Sandtown Community Association ®

Hope for Boat Rock and Campbellton?

December 6, 2007

Attendees at the December Sandtown Community Association Meeting overwhelmingly supported Fulton County Public Works moving forward with a recommendation to the Fulton Board of Commissioners to pursue a traffic signal and road realignments and apply for funding for the effort.

Please show your support for this important Public Works recommendation by letting our commissioners know how important this public safety improvement is by sending them an email: Click to email Fulton Commissioners

November 16, 2007 Update:

Fulton County Public Works is considering approaching the Fulton County Board of Commissioners to amend the Sandtown Sidewalks project on Campbellton Road to include fixing the intersection of Campbellton and Boat Rock Road.

They will be attending our December 6th meeting with a 30-minute presentation with maps showing existing conditions for the community to have a better idea on what may happen once the intersection is designed. The map will show parcels and other existing conditions.

They won’t have any concepts for display at this point since they are trying to see if the community is in support of a conventional intersection instead of a roundabout that GDOT says they will not approve at this location. Then Fulton County Public Works will their best to design the intersection, and hope that GDOT funds the construction and that Right of Way doesn’t become an issue because of pending development.

Lack of community consensus and funding has been the obstacle to improving this intersection for the past few years. With consensus on the solution the county can restart efforts to do something. As an organization SCA believes that a conventional intersection improvement is better than doing nothing.

Background:

The aerial photo above is of the intersection of Boat Rock and Campbellton Road near New Hope Road. For years drivers in Sandtown have experienced first hand the hazards and traffic congestion at this dangerous un-signaled intersection on state route 166.

Many also go through the exasperation daily of trying to get off of New Hope onto Boat Rock. This challenge can take 15 minutes or so at all hours of the day. Others of you experience how long it might take to turn off of Boat Rock onto Campbellton Road.

The photo above is from the first day of school in 2003 where an 18-wheeler rear ended a pickup waiting to make a left onto Boat Rock. A few years ago Fulton County presented 5 or so alternative design solutions for the intersection including several round-about designs and traffic signal designs. A part of all of the alternatives was to re-route New Hope Road 400 feet further away from the intersection to address the backups on New Hope Road.

The State DOT would not support a round-about solution here so while Fulton County looked for community consensus and approval of solutions involving a traffic light GDOT would support the state funding evaporated.

Fulton County Public Works Transportation Division says they have plans to conduct community meetings again, to determine what solution the community will accept that GDOT will approve. The sooner as a community we can agree on a solution, the sooner they can reapply for state funding and do something.