Fresh Loaf

STILL GOING Dispute over Beltline tracks riles residents

After two hours of debating administrative minutiae, the Georgia Department of Transportation board nearly brought an end to the bitter dispute the state agency and Amtrak started with the City of Atlanta over Beltline tracks near Piedmont Park.

At the end of today’s board meeting, Boardmember David Doss of Rome — who it should be noted, hasn’t always been the biggest advocate for rail projects — asked the board to consider withdrawing its stay of abandonment of the “Decatur Belt,” a 4.2-mile segment of unused tracks which stretch from Ansley Park to DeKalb Avenue. Those tracks are a vital piece of the Beltline, the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit proposed to circle Atlanta’s core. Amtrak and GDOT say they want the tracks preserved for future commuter rail service into downtown Atlanta.

Doss said he proposed the same motion yesterday at an intermodal committee meeting.

“The idea of commuter rail or high-speed rail going through Piedmont Park makes little sense to me,” Doss told boardmembers. He said the two modes are not compatible with plans the city has already made for the property, which it purchased from Gwinnett County developer Wayne Mason last year for more than $66 million.

Suddenly, a booming voice sounded from the ceiling. Boardmember Steve Farrow of Dalton, participating in the meeting via conference call, objected.

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A group of Inman Park residents have formed Keep High Speed Rail Out of Inman Park in an effort to fight the Georgia Department of Transportation and Amtrak’s plans to run commuter rail near the historic neighborhood. The ambiguously named group has a petition here and a YouTube video.

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HIT THE BRAKES Beltline faces another obstacle — from GDOT and AMTRAK

If there’s one thing we’ve learned about the Beltline, the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit proposed to circle Atlanta, it’s that surprises are to be expected. And some interesting developments are afoot with the $2.8-billion project.

If you recall, Atlanta Beltline Inc. — the nonprofit agency in charge of planning and implementing the project — finalized its purchase of a 66-acre piece of property in October owned by Gwinnett County developer Wayne Mason and his son Keith, an Atlanta attorney. The Mason property included  land and transit right-of-way. The $66 million purchase riled city watchdogs not only for the ultimate payout to the Masons — more than double what father and son originally paid for the land in 2004 — but also the deal ABI cut with a private partner group it needed to buy out if it wanted to use tax-exempt bonds to finalize the purchase before a Halloween deadline. That’s background, and for all intents and purposes, irrelevant for the moment.

Beltline leaders hoped to complete planning the area, implement transit, and sell off excess land to developers. They would then re-invest the windfall from those sales back into the overall project. But before it could do anything with the property, it first had to abandon the transit right-of-way. That humdrum process is conducted by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board and largely involves just some time for public comment and a shuffling of papers. It was supposed to be a walk in the park.

Looks like that’s not turning out to be the case. An eleventh-hour move by the state Department of Transportation and AMTRAK has potentially thrown a wrench in the Beltline. And why those two odd entities decided to hold hands and insert themselves into the conversation — this late in the party — is making folks scratch their heads.

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Jeez, guys, didn’t you read that he was taking a train to Washington, D.C.?

The Georgia Public Interest Research Group has just released its analysis of the state Department of Transportation’s wishlist for President-elect Barack Obama’s proposed stimulus funds. And the group says the state agency’s list favors asphalt over rails.

The Georgia Department of Transportation’s wish list requests:

• Georgia would spend only 34.3 percent of funds on public transit/intercity rail projects.

• The state DOT has allocated 69 percent of the two billion dollar highway project funds to the maintenance needs of the state’s infrastructure. This is a higher portion than most other states but would still leave many bridges and roads in a state of disrepair while building new highways.

• GDOT also lists three bike/pedestrian projects in Fulton County: West End Rail Multi-use Trail ($2.2 million), Fourteenth Street ($7.6 million), and Downtown Atlanta Pedestrian ($6.7 million).

There are some worrisome aspects to these high-dollar and ambitious wishlists, too.

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Tired of swallowing Xanax every time you jump on a plane to visit the folks? You might get an alternative, my weary friend.

