Transportation
278 CID | Transportation
Transportation | Master Planning Intent
A complete street approach to rethinking what US Highway 278 is and should be. The new “Complete” 278 will be focused on creating a pedestrian friendly, aesthetically pleasing environment that will be a destination in the City of Covington and not a route through it.
The plan includes:
- Wide medians sized appropriately for accommodating large maturing canopy trees.
- Wide tree lawns that will provide safety to pedestrians through the planting of large maturing street trees between the travel way and the sidewalk.
- A large 12’ wide multipurpose sidewalk along the north side of the corridor that function as a linear park / trail.
- Pedestrian scaled street lights with festive banner options.
- Relocation of overhead utilities to the greatest extent practical.
- Replace signalized intersections with roundabouts where practical
Next Steps
- Detailed Traffic Evaluation of the corridor (coordinate with District 2 traffic ops)
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- Validate conceptual design and make adjustments based on traffic
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- This traffic evaluation along with the County study will potentially open up GDOT safety funds for the area
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- Bring GDOT Board Member up to speed on the project and get them to help move forward
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Continued coordination with District 2 Traffic Operations Department
- Continue discussion on speed reduction
- Continued coordination with utilities within the corridor
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- Keep lines of communication open and work on getting relocations programmed with utility repairs and upgrades for the area
- Begin coordination with Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) on funding options for the project.
- Identify potential smaller projects within the corridor and get designs done so you will have projects ready to build when applying for grants.
- If project is locally managed with GDOT and/or Federal funds then the following general steps would be followed (process would be about 5 years to complete (once PFA signed) if Federal Funds). This is not all steps but the major ones that will be required to complete the project:
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- Project Planning and Programming (ARC would work with DOT on this once the project has been added to the ARC program)
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- Develop Project Framework Agreement (PFA)-agreement detailing what locals and GDOT are responsible for related to the project.
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- Concept Stage-Develops a Concept Report to help establish the project “footprint”.
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- Preliminary Design- Environmental documentation, database development, preliminary plan development, field investigations, Utility Coordination, Preliminary Field Plan Review, and Right-of-Way plans.
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- Final Design- Location and Design approval, Right-of-Way plan approval, Right-of-way acquisition, Final Design, Utility plans and coordination, Final Field Plan Review, Completion of plans for Let, Project certifications, and construction authorization.
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- Project Construction-The project is let for construction and the construction takes place based on the approved plans and specifications. Once the project is completed the final acceptance process is completed.
Potential Funding Sources
In addition to CID funds generated the following are potential funding sources that should be tracked and considered:
- T-SPLOST
- ARC
- GDOT Safety funds
- Various Grants,
- SPLOST
It is important to note that most funding sources come with some type of additional permitting, studies or reporting that impact the design and/or documentation requirements. All of these will also impact the schedule.
Transportation | Key Partners
- City of Covington
- Newton County
- Georgia Department of Transportation
- Northeast Georgia Regional Commission
- Adjacent Businesses
- Utility Providers (Wet & Dry)
Visit the HWY 278 Improvement Association website:
Contact
2101 Clark Street
Covington, GA 30014
Call: 770-786-7510
