The mayor of Roswell said he’s making a longshot request in asking the Georgia Department of Transportation to revise plans to build Ga. 400 access lanes at Grimes Bridge Road.
The new interchange would be one of four access points planned for the express lanes project.
Residents in the Grimes Bridge Road neighborhood say they are concerned about increased traffic and want the new interchange removed from project designs.
Mayor Kurt Wilson drafted a letter to Russell McMurry, commissioner of the Georgia DOT on Friday, asking the agency to at least limit access to the north Fulton neighborhood.
“I am not optimistic,” Wilson told a crowd of residents attending a Transportation Advisory Committee meeting on Tuesday.
The advisory committee is comprised of residents appointed by the city. Wilson, speaking at the start of the meeting, said he believes the final decision has been made on the Grimes Bridge Road interchange given the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) made when former Mayor Lori Henry was in office.
In addition to the Grimes Bridge Road access lanes, GDOT plans to construct a new Holcomb Bridge Road interchange. Roswell has accepted $35 million from the IGA, and agreed to contribute $15 million toward the Holcomb Bridge Road project as well as $2.5 million for aesthetics at the two interchanges.
In his letter to GDOT, Wilson asks to “limit access to Grimes Bridge Road” and place a greater focus on the Holcomb Bridge Road interchange.
During the Tuesday meeting, Transportation Advisory Committee member Marissa Pereira, said residents want plans for the Grimes Bridge Road access lanes to be “nixed totally.”
“There is no better description of a family centric street,” she said of Grimes Bridge Road.
The street is a corridor of homes with schools, parks and an adult recreation center for senior citizens. It runs west from Dogwood Road near Ga. 400 to Holcomb Bridge Road.
The road is already used as a cut-through for motorists, Pereira said.
Oxbo Road, which has been closed for 18 months due to delayed construction, will also invite traffic whenever it reopens, she added.
“Once Oxbo opens up, we’re going to see traffic flowing (from there) through Grimes Bridge,” Pereira said. “People cut through Grimes Bridge anyway to get on to (Ga.) 400 and all of us that live there know that.”
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