Atlanta commute is the worst

By ARIEL HART The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/02/08

Forbes.com has dipped its hand back into the bag of travel statistics and decided Atlanta's commute is the worst in the nation.

Last July Forbes.com combined commute statistics a different way, counting health measures like crash rates, and found Atlanta was second-worst.

This month, Forbes.com combined figures like how much time Atlantans spend per year stuck in traffic and what portion of the area's commutes fall under 20 minutes. It also cited the fact that MARTA's rail system is limited.

When organizations do original research on travel statistics, Atlanta generally falls near the top but hasn't won worst honors recently. However, when various statistics are combined as they are in Forbes.com's calculations, Atlanta's rankings can move higher.

In one piece of original research that Forbes.com used and is widely cited as a measure of congestion, the Texas Transportation Institute found that Atlanta commuters tied for second with two other areas in the amount of time they waste in congestion. Each commuter on average loses 60 hours a year, the institute found. Los Angeles was worst, at 72 hours.

"People who say we can't do anything about congestion are wrong. We can do lots,"

By FRANK GREVE
McClatchy Newspapers
Published on: 05/14/08

WASHINGTON — Fine-tuning controls on the nation's traffic signals would cut U.S. road congestion by as much as 10 percent, transportation experts estimate.

It would also reduce air pollution from vehicles by as much as a fifth, cut accidents at intersections and save about five tanks of gas annually per household, according to the National Transportation Operations Coalition, an alliance of federal, state and local traffic departments and equipment-makers.

That's the good news. The bad news is that the average local traffic department earned an overall grade of D on the alliance's latest report card. Streamlining intersections is happening in only some cities and states, even though it's eminently doable.

"People who say we can't do anything about congestion are wrong. We can do lots," said Joel Marcuson, a specialist in urban intersections with the Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. in Phoenix.

Right now, however, three out of four of the nation's 300,000 traffic signals need replacement or timing adjustments for optimum performance, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Among the obstacles are a nationwide shortage of skilled traffic engineers, unfocused local political leaders with tight budgets and stodgy local traffic departments. For that matter, federal aid that could ease congestion goes mainly to building and maintaining roads.

Nonetheless, lots of cities and at least seven states — California, Florida, Washington, Minnesota, Maryland, Georgia and Texas — are finding ways to move traffic through intersections faster, according to the transportation engineers group.

Georgia focuses much of its energy on the 20-county area around Atlanta when it comes to traffic signal improvements. Since 2005, it has cut travel time in Atlanta's traffic corridors by 18 percent and time stopped by 39 percent, said Yancy Bachmann, assistant state traffic engineer. Macon and Columbus have also seen traffic signal improvements, he said.

And where does your metropolitan area stand?

It could need improvement, traffic engineers say, if your answer is no to any of these questions:

—Can you sometimes make it through six to eight consecutive intersections on green lights?

—Is there useful traffic information on the radio and on roadside message signs?

—Is it rare that there's no cross traffic when you're stopped at a light?

—Can you drive into the next jurisdiction without encountering congestion at the border?

—Are predictable traffic jams, such as the post-game exits from stadium parking lots, handled adroitly?

Continue Reading

Waters, Walden schools may close; public hearing Wednesday

By LAURA DIAMOND
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/14/08

About 25 people attended a public hearing Tuesday on a plan to close an Atlanta elementary school, but a larger crowd is expected tonight at a meeting about closing a middle school.

Atlanta Public Schools proposed shutting down Waters Elementary and Walden Middle schools at the end of the school year because of declining enrollment after nearby housing projects closed.

The school board is scheduled to vote on the plan in June.

During Tuesday's hearing, Waters parents didn't oppose the proposal. They asked a few questions about transportation and course offerings at their kids' new schools.

The plan would send 149 Waters students to Dobbs Elementary and the remaining 61 children to Humphries Elementary. Both schools have room for more students.

Waters is projected to have 210 students in August, down from the 372 children who attended last school year.

Walden is projected to have 130 students, down from 274 .

The district's proposal would send all the Walden students to King Middle. A hearing on that plan begins at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the school, 320 Irwin Street NE, Atlanta.

Developer seeks comeback with 6,300 homes in rural projects

By KEVIN DUFFY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/06/08

Twenty years ago, W. Harrison Merrill was taking on risky redevelopment projects when redevelopment was not so chic.