A new multi-state study says high-speed rail is feasible along I-85 from Charlotte, N.C. to Macon. Greenville, S.C. and Atlanta would be stops along the route.

From a press release about the study:

The Charlotte-Macon Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor study assesses the capacity and speed capabilities of the corridor and estimates possible ridership, revenue, operating and capital costs associated with extending high-speed passenger rail from Charlotte, N.C. to Macon, Ga., along the I-85 corridor. The report also addresses the feasibility of train speeds up to 150 miles per hour, including new track construction in locations that would increase speeds and avoid congested areas. The study was conducted by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, Mass.

“This effort supports our shared belief that we must seriously consider — and plan for — transportation alternatives in these rapidly developing areas,” said Georgia Transportation Commissioner Gena Evans. “Given the growth our states continue to experience, we must explore every tool in our tool box in order to move the needle on transportation reform.”

…

High speed rail service, where appropriate, will provide business and leisure travelers with a competitive alternative to air and auto for trips between 100 and 500 miles.

Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia are working together with the business communities in each state to plan, develop and implement high speed rail in the Southeast. If implemented, the system would be developed incrementally, upgrading existing rail rights of way where possible.

What’s next? More studies, of course, including environmental assessments and modeling to gauge how viabile it would be to connect high-speed rail to other cities such as Washington, D.C. and Boston. Nowhere in the release does it mention how much the project would cost, which, in the end, is what determines whether it gets off the drawing board and into reality.

The complete study is also available online for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Full press release is after the jump.
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Gary Reese, one of the pixel-stained wretches at InsiderAdvantage, pulls back the curtain on a piece he’s researching about the state Department of Transportation’s vote to kill a Ga. 400 project. He says it’s a “blockbuster” and one to watch.

Reese offers a lengthy 1,551-word teaser. Essentially: There’s a bigger story behind the DOT board’s decision late last year to kill a deal proposed for the “Hospitality Highway.”

He says there are a bunch of e-mails and potentially ghostwritten press releases, too. CL readers might recall a story I wrote last year about Gov. Sonny Perdue’s trip to Spain, and rumors that the jaunt would include a sit-down with executives from Cintra, everyone’s favorite private toll road company. (Perdue did indeed sit down with the firm.) Reese says Cintra — along with some other big names in finance and transportation — will play a role in his story, as well.

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A coalition of officials from the state and metro region’s transportation planning agencies have vouched to now take the next step in addressing the issue — moving past pretty blueprints and visions and focusing on the more complex process of actually finding ways to build the mobility solutions.

The Transit Planning Board yesterday, in its final meeting under that banner, unanimously approved a “new year’s resolution” to create the Transit Implementation Board, or TIB. That agency, which will supplant the board, will examine how the region can implement Concept 3 (PDF) — a gridlock-relieving vision of light-rail, heavy-rail and bus routes that would spider throughout metro Atlanta.

The Atlanta Regional Commission, the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority and MARTA — members of the board — have all passed resolutions in support of Concept 3.

From a press release from the group:

“Two years ago, our region needed to focus on developing a vision for transit that we could all support,” stated TPB and Clayton County Chairman Eldrin Bell. “Today, we’re saying our focus needs to be on implementation. This year has filled me with optimism regarding what our region can accomplish when we work together Now, however, the hard part begins.”

The TIB’s first meeting is scheduled for Jan. 29.

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The AJC says the state is about to receive up to $110 million from the feds to install tolls on HOV lanes.

The main idea is to push enough people off the HOV lane to guarantee at least one lane on the highway where traffic can flow freely.

WTFHOV?

If the state is actually trying to reduce congestion in carpool lanes, how about changing the lanes from HOV-2 to HOV-3 during rush hour?

Much of the time, HOV-2 isn’t really carpooling. It’s “I have my kid in the car,” or “I’m driving my spouse to the airport. I’m a fan of both, but neither is really carpooling.

Going HOV-3, or even HOV-4 during rush hour would create an express lane for commuters who make an effort to find co-workers and neighbors for ride-sharing.

