“A lost inch of gold may be found; a lost inch of time, never.” – Chinese proverb
Old Alabama Rd to Torture Residents. In the spirit of thriftiness, The City of Johns Creek has GDOT funding and managing the construction project, which is at a snail's pace. Was saving $4 million worth it?
The half-mile project completion deadline is now pushed to May 2017. Would you rather local funds pay for the construction, control the deadline, offer incentives to finish early or at least on time?
How much is this costing us residents and businesses? Everyone's lives are impacted daily, from getting up extra early for commute, sitting and idling in traffic. Businesses lose patrons and revenue. Safety issues of drivers speeding through Doublegate and Thornhill to avoid the traffic.
During rush hour traffic is backed up 1.7 miles!
Apparently, GDOT Workers and CW Matthews employees don't live in Johns Creek, otherwise, there would be more hustle and bustle on Old Alabama Road.
Currently, the project appears to be on hold because of "some challenges" such as the winter wet weather and