For more than 40 years, motorists on I-85 near Norcross cruised past twin water towers that proclaimed. "Gwinnett Is Great."
While those famed landmarks finally came down last year, a group of Gwinnett business and community leaders have already followed up with an innovative way to alert travelers of the area's appeal.
The Gwinnett Village Community Improvement District plans to unveil a new design Thursday for the bustling interchange at I-85 and Jimmy Carter Boulevard, billing the project as a potential economic engine for the county.
"It's going to be a totally different kind of statement," said Chuck Warbington, executive director of the Gwinnett Village CID. "It will be the new symbol for Gwinnett."
The interchange, one of the state’s first “diverging diamond” designs, is set to open in the summer of 2012. Similar interchanges are planned for I-285 and Ashford-Dunwoody Road in DeKalb County and I-85 and Pleasant Hill Road in Gwinnett.
The unusual design, known as a DDI, routes traffic in both directions to the left over an interchange bridge, so that the lanes are briefly reversed. That allows cars turning left onto the interstate ramp to do so without facing oncoming traffic. Cars coming off the interstate also can merge more easily with traffic, designers say.
"Our proposed design organizes the traditional elements of bridge architecture ... into a modern composition of dynamic shapes that recall historic highway bridges," said Peter Drey, architect of the project.
The concept was first introduced in Missouri in 2009. Others soon followed in Utah, Tennessee, Kentucky and Louisiana.
Warbington hopes the interchange signals a change to residents and visitors, and eventually replaces the images of those old 140-foot water towers.
"There's been a sense of loss among some of the older residents [since the towers came down]," Warbington said. "But South Georgia towns promote their towns with water towers. We don't do economic development with water towers anymore."
Warbington said the project should cost no more than $750,000. That cost will be covered by the Gwinnett Village CID, which will use tax revenues collected from business owners within its 14-square-mile area bordered by Jimmy Carter, Buford Highway and Beaver Ruin Road.
At least some residents believe the new interchange is a good investment for the agency.
"We went for a modern look," said Davida Baker, a Tucker resident who attended some of the meetings where the design was drafted. "It could really set the tone for our area."
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