HOV-3 or HOV-4 rewards the best carpoolers by offering them a faster commute.

HOV-2 lanes merely creates a separate lane for people with extra cash.

Making rush hour carpool lanes HOV-3 would be cheaper, too. Decals are cheaper than toll booths.

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The state DOT board met Thursday afternoon for a closed-door discussion of the lingering scandal surrounding Commissioner Gena Evans and whether she could continue to function effectively as agency head  – no pun intended.

As the AJC and Morris News Service report today, Evans is still standing.

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InsiderAdvantage is reporting that DOT Commissioner Gena Evans may be in a new world of trouble. Apparently, a recent barrage of TV news pieces about saucy e-mails that Evans exchanged five years ago on government computers with a former boyfriend while working at a completely different agency has riled up the DOT board. IA suggests the board may consider dumping Evans — who not coincidentally, is a veteran reformer who’s been picking apart the DOT’s long history of waste and graft — at a meeting as early as today.

Stay tuned. In the meantime, you can catch up with the salacious details on WSB-TV, Fox-5 and, of course, CL.

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THE VISIBLE HAND: Smugness is growing abroad over the global free-market champion — especially under such an anti-regulation Republican administration — essentially nationalizing private corporations to combat its sputtering economy.

PAIN IN THE BANK: Top central banks of the world unite to infuse $247 billion into money markets in an attempt to stave off a global financial meltdown.

GOUGING: The state has subpoenaed at least nine gas stations for price-gouging after Hurricane Ike shut down oil production on the Texas coast.

EUGLENA: A big swath of slimy plant/animal goo is floating down the Oostanaula River toward Rome.

ZONE DEFENSE: Metro Atlanta communities are more often having to deal with abandoned clear-cut lots and subdivisions that developers couldn’t afford to finish, often doing so by revisiting zoning conditions.

CLAYTON: Corrective Superintendent John Thompson meets with SACS president, says he’ll soon unveil the school system’s plan to regain accreditation in the next 12 months.

THE HOOKY CRUMBLES: Nine DeKalb parents have been arrested for educational neglect based on their children’s truancy; police have arrest warrants for 59 people in all, some of whose kids have missed 40-50 days of school.

DOT: Auditors discover the department’s financial situation is even worse than previously thought.

DENNIS QUAID: Visits Falcons practice to promote a movie.

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DAVID FRANKLIN: The ex-husband of Mayor Shirley Franklin and a chief architect of the Maynard Jackson political machine died Sunday at 65.

TRAVELATROCITY: Atlanta and several other U.S. cities are suing 17 online travel sites including Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia, alleging the companies have cheated the cities out of millions in taxes.

REVACUEES: Gulf Coast residents who fled Hurricane Gustav may be repeating the ordeal less than two weeks later as Ike heads west-northwest.

OH, THE HEWED MANATEE: Four manatees are killed in the Savannah River, presumably by a large commercial or military prop boat.

HOSCHTON: The northeast Georgia city has broken Cincinnati’s world record for scarecrows in a single ZIP code, with nearly 5,000 at last count.

CLAYTON NOT APPEALING: The school system has decided not to appeal SACS’ accreditation-removal decision, instead focusing on getting its accreditation reinstated by September 2009.

ZONE COVERAGE: Former UGA and Cincinnati Bengals dynamo linebacker David Pollack, whose football career was ended in September 2006 with a broken neck, has signed on to host a sports talk show on 790 the Zone.

CONNECTING THE DOT: DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham and former DOT chairman Mike Evans were married Saturday night in Alabama.

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S. Heather Duncan at the Macon Telegraph has an excellent article today about the always-sexy, superhot XXX topic of “project prioritization” — in other words, what projects the state Department of Transportation decides to do and when they decide to do ‘em. An agency spokesperson says the days of “kissing the ring” — local officials would make their way to DOT’s dilapidated headquarters to beg for this or that — are over.

And if you want to know why that four-lane road that was supposed to lead you to Uncle Turbo’s Bait Shack is still unfinished, this article may give you some answers.

