Cobb's February 2008 Progress Report:
Jail Expansion
On July 31, 2007, county officials broke ground for the $110 million expansion of the Cobb County Adult Detention Center. The project is well underway, within budget and should be completed on the scheduled timeline of approximately two years. The parking area is completed and most of the sub-contract packages have been awarded. Grading and foundation work is ongoing and within the next month pilings for the foundation will be installed. Steel panels that will comprise the actual cells are being made off-site.
The first building to be completed will be a new visitor center, which will open by the end of the year. An administrative building and new inmate housing tower will open in late 2009. When completed, the expansion will add more than 320,000 square feet and 1,152 beds to the facility, bringing its capacity to 3,077 prisoners. The project will also include major renovations to existing buildings on the County Services Parkway campus.
800 MHz Radio System
The ability of public safety personnel to communicate with each other is paramount during a crisis. Cobb County was using an obsolete analog system and needed to improve its capabilities. SPLOST funds assisted the county with replacing and upgrading its radio system, providing modern mobile data services and enhancing communication with surrounding agencies. $27 million was allocated to help pay for a new system for the county and the cities it supports.
The 800 MHz radio system migration project consisted of upgrading and converting to digital technology and purchasing and programming new radios. To increase coverage around the county, two new repeater sites were installed, one was moved, the Kennesaw Mountain repeater site was renovated and an aging microwave system was replaced. Infrastructure improvements are completed and the county has more than 2,900 new radios in service. About 350 more radios will be purchased by this summer. Additionally, more than 770 new radios have been bought by municipalities with about 575 left to be purchased.
New Courthouse
Cobb County’s Superior Courts processed more than 18,000 civil and criminal cases in 2007. As the volume of cases in all county courts continues to grow, judges, prosecutors and clerks find themselves with insufficient space to do their jobs. Even jurors are faced with a lack of room. The current buildings also no longer accommodate security measures necessary in today’s society.
SPLOST funds of $55 million will enable the building of a new courthouse that will combine all of the county’s court services on one campus and allow Juvenile Court to move to downtown Marietta. The new building will also provide a larger jury assembly room to house jurors.
The courthouse project is currently in phase one. Planning and design firm The Facility Group has been hired through a competitive bid process to analyze needs such as location and parking. Phase one also includes formulating a security plan that ties all six judicial complex buildings together and long-term master planning for the Marietta Square area.
Transportation Update
A new year is well underway and with it are continued improvements to Cobb County’s transportation system. The Cobb DOT SPLOST program is progressing ahead of the original schedule and is on track for completion within eight years. As of this month, 206 transportation projects are underway or completed. Of these projects, 79 are in the right-of-way acquisition phase, 70 have initiated construction and 41 are completed which include the following:
- 8 school zone improvement projects valued at $1.1 M
- 10 bridge rehabilitation and replacement projects
- 7 intersection safety and operational improvements
- Resurfacing of 187 miles of road at a value of $24 M
Cobb DOT is starting the new year right with 30 major projects in design and approximately 50 projects planned to bid. In the last several months, DOT was busy letting 13 projects worth more than $20 million.
Here is a closer look at three major projects starting construction on Cobb County’s roads right now: Post Oak Tritt Road, Atlanta Road at Paces Ferry Road and East-West Connector at Hicks Road.
Increasing Safety Along Post Oak Tritt
Construction is currently underway to provide roadway safety enhancements and operational improvements along four miles of Post
Oak Tritt Road from Murdock Road to the Fulton County line. This project, awarded to C.W. Matthews Contracting Co., Inc. with a
project cost of $6.7 million, consists of widening the existing travel lanes and shoulders and leveling hilly sections of the
road. Along with standard improvements like turn lanes at key intersections and the addition of curb and gutter is the
not-so-standard replacement of two bridges. The bridge over Harmony Grove Creek (near McPherson Road) will be replaced with a
culvert while school is out this summer. The second bridge, located over Piney Grove Creek (between Rocky Springs Drive and Tritt
Springs Trace), is scheduled to be replaced by a new structure which includes a pedestrian sidewalk, during the school summer
holiday of 2009. These bridge and culvert replacements will require road closures.
