is being planned for that not to happen. Between this project and the I-16/I-75 interchange expansion, macon will become a major logistics hub in the southeast.
I honestly believe that the 2020s will be a good decade for macon and all of middle georgia. Too much is being planned for that not to happen. Between this project and the I-16/I-75 interchange expansion, macon will become a major logistics hub in the southeast.
The mayor of Macon-Bibb is pushing for the second phase of the Sardis Church Road extension. Currently the leaders on the county commission have hired Moreland Altobelli Associates Inc. to do a scoping study to see if plans are construction feasible and financially feasible. The concept and design have already been paid for now it is just up to the unfolding of this study to see what all is presented. The long term goal is to connect Ga. 247 to I-16.
Last edited by the tiger; 12-27-2016 at 01:38 PM..
I stated on another thread that Saudis Church Rd is going to be a game changer for the region and close the development gap between Macon and WR.
This certainly will. I can honestly see the Macon-Warner Robins area becoming one metro again within the next 20 years. The two are stronger together than they are apart. If I were the mayor I would definitely try to get the extension on the new TSPLOST being pushed for 2018.
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