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Thursday, March 20, 2008
What’s your take on U.S. 78?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Few have a better view of U.S. 78 construction right now than Eunice Spence. Not only does her business, Spence Monument Co., sit beside the current work zone, her home does as well.
But Mrs. Spence, who moved to property fronting U.S. 78 on June 9, 1940, with her late husband Herbert, tries not to pay much attention to the goings on.
“People seem to think it would be hard to live on 78,” she said. “I don’t hardly notice it, I guess because I’ve lived here so long; I’m used to it.”
U.S. 78 was only two lanes when Mrs. Spence moved to the residence (just west of what is now the Stone Mountain Quick Trip), and it had been a paved road for only two years. Repeated road widening since then has brought the multi-lane highway to a cozy distance from her doorstep.
Mrs. Spence doesn’t have major complaints about the current work. It causes some inconvenience, but Georgia Department of Transportation employees and construction workers have been good about notifying her of changes and seeing to her needs, she said.
And she’s glad for anything that will take away the reversible lane system on the highway.
“This suicide lane should have never been put in,” she said.
Construction on the first phase of the $31 million project began about one month ago, as workers took out the reversible lane from East Park Place to Stone Drive and began tearing up the old road, making drainage improvements and creating new curbs and gutters.
The work left three westbound lanes and two eastbound lanes open, except at night, when eastbound traffic is funneled into one lane. (This week, workers started closing a westbound lane also to begin work on that side of the highway.)
The improvement project, which is being conducted in phases but will eventually extend to Ga. 124 in Snellville, will make the road three lanes on each side and provide a median, sidewalks and landscaping.
All construction work is being done between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. to minimize problems for commuters. You can view an interactive map of the highway.
I visited the site one recent night, as backhoes, Bobcats and dump trucks performed under bright lights. Workers were busy moving dirt, breaking up pavement and building curb forms as a still heavy parade of cars made its way through orange and white striped barrels. Check out photos.
“Everyone knows there is no good time to work on roads in Gwinnett,” said Teri Pope, DOT communications officer for Northeast Georgia. By working at night and breaking the 6.6-mile project into four phases, officials are trying to lessen the negative impact.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be any, however.
“U.S. 78 really is the spine of south Gwinnett County,” said Pope, who — as a former resident of Snellville — knows. “You have to get on it to go just about anywhere.”
So, there are backups and delays as evening eastbound traffic merges into fewer lanes. Some motorists have started using I-20 east as an alternate route home. Others exit U.S. 78 at Hugh Howell Road and get onto Five Forks Trickum (by way of Lilburn-Stone Mountain Road and Old Stone Mountain Road) for the rest of their trip. A few drivers have begun to cut through the parking lot of the Sam’s Mart Shell station at U.S. 78 and East Park Place to get to Annistown Road.
“I think it’s dangerous because some customers are finishing filling up and then someone else comes in and cuts through very fast,” said Jacob Tadros who works the cash register from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. “Till now, nothing has happened, but I worry someone could get hurt.”
Pope said she has received relatively few complaints on the work. Businesses naturally are eager for it to be finished. And she received calls when the DOT changed the traffic lights to give U.S. 78 traffic more time during each sequence.
“The side streets are penalized” to improve the highway flow, Pope said. “But this is just through construction.” Once work is over, the traffic signal timing will be readjusted, she said.
Brett Harrell, director of the Evermore Community Improvement District, which includes businesses along the affected area, said he is generally pleased with how things are progressing and also has received few complaints.
The people who seem to have the most trouble are ones who travel home after the traditional 4-6 p.m. rush hour and hit the area when work is beginning, he said.
“But we are getting good cooperation,” Harrell said. “People have been hearing about it so long and they are so tired of these reversible lanes … I think most people are accepting of it.”
How do you think the project is going? Have you changed your commuting patterns because of it?
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