Click here to view detour map.
Cobb County will also fill in the gaps that exist in the sidewalk along the north side of Post Oak Tritt Road. Once completed, the entire north side of the project will have a continuous sidewalk which will prove especially useful to Tritt Elementary School children who will be able to walk safely to school. Once completed by fall 2009, the project roadway enhancements will provide safer pedestrian access and improved traffic flow along Post Oak Tritt Road. Click here for more information about this project.
Improving Atlanta Road at Paces Ferry Road Intersection
Cobb County Board of Commissioners awarded a contract to Baldwin Paving Company, Inc. for intersection improvements on Atlanta Road at Paces Ferry Road. The cost of this project is just more than $800,000 and includes: adding a second left turn lane southbound on Atlanta Road, modifications to existing driveways, traffic signal and drainage systems, utility relocations, resurfacing the existing roadway, as well as signing and striping. This project will provide relief in the morning for the large number of commuters traveling southbound on Atlanta Road needing to make a left on Paces Ferry Road to head into Vinings or to access Interstate 285. Currently the single left turn lane backs up almost to Ridge Road. .gif){kind=small}
Map
Reducing Delays for East-West Connector at Hicks Road
Cobb County Board of Commissioners awarded a contract to American Contractors, Inc. for intersection improvements on East-West Connector at Hicks Road. This project consists of widening the East-West Connector at Hicks Road intersection with additional turning lanes in all four directions, installing of a new traffic signal, resurfacing and signing and pavement markings. The total project length is more than half a mile and costs $975,000. This project will significantly reduce delays experienced by commuters in both the morning and evening. Map
Still Under Construction
SPLOST Projects continuing under construction include: Shallowford Road between Johnson Ferry Road and Childers Road; Humphries Hill at C.H.
James Parkway; Beech Haven Trail; Barrett Parkway at Cobb Place Boulevard; North Booth Road/Wooten Lake Road; Austell Road at Roberta Drive/Cochran Drive and Mulkey Road Connector.
Cobb DOT Bridge Rehabilitation
Cobb County not only maintains an extensive roadway network but also a significant number of bridges which include: 308 bridges, 100 roadway culverts and 30 pedestrian bridges. A focus of the program has been to rehabilitate and replace bridges that were identified as part of the 2005 SPLOST Transportation Program. One of the goals of the program was to remove the weight restriction postings on most of the county’s bridges. To date, nine bridges have been rehabilitated enough to be removed from the posting list, four bridges have been let for construction and another 10 bridges are scheduled to be let for construction later in 2008. A number of bridge replacements will require road closures and detour routes during their construction. Residents will be notified of these closures in advance and will be provided adequate detour signing to get around existing closures. The county has worked hard to schedule as many closures as possible during the summer to avoid impacts on school traffic.
Cobb DOT Resurfacing
Cobb County BOC awarded a contract to Atlanta Paving & Concrete Construction, Inc. for the resurfacing of county-maintained subdivision streets. Resurfacing is an approved component in the 2005 Transportation Improvements Program to provide improvements such as milling, leveling and complete resurfacing. This resurfacing contract consists of 153 streets totaling nearly 27 miles with a project cost of just more than $2.6 million. Click here to view contract list.
Another resurfacing contract was awarded to C.W. Matthews Contracting Co., Inc. for the resurfacing of thoroughfare roads. The nearly $1.8 million contract consists of nine streets totaling nine miles. Included in the contract are Johnson Ferry Road from Fulton County Line to Lower Roswell, as well as Rocky Mountain Road from Trickum Road to Steinhauer Road. Click here to view contract list.
