Highway 67 project on back burner (Atlanta, Columbus: sales, 2015, university)

[Airforceguy]

Highway 67 project on back burner

[WanderingImport]

Does Bulloch have a SPLOST? If not, they should consider it. Perhaps helping to fund projects like this quicker.

That's too bad about the delay. I know MANY people from Statesboro and Savannah use this road to go back and fourth between the two cities (connecting to 16 obviously).

[Albania67]

Wow how did i miss seeing this thread ?!!! 67 project on the back burner aye. Legislature and GDOT needs to get their act together!!! @Wonderingimport: Bulloch County does have a splost and why their not using it behooos me! A year or two ago i remember our County Chairman(still our current now) Nevil said that Gdot is taking to long taking too long to finalyze plans for 4 laning the road and he said if splost was used it'll be alot quicker. Why haven't used splost for the project??? I have no Clue!

[pink caddy]

That boo hoos me as well.

[Drewplanner]

The voters in coastal ga voted down the TSPLOST unfortunately. Bulloch County retail/sales are roughly $1.4-billion last I checked... and our one-cent SPLOST raised more than Valdosta's one year even though Valdosta is larger than Statesboro. Our Walmart was the highest sales Walmart in the United States for a few years, probably still is since we only have one and there are about 13 counties around us that dont have a Walmart. Anyway, Bulloch County would have received about $120-million for its project-list which had four items on it - hard to imagine that all four of these projects would be completed in a mere ten years!! And we/coastal ga voted it down (hinesville would have gotten ten years of funding for their transit system after expanding it again... Savannah the same thing... Brunswick would have gotten a new transit system and funding for ten years... and of course all the giant road projects throughout the region...)


- Widen Hwy 67 from Fairgrounds to I-16 with new interchange (years 2012-2015)
- Construct the Veterans Memorial Parkway 4-lane "Northern Loop" fully encircling Statesboro (years 2014-2017)
- Widen High 301 North from Veterans Memorial Parkway to Screven County line (years 2016-2019)
- Build a giant pedestrium along South Main Street from Tillman Road to Veterans Memorial Parkway with enhanced crossing features (for students who live on other side of the highway from the university)... (years 2016-2019)

Although there wouldnt have been any transit features - I felt it was a good project list because once all this was complete, transit would be the next obvious thing to tackle. The GA legislature is currently trying to pass another TSPLOST alternative law which gives counties the option to "partner" with each other based on their own choosing (but not alone...). This proposal will be disastrous for Metro Atlanta's already over-fragmented transportation planning agencies. It will probably help the middle-georgia and southwest-georgia counties work together on some regional stuff. As for Bulloch, no matter who we "team up with" we will lose because our retail sales is so ridiculously high and every county surrounding us is rural farmland with no substantial retail sales (I guess Candler would be the best option since we have a 21% commuting relationship).

Or perhaps Coastal Georgia will choose to retry... also TSPLOST should be coming up for a second vote here soon unless the Ga Legislature alters the law so that it doesnt come up for revote after 2 years as it was originally supposed to. Anyone who was skeptical of the referendum in 2012, just look at CSRA, River Valley and Columbus - they are raking in the dough and tackling their transportation challenges while the rest of us are not.

But think about what $120-million means for Bulloch County over ten years.... thats $1-million a MONTH for transportation projects!!! If Bulloch is allowed to pass one on its own, it certainly will - its a no brainer... we have a 300,000 population market of people who travel here to go to walmart plus the giant georgia southern university population spending their parents money - then the tourism from college football, splash in the boro, and the hospital and all these car dealerships... its a NO BRAINER - when over half of the money pouring in from the sales taxes are being generated by non-Statesboro folks just giving us their money... hello!!