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Thursday, December 28, 2006
How important is Ronald Reagan Parkway connection to I-85?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s almost the end of one year and the beginning of another — time to take stock in where you’ve been and where you are going.
Usually this is a contemplative self-evaluation of personal goals and accomplishments.
But the other day I thought of it in concrete terms – or asphalt, to be more accurate.
I was taking my regular commute along Ronald Reagan Parkway and noticed cracks and signs of wear in the road. It surprised me. I still think of the road as new. But I realized it was opened 12 years ago.
According to the county, the parkway is traveled by 27,000 to 45,000 vehicles a day, depending on the location. It takes a beating.
I remember the pre-Ronald Reagan Parkway days, when traveling from Snellville to Gwinnett Place Mall required snaking through Oak Road, River Drive, Lester Road or other back passages. The parkway’s opening felt like a gift.
Local folks interviewed when the road opened Aug. 13, 1994 praised the parkway. Mothers and fathers packed up the kids that Friday night and took them on inaugural rides. It was what we needed. What we’d been waiting for. Everyone loved it.
That’s where we’ve been.
I wondered, however, about the other part of the evaluation — where we’re going.
Ronald Reagan Parkway was designed to hook up with I-85 instead of pouring onto Pleasant Hill Road as it currently does. Plans for that final extension hit snags when various neighborhoods opposed one route or another. There was controversy when a newly elected county commissioner was the real estate agent for a landowner along one proposed path. And there was the cost. It was expensive — about $81 million over a decade ago, even more now.
Whatever happened to those plans, I wondered.
Gwinnett County DOT director Brian Allen says the Ronald Reagan Parkway extension is still included in the county’s long-term transportation plan. There is no funding and it sits on a back burner, but it is included, he said. The three-mile extension, as currently envisioned, could connect Ronald Reagan Parkway to I-85 near Beaver Ruin Road, or Steve Reynolds Boulevard or both.
“I’m sure there is still a need for it,” he said. But as the county has continued to grow, other needs have jockeyed into positions of higher priority. Funding from the state and federal government has not kept pace.
As much as I hate to admit it, and as much as I would love for the parkway to ultimately connect with I-85, I understand what Allen is saying. I know more urgent road needs have surfaced.
“Will it ever be built?” I asked Allen.
“Good question,” he said. He thinks so, eventually — though when and how, he’s not sure.
How important has Ronald Reagan Parkway been to your commute? How would you prioritize the need for the parkway to connect with I-85?
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