His company, Landmark American, refurbished Marietta Station and the Kennesaw House in Marietta, the Buggy Works in East Point and the Odd Fellows Building on Auburn Avenue.

Landmark American went bankrupt in 1990, but Merrill bounced back as the head of Resort Hotels, Vanguard Properties, and Merrill Trust Communities and Resorts.

Now the 64-year-old Atlanta native is pitching his two most ambitious local projects on 2,400 rural acres in Palmetto and Douglas County.

Representatives of Merrill Trust met Monday with the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority to lay out the company's proposals. Regional approval could come this summer; after that, local governments will have to sign off on the plans.

In Palmetto in south Fulton County, Merrill Trust proposes building 5,400 residences and 1.1 million square feet of commercial space on 1,300 acres. The project would take 20 years to complete.

Merrill's 12-year project in Douglas would have 910 resort residences and up to 2.3 million square feet of commercial space on 1,100 acres.

Consultants hired by Merrill Trust estimate the Palmetto project, called Foxhall Village, would add 30,000 vehicle trips a day to that area when finished in about 2028. The Douglas project, dubbed Foxhall Resort and Sporting Club, would add about 20,000 trips, they say.

The Foxhall Resort site is in the southeast corner of Douglas, bounded by the Chattahoochee River and Capps Ferry Road, which becomes South Fulton Parkway in Fulton County. Access would be restricted to resort guests and residents.

To the east, the Foxhall Village land is in the northwest area of Palmetto, bisected by Cochran Mill Road. That area is designated for village development in the Chattahoochee Hill Country master plan for south Fulton, which calls for clustered development to protect big swaths of green space.

Foxhall Village would have 330,000 square feet of retail space, 770,000 square feet of office space, 1,909 detached homes, 1,231 apartments and 2,232 townhouses and condominiums.

Merrill was out of town Monday and not available to discuss the projects. Two representatives of Merrill Trust met with the ARC and GRTA.

In Rabun County near North Carolina, Merrill Trust owns the Sky Valley Resort and Country Club, where mountain homes and home sites are for sale.

Near Phoenix, "the Trust and affiliated entities have acquired ... over 25,000 acres which has been zoned for over 120,000 lots, making the Trust by far the largest single owner of entitled lots in Arizona," according to Harrison Merrill's biography on the Web site Ugandan American Partnership Organization. Merrill is a board member for the organization, founded by his daughter.

Merrill graduated from the Westminster Schools, the University of North Carolina and Emory University Law School. He practiced law for about three years before starting Vanguard Properties.

He is a member of the Westminster sports hall of fame because of his swimming prowess. He funded the school's natatorium, which opened eight years ago.

Plan your alternate routes: 14th Street bridge closing May 27

Closure will last year and a half while aging structure is replaced
By ARIEL HART
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/08/08

Doomsday for 14th Street bridge users now has a name: Tuesday, May 27.

On that day, Midtown Memorial Day travelers who haven't made it home by midnight Monday should find the bridge closed – for a year and a half.

The closure is to allow workers to replace the aging bridge and add a turn lane and other improvements.

Closure is scheduled between Fowler Street and Williams Street, by the state Department of Transportation. Williams Street, which is one way north, should have at least one lane open throughout the closure.

Introducing the change to latecomer vacationers on the same day that commuting resumes after the holiday weekend wasn't the goal.

When Techwood Drive closed for the bridge project, it happened over the weekend first to give drivers a bit of warning before the week's commute started.

But for the bridge itself, the contractor, C.W. Matthews, juggled a lot of factors to decide the date for the closing, DOT spokeswoman Crystal Paulk-Buchanan said.

They didn't want to close it over the entire Memorial Day weekend. But scheduling it earlier would have been chancy because utility companies and the city of Atlanta are still removing their pipes and wires from the bridge and re-routing them through a tunnel, and that all has to be done before the bridge work begins.

As for waiting to the next weekend, the contractor has a project deadline to meet and didn't want to lose four summer days for construction after work was rained out on recent weekends.

"If you're ready to go, you're ready to go," Paulk-Buchanan said. "Your crews are ready to go, so let's get going."

Besides, she said, "a week sooner the bridge closes is a week sooner it'll re-open."

Another consideration, Paulk-Buchanan said, "their plan is, within three days of the closing they're going to start taking pieces of it off," and they can't dismantle the bridge above moving traffic.

