The intersection of Church Street and Mill Street on the Marietta Square will be closed March 4-18 for work on a new water main and construction of brick crosswalks.

A counterclockwise circulation of traffic around the Square will be maintained for access to parking and businesses on the Square. All other local traffic will be detoured, and through traffic with a destination outside the Square is encouraged to use North and South Marietta Parkways.

View the detour map here >>

To subscribe to receive transportation updates and city news by email, visit mariettaga.gov/subscribe. For more information contact the city’s Public Works Department at 770-794-5650.

Polk Street between Winn St and Cleburne Ave will be closed from 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, August 5 through 5 a.m. Thursday, August 6, and traffic will be detoured while the Marietta Touchdown Club paints the Marietta High School Blue Devils logo and other symbols on the street near the school.

Westbound Polk Street traffic will be detoured north on Winn Street,  west on Maple Avenue, south on Cleburne Avenue and west on Polk Street. Eastbound Polk Street traffic will be detoured north on Cleburne Avenue, east on Maple Avenue, south on Winn Street and east on Polk Street.

Residents who live on the closed section of Polk will be allowed to get to and from their homes, Marietta Pulic Works director Dan Conn said.

For more information, call Marietta’s Public Works Department at 770-794-5650.

View Polk Street in a larger map

We first reported to you back in June that the Kennesaw Avenue Bridge Project was underway and getting started. In an effort by the State to enhance the terrible bridge located near the intersection of Tower Road and Kennesaw Avenue, the project is coming along nicely. They’ve made some great progress as you can see from the picture above and it’s scheduled for completion by the time school starts later this summer.

My question is this for everyone – has the bridge being closed changed your driving habits and route? Obviously it has, but will you go back to your ‘normal’ route once they reopen the bridge or will you continue using your new found route to work, etc.?

Old Highway 41 between Stilesboro Road and Ridenour Road will be closed July 20-October 17, and traffic will be detoured while the bridge over the CSX railroad is being replaced.

Northbound traffic on Old Highway 41 will be detoured west on Stilesboro Road, then north on Barrett Parkway.

Southbound traffic on Old Highway 41 will be detoured south on Barrett Parkway, then east on Stilesboro Road.

For more information, call the Cobb County Department of Transportation at 770-528-1653.

The upgrades will include new black ornamental traffic poles, decorative bases and mast arms with special downtown signage and wireless signal communication. All old traffic signals will be replaced with new LED (light emitting diodes) to increase visibility and decrease the amount of energy required to operate the signals. If you are wanting to read more on how LED lights work, take a look here at How Stuff Works

Here are some reasons that LED traffic lights are better than conventional traffic signals:

• LEDs are brighter. The LED arrays fill the entire “hole” and have equal brightness across the entire surface, making them brighter overall.
• LED bulbs last for years, while halogen bulbs last for months. Replacing bulbs costs money for the trucks and people who do the work, and it also ties up traffic. Increasing the replacement interval can save a city big dollars.
• LED bulbs save a lot of energy.

To improve safety in and around the pedestrian areas, new street signage will be placed on the mast arms for increased visibility while providing a consistent image of the downtown and further enhancing the historic image of the Square. Implementation of the new traffic signal improvement project is expected to be completed in May of 2009.

Additional improvements to the Square will begin later this year and include repaving of road surfaces. Crosswalks and pedestrian areas will also be enhanced. Replacement of the aged traffic poles and signals will be an on-going project throughout Marietta. As the city removes the old poles, they will be refurbished and restored with a new longer-lasting baked-on paint and then reused at other intersections in the city for a consistent look around Marietta and to save taxpayer money.

For more information, contact the city’s Public Works Department at 770-794-5677.

We’ve all been through the light at the intersection of South Marietta Parkway and Powder Springs road. If you haven’t, then you don’t know just how dangerous this intersection can be to both vehicles and pedestrians. The city of Marietta has installed a traffic enforcement camera at the intersection of Powder Springs Street and South Marietta Parkway to help prevent drivers from running the red light and reduce serious accidents. The city will begin a 30-day warning period December 13. Beginning January 12 the Marietta Police Department will begin issuing citations to motorists who run the red light.
Taking effect in 2004, Marietta’s red light camera program is intended to combat a serious problem with red light running.

The city selected the intersection after recommendations from the Marietta Police Department based on the number and severity of accidents. The accident data is compared, the most dangerous intersections are identified and the city’s vendor does initial testing to determine the number of red light violations that occur at the intersection. City Council then selects the intersection based on this information.

