Butts County and Jackson using traffic studies to help plan future traffic needs

The bid package stated the scope of the project is “to develop a specific, defined-area transportation plan to address the impacts of anticipated future growth on residents and businesses within the area and to determine ways to mitigate this impact through enhancements to specifically identified roads, streets, bridges, and related infrastructure that services this zone.”

County Manager Brad Johnson said the consultants will come in and advise the BOC how to prepare county roads for the future.

“We know that logistics are coming, that big trucks are coming, and the scope is how not to disenfranchise our citizens,” said Johnson. “We know impact fees are going to help toward improvements, and we want data-driven decision-making to help us decide what that looks like. The consultant will come in and do all the studies and tell us what needs to happen. They’ll be working with stakeholders, some citizens, our transportation board, the Board of Commissioners, to get input from everybody, and the people who live in the area.

“It also opens up our grant possibilities, because the federal and state agencies don’t want to know what Brad thinks, they want to know data-driven decisions,” added Johnson. “When we do our federal and state grant applications, we’ll be able to say this is what our plan is moving forward.”

Johnson said the BOC hopes to have the study in hand later this fall.

The Jackson City Council should be seeing the results of the traffic study they commissioned last fall within the next month. In October 2021 the council approved spending $29,920 with Croy Engineer Company of Marietta for the study, which is an investigation and analysis of the flow of traffic, parking, pedestrian access, and more around the square in downtown Jackson and two streets deep on either side.

Then-mayor Kay Pippin suggested the council have the study done to give the city an idea of the challenges it will face in the coming years.

“It’s no secret that traffic in downtown Jackson has become a problem for all of us,” said Pippin in October. “We all know the challenges: Third Street, our main street, is actually a state highway; three state highways intersect in the center of our town (Highways 16, 36, and 42); our town square was built almost 200 years ago to accommodate horses and buggies on a very small footprint making it difficult to accommodate today’s huge pick-up trucks, SUVs, not to mention the tractor trailer trucks traveling through; thankfully downtown businesses are once again thriving, but that progress brings with it the challenge of parking today’s larger vehicles; the need to replace several sidewalks; and pedestrians who are often at risk when crossing streets.”

The study was expected to be completed by April, but City Manager Sylvia Redic told the council at its June 7 work session that she talked with the consultant and the study is only about 60% complete. Redic added that after talking with the consultant, she is unclear what exactly the scope of the study is.

“Like I told her, we don’t need suggestions, we can come up with those on our own,” said Redic. “We need real, measurable impacts along the corridors. She (the consultant) was also not aware of a lot of the development which will impact that traffic study. I’m glad they’re not finished yet, because if they don’t know anything about that 19 million square feet of development that we know about, that is going to affect that traffic study.

“So I told her not to make any more progress until I can get her more information about the development,” Redic continued. “She didn’t know anything about the 617 new homes that are already slated to be built, either. So all that will play a part in what that traffic study results in. There are so many nuances to a traffic study and it will be more understandable because you’ll see the corridors in the city and she’ll talk about intersections and hot spots. I think it will benefit the council to hear from her.”

The consultant should complete the study and be ready to present it to the council in July.