So when they're doing that, they want it to coincide when possible with lane closures that are already happening on the Connector below for a separate re-paving project.

Design/build team selected for U.S. Highway 281 toll project

San Antonio Business Journal

The Alamo Regional Mobility Authority Board of Directors on Wednesday selected Cibolo Creek Infrastructure JV to serve as the design/builder for the 281 North Toll Project.

The value of the contract is $330 million and it will be paid for by a combination of public funds from the Texas Mobility Fund, money generated from the sale of toll revenue-backed bonds and financing from the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA), a U.S. Department of Transportation loan program, says the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority's (Alamo RMA) spokesman Leroy Alloway.

However, this amount does not include the cost of acquiring all of the right-of-way needed to proceed with the project, Alloway says.

Once the toll lanes are complete, the money generated from drivers on the lanes will pay off the debt on the project. Drivers will pay 17 cents per mile and will be charged through the use of a toll tag on their vehicles. Drivers will be able to use this same tag on toll roads in Austin, Houston and Dallas because the systems will be interoperable, Alloway says.

People who do not have a toll tag will be charged through a video billing system. Video cameras aligned along the toll route will track a vehicle's license plate number and send the person's toll charge through the mail. Drivers will not have to carry cash or coins to pay their tolls.

Alamo RMA wants to begin construction on two to three new "non-toll" lanes along U.S. Highway 281 from Loop 1604 to Stone Oak Parkway possibly as early as this fall.

The next phase of the project will involve building out new "non-toll" lanes from Stone Oak Parkway to the Comal County line along Highway 281, Alloway says. In all, Cibolo Creek Infrastructure will be building new highway lanes along a 7.9 mile route.

Once the non-toll lanes are complete, the Alamo RMA's contractors will build three new toll lanes in each direction. Cibolo Creek has committed to complete the project in 44 months after construction begins.

Cibolo Creek Infrastructure is owned by joint venture partners Fluor Enterprises Inc. and Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Inc. Atlanta-based Balfour Beatty is an engineering, construction, services and investment business. Fluor Enterprises is an engineering and construction services firm based in Dallas.

The other team members are HDR Engineering Inc., Raba-Kistner Consultants, Guerra DeBerry Coody, Donze Lopez Public Affairs, Vickery & Associates Inc., Bain Medina Bain, AIA Engineers Ltd. and Pinnacle Consulting Management Group Inc.

Alamo RMA officials say this approach is not a concession or a private sector model and the Alamo RMA will retain ownership and operations of the toll project.

"This has been an open and transparent process," Alamo RMA Chairman William Thornton says. "The Alamo RMA has ensured the highest possible value for our community and we will see this needed roadway constructed in the shortest possible time through the use of the design build approach."

The widening and expansion of U.S. Highway 281 using toll lanes will be the first official toll project in Bexar County.

Airport moves step closer to security fast lanes

By RUSSELL GRANTHAM
Published on: 05/12/08

New York-based Clear said the Atlanta airport has picked the company to run a high-speed security line for paying members, although the pilot program still will require approval from the City Council.

The tentative approval means the world's busiest airport could soon have one or two designated lanes handling passengers who hope to breeze through security in a few minutes.

The program is aimed at business travelers willing to pay $100 or more annually and to undergo an extensive background check and provide biometric information such as fingerprints and iris scans in advance.

Clear Chief Executive Steven Brill said he hopes to have the program in operation at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport before the summer rush of vacation travelers.

"We'll have 100,000 members in the Atlanta airport very quickly," he said, predicting that it will speed up security lines for both paying members and other travelers.

However, Ben DeCosta, the airport's general manager, said the pilot program still faces a number of steps before it starts, including the council approval. Airport officials will also consult with the Transportation Security Administration and Delta Air Lines and AirTran, the two largest airlines at the airport, "to make sure everyone's on the same page," said DeCosta.

Some airlines have been wary of the programs, which could compete with their own express lanes set aside for members of their elite traveler programs. Other opponents also say the lines discriminate against travelers who can't afford the fees, or worry about potential civil liberties issues.

Clear, a unit of Verified Identity Pass, operates such lines in 17 other airports, including Orlando's and some terminals at New York's LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports. The company typically shares a portion of the annual fees with the airports. Brill predicted that the program will generate more than $1 million annually for the airport.