From the article:

When DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham took over the department nine months ago, she discovered more than 9,000 projects on the books and a $1 billion budget shortfall. Road projects that weren’t already under building contracts were put on ice until the state could reprioritize.

The department can only complete about 270 projects a year, said Mark McKinnon, a DOT spokesman.

Projects will be ranked. Those that aren’t high enough on the priority list to be completed within about six years will be eliminated, said DOT spokeswoman Crystal Paulk-Buchanan. The DOT will no longer keep projects on the books that can’t be finished for half a century, she said.

But as always, the comments give me chuckles:

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NATIONAL HEALTH MUSEUM: Atlanta is picked as the location for the $230 million museum, Sonny Perdue announced Wednesday afternoon.

HEALTH UNSURANCE: Georgia gets failing grade, as do most other states, from a Families USA study on equality in health insurance coverage.

SHORTFALLIN’: The Georgia DOT will likely finish this fiscal year more than $1.2 billion in the red, Commissioner Gena Abraham says.

EASTERN EQUINE ENCEPHALITIS: Six new cases of the disease, which is spread by mosquitoes and swells horses’ brains, are reported in South Georgia. Humans are also susceptible.

IN FARM’S WAY: Carroll County woman plans to turn 66 acres into a sustainable, ecologically balanced agrarian community called Brokenfoot Ranch. At least its name isn’t as lame as Serenbe.

NANNY 911: A Forsyth County deputy, his wife and his part-time magistrate father are charged in a human-trafficking case in which they allegedly hired a woman from India to be their nanny, only to quit paying her and threaten her if she tried to escape.

MANHUNT: Lawrenceville police searched for a suspected car thief for three hours Wednesday. It looks really exciting in this exclusive AccessNorthGa shot of the manhunt.

FLYING HIGH: Two former TSA agents and a former Delta Air Lines employee plead guilty to intended drug-smuggling after being caught during a sting operation at Hartsfield-Jackson.

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Months until 14th Street bridge replacement is supposed to be complete: 28

Southbound Downtown Connector off-ramps to Midtown now closed for bridge project: 3

Southbound Downtown Connector off-ramps to Midtown that remain open: 2

Months 14th Street bridge will be closed, starting this summer: 18

Number of bike lanes planned for replacement 14th Street bridge: 1

Number of cars that use the Downtown Connector daily: 340,000

Percent of Midtown drivers state says need to “get out of their cars” for traffic “to be able to move” during construction: 10

Number of new or enhanced MARTA routes near project: 0

Amount state will pay for 14th Street bridge replacement project: $88.5 million

Amount state contributes to MARTA annually: $0

Sources: AJC, Georgia Department of Transportation, Car & Driver, MARTA

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Don’t know how closely those in the wicked land of Fresh Loaf are following the namby-pamby fight of third-graders, otherwise known as state Department of Transportation elections, but InsiderAdvantage’s preeminent overlord Dick Pettys doles out a lovely piece of information goodness. The editor of the online news agency interviewed DOT Chairman Mike Evans, and he says state House Speaker Glenn Richardson essentially offered him a job as a DOT lobbyist if he’d step down.

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If you thought this year’s extended, vitriolic, veto-laced General Assembly was sausage-makin’ at its ugliest, you should fasten your seat belts for the grotesquery that will unfold under the Gold Dome come January.

The whining, backbiting and public displays of pique coming from various House members over the election of Gov. Perdue’s hand-picked candidate for DOT commissioner has reminded us what a gruesome melee this next legislative session is likely to be.

Here’s how one longtime lobbyist predicts the session will unfold:
First, the House will immediately become mired in a tantrum over Sonny’s vetoes of several House bills and spending measures. Speaker Glenn Richardson will lead his troops in overturning the gov’s veto, but the Senate will likely try to stay out of the fray for the most part.

Then comes the DOT battle. House leaders, including Democrats, backed Rep. Vance Smith, R-Pine Mountain, for commish, while the gubner wanted Gena Abraham, a former engineering professor who had worked in the Georgia Building Authority. Both Republicans and Dems have called for the resignation of DOT board members who voted for Abraham; hard-liners may even try to oust the new commissioner, thereby weakening an already beleaguered department. Expect more name-calling.