Sidewalk Improvement Contracts Awarded
In December and January, the Cobb County BOC awarded the following sidewalk improvement contracts:
JJE Constructors, Inc. for sidewalk improvements on South Service Road. This project consists of approximately a half mile of sidewalk construction along the north side of South Service Road. It is within close proximity to Six Flags Theme Park and bus stops for CCT bus service route #30. The cost of the project is $285,000. Click here to view the South Service Road Location Map.
Butch Thompson Enterprises, Inc. for sidewalk improvements on Frey Road and Busbee Parkway. This project consists of approximately a half mile of sidewalk construction along Busbee Parkway from Frey Road to Town Park Drive and approximately a third mile of sidewalk construction along Frey Road from George Busbee Parkway to Shiloh Road. These sidewalks will help establish pedestrian connectivity between Kennesaw State University campus and numerous medical and business offices. CCT bus service for route #40 will also benefit from the sidewalk gap closure. The cost of this project is approximately $350,000. Click here to view the Frey Road and Busbee Parkway Location Map.
These projects were part of the SPLOST program approved in 2005. To view the project agenda items, go to the County Clerk’s Web site at http://www.cobbcountyga.gov/boc/county-clerk.php and click Meeting Agendas.
Canton Road Corridor Study wins Georgia Partnership Award
The Canton Road Corridor Study recently won a design award in the category of Context Sensitive Design & Public Participation during the awards program at the annual Georgia Partnership for Transportation Quality Workshop. This GPTQ Awards Program, primarily sponsored by the Georgia Department of Transportation, recognizes high quality engineering projects in the state of Georgia. The Canton Road Corridor Study, which is fully funded by SPLOST funds, was designed under contract to Qk4. The award was presented to Cobb County Department of Transportation at the University of Georgia, in Athens, on Dec. 7. Click here to find out more about the Canton Road Corridor Study.
New SPLOST Features on GIS
Cobb County occupies more than 340 square miles, so it is difficult for Cobb residents to become familiar with all SPLOST project locations. DOT is excited to announce SPLOST projects have been added to Cobb County’s online mapping tool. With a click of your mouse you can now easily view the locations of all SPLOST bridges, intersections, schools and thoroughfare projects.
Go to http://gis.cobbcountyga.gov/ and click on “Launch Online Mapping”, then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “I AGREE” to enter the Cobb County GIS Web site. It may take several seconds to download the map, but once it has loaded, click on the Transportation Folder under the Map Layers and click on the SPLOST Layer you want to view. Two layers are available: SPLOST Bridges, Intersections and Schools and SPLOST Thoroughfares. The Legend Tool at the top of the screen explains the color coding.
Detailed instructions are available at the bottom of the screen to guide you through navigation. Feel free to email Cobb DOT at cobbdot@cobbcounty.org or contact the Cobb DOT Engineering Division at 770-528-1621 if you need further assistance.
In addition, by clicking on the red icon “Show Advanced Tools” on the main toolbar and then selecting the “Identify Visible” icon, a complete list of project details (such as Description, Project Status, Completion Date and Contact information, among others) can be viewed at the bottom of the “Identify” dialog box.
Projects on the Horizon:
- Roswell Road at Old Canton scheduled to start construction in the spring with expected completion date by the end of the year.
- Bells Ferry Road at Noonday Creek Tributary scheduled to start construction in late spring with expected completion date by the end of the year.
- Maxham Road scheduled to start construction in the spring with expected completion date by the end of 2009.
- Six summer road closures during the school break: Midway Road Bridge over Allatoona Creek Tributary; Bells Ferry Road over Noonday Creek Tributary; Woodlawn Drive; Post Oak Tritt Road; South Hurt Road and Mt.
Calvary Road Bridge over Noses Creek.
Information relating to SPLOST Transportation Projects is updated regularly and can be viewed at Cobb County’s Web site: www.cobbcip.org . If you have any questions or comments regarding Cobb SPLOST transportation projects, please email Cobb DOT at cobbdot@cobbcounty.org or contact the Cobb DOT Engineering Division at 770-528-1621. Look for the next SPLOST Transportation e-newsletter in Spring 2008 with a focus on Summer Construction Projects!