Fresh Loaf

The AJC’s Ariel Hart sends a shiver down our spines this morning, reminding us that a proposed toll tunnel under east Atlanta — an underground road that’s similar to what GOP gubernatorial hopeful John Oxendine discussed earlier this year — is still very much a possibility.

A controversial concept to link Ga. 400 to I-675 by digging under east Atlanta has for a couple of years found its way onto some policymakers’ wish lists.  But this month it found itself someplace better:  Among the state Department of Transportation’s top toll projects pitched to private investors and road-building companies.

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“The tunnel is the one project that absolutely, head and shoulders above every other [public-private partnership program], moves the needle the most on congestion mitigation and mobility,” said David Doss, who chairs the state Transportation Board’s committee on such projects.  The reason it wasn’t listed at the very top of DOT’s project list was because of the “unknowns” involved in creating a new urban road tunnel here, he said.

One of those “unknowns” is the number of pitchforks that angry residents would shake in protest should the Atlanta Regional Commission decide a subterranean highway — replete with ventilation ducts popping up in intown neighborhoods and spewing out carbon monoxide — is just what metro Atlanta needs. Doss tells Hart that the northern stretch of the road would be a tunnel to appease “old, established” neighborhoods and that the southern segment starting at I-20 would become a surface road. (Just a bit of emphasis: When pressed by Hart as to why the road goes above ground in an area where demographic data shows that residents are less wealthy and “less white,” GDOT tells Hart that the area there is more vacant and industrial. If they’re talking about the area directly south of I-20, they need to take a drive through East Atlanta and surrounding neighborhoods. Read Hart’s report for all the details surrounding the proposal.)

An interesting sidenote: Bob Poole, the free-market think tank Reason Foundation’s transportation wonk and a big proponent of tunnels, is scheduled to make a presentation about managed lanes at tomorrow’s state Transportation Board meeting. He’ll follow that up with a Georgia Public Policy Foundation panel discussion at the Commerce Club that’s sure to be attended by Gold Dome movers and shakers.  Don’t be surprised if Poole offers his thoughts on the tunnel proposal, as well as some other ideas that right-of-center lawmakers might find intriguing several weeks before the session begins.

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Libertarian Presidential nominee and former CL columnist Bob Barr was interviewed by Liz Gorman of Wonkette during Friday’s debate between the Barack Obama and John McCain. Skip the “festive” guy talking about conspiracies and start watching at 1:50. Barr shows his human side when he’s asked whether facial hair has any place in our armed forces.

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The Reason Foundation, a Libertarian-leaning think tank, is keeping its idea about a multi-level traffic tunnel running underneath Atlanta alive.

From a May 28 post on the group’s website titled “Tunnels Are Part of the Traffic Solution”:

This proposed tunnel would have an inside diameter or 45 feet and each deck would have three 11 foot lanes and an overhead clearance of 12 feet allowing the tunnel to accommodate buses as well as SUVs and cars. The northern tunnel would be 5 miles long and the southern one would be 3.1 miles in length.

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In 2004, Refik Eilbay, the director of tunneling services for Jordan, Jones and Goulding, a leading Georgia-based engineering firm told Tunnel Business Magazine, “The area continues to grow, so the City is developing long-range plans to deal with the population increase. Because there is less and less surface space available to support infrastructure growth, it will continue moving to the last remaining frontier – the underground.”

Eh. How about we occupy some of those narrow slices of land and finally offer rail options? You know, avoid the tailpipe emissions, the massive cost, the continued reliance on the automobile as the primary mode of transportation?

For a great take on the Reason study, click here to read a August 2007 CL article by Joe Winter.

(Photo courtesy of Cofiroute)

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