All red light camera intersections are clearly marked for drivers with state-designated signs, which are required by law.

The Georgia Department of Transportation approves all intersection improvements and has approved the installation of the red light camera at Powder Springs Street and South Marietta Parkway.

While the city expects the number of rear-end accidents to initially increase as drivers become aware of the camera, the number of side collisions, which are more serious, are expected to decrease.

A national study by the Federal Highway Administration showed the number of broadside crashes dropped 25 percent at sites with cameras. The study found that rear-end crashes rose 15 percent at camera locations. But because broadside crashes are more dangerous and cause greater damage, the study concluded that the cameras can help reduce the costs of traffic accidents.

The city continuously evaluates its red light camera data to see what improvements can be made to improve safety.

For more information about Marietta’s red light camera program, call Marietta Municipal Court at 770-794-5261.

CONSTRUCTION BULLETIN

Thursday, Nov. 6

***OVERNIGHT OUTAGE AND LANE CLOSURES***

Two eastbound lanes on Lower Roswell Road near Johnson Ferry Road will be closed from 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6, until sometime Friday, Nov. 7, when work is completed and roadway pavement is restored. Repairs will be made to water main leak causing significant traffic disruption.

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Here’s the area of detail:

The half-day training event fosters a greater awareness and understanding of how communities can work together to improve by combining local issues with regional context.

Topics

• Water
• Transportation
• Education

Scheduled speakers

• Sam Olens, Chairman, Cobb County Commission
• Glen Page, P.E., General Manager, Cobb County- Marietta Water Authority
• Stephen Loftin, Executive Director, Regional Business Coalition
• David Montanye, Director, Cobb County Department of Transportation
• Dr. Gordon Pritz, Associate Superintendent, Cobb County Schools
• Dr. Emily Lembeck, Superintendent, Marietta City Schools

About the Regional Civic Academy

The mission of the Regional Civic Academy is to build relationships between community leaders and to create strong connections between grassroots leadership and regional efforts to address the region’s most critical shared problems like traffic congestion, water supply and education.

About the Atlanta Regional Commission

The Atlanta Regional Commission is the official planning agency for the 10-county Atlanta Region, including Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties as well as the City of Atlanta and 62 other cities.  The Atlanta Regional Commission serves as a catalyst for regional progress by focusing leadership, attention and planning resources on key regional issues.

The academy is open to the public.

For more information, call the Mansour Center at 770-428-2601 or to register online, visit atlantaregional.com/commerce.

ATLANTA – Georgia transportation officials on Friday grappled with how to fill a $189 million budget shortfall that could endanger road projects and force employee furloughs and even layoffs.

“This is a crisis and we are trying to buy time until we can recover,” state transportation board member Emory McClinton said.

Transportation Commissioner Gena Evans laid out a list of recommended cuts ranging from a one-day-a-month unpaid furlough for all of the department’s 5,500 employees to slashing the money for highway landscaping contracts and eliminating pay raises.

One possible target – laying off 566 department employees – got a cool reception from some board members who said the current tough economy is not the time to be handing out pink slips.

Another option would slash $28 million in road money that local governments count on to repave and maintain roads. The program is popular with legislators and local officials.

The transportation board took no action.

The department’s deficit was originally projected to top $456 million but state officials were able to use bond money to offset the shortfall. The department has an annual budget of about $2 billion.

Evans also said some of Gov. Sonny Perdue’s “fast forward” projects will fall victim to the budget woes. The initiative funds short-term congestion relief projects such as traffic signals and ramp meters, as well as accelerating schedules for major construction projects.

“A lot of those projects we aren’t going to be able to proceed with,” Evans said.

Still, some road projects are moving forward even as the department trims costs. On Friday the board moved to allot about $100 million in federal dollars for road projects. Those dollars cannot be used for things such as salaries and other expenses, Evans said.

In a letter to board members, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle urged them to make dollars for roadways the top priority, even if it mean reducing personnel.

“These are tough choices, but the citizens of Georgia are counting on all of us to be the best stewards of their tax dollars,” Cagle wrote.

Board member David Doss said that by scaling back projects the department could make the state’s economic downturn even worse by leaving highway contractors “on the verge of bankruptcy.”

“The best way to get money into the economy is through a public works program,” he said.

The cuts come as Georgia – which has some of the worst commute times in the nation around metro-Atlanta – looks to improve roads and add rail lines.