Then there will be the big issues that provide opportunity for grandstanding: the water shortage, Grady Memorial Hospital and Brian Nichols.

Anyone with the slightest thought of running for governor will be proposing some quick fix to the water problem. Expect much political jockeying and little consensus. Ditto for Grady. The state’s largest public hospital and private university, Emory, will be turned into twin punching bags as legislators compete to see who can claim credit for reforming — or destroying — Grady. And the law-and-order folks will be falling all over each other to make sure Nichols’ defense team doesn’t get another dime of public money.

And don’t forget the speaker’s GREAT plan to rid Georgia of property taxes. Here’s betting he manages to crowbar the bill through the House and then pitches a fit when it languishes in the Senate without coming to the floor.

Finally, the budget. Remember that Richardson has already accused Perdue of lying about how much money the state collected last year. So try to imagine the infighting that will erupt now that Georgia’s economy is in an actual downturn. Also, expect another round of tug-of-war between Sonny and Glenn over the speaker’s call for zero-based budgeting for state departments.

Frankly, we don’t believe 40 days will be enough to contain all the feudin’ and fisticuffs that this session has to offer. We can hardly wait.

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The Georgia Department of Transportation wins top honors in today’s most-annoying-road-project-to-type contest with its announcement of the revive285 top end open house events in taking place at the end of the month in Chamblee and Sandy Springs. Yep, that’s how they write it in the press release and on the website — revive285 top end. This thing sounds like an OTP megachurch.

But don’t judge a transportation project by its logo, sillies. The scope of the project is to re-examine the well-traveled northern segment of the loop that runs between I-75 and I-85 and determine how it can be improved. They’ll be looking at managed lanes, bus rapid transit and other ways the segment can better serve not just motorists traveling on it but also the corridors to which it connects. The project’s analysis and concept-development phase will last until 2009; approval of the environmental report will most likely occur in 2010.

Here’s the info:

• Chamblee/Doraville: Chamblee Civic Center, 3540 Broad St., Tues., Oct. 23, 4-7 p.m.
• Sandy Springs: Riverwood High School, 5900 Heards Drive, Thurs., Oct. 25, 4-7 p.m.

Public comment is welcome both at the open houses and through the website. Please ask them to change that name so I don’t go crazy alternating between bold and italicized fonts whenever I write about it.

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Today’s news seems to all be traffic-related.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that state transportation board member Garland Pinholster has floated an idea to raise $22 billion to help address the region’s traffic. Pinholster proposes the Georgia DOT sign a contract with a single, large investment group that could put up all the money necessary to build a Northern Arc and, perhaps, help fund tunnels underneath Atlanta — and maybe a few other projects such as commuter rail and the Beltline intown-transit loop.

Pinholster’s plan comes on the heels of one offered by board member David Doss in February that would raise money through a one-cent statewide sales tax. But here’s the watch-out-Atlanta-you-may-get-screwed-again part of the Doss plan: Although about two-thirds of the money would be raised in metro Atlanta, only one-third of that money would come back here. The rest would go to rural Georgia.

Meanwhile, the Gwinnett Daily Post reports that the feds have declined to fund the proposal to create more than 28 miles of optional toll lanes on I-85 from the Perimeter to north of I-985.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says MARTA has come up with something new: sleek buses that give the appearance of rail cars and will link the Stone Mountain area and MARTA’s Kensington rail station. The buses won’t travel in dedicated lanes, but drivers will have the ultimate power trip: the ability to keep a green light from turning red.

And, finally, the New York Times reports on a story that CL broke several weeks ago: Devon Dartnell’s dream to turn forestry waste into ethanol, a car fuel. Dartnell, the biomass program manager for the Georgia Forestry Commission, says construction will begin next month on a plant in Soperton that will convert the wastes into fuel and help determine whether agricultural byproducts are an economically viable alternative power source. The money behind the plant comes from a former Apple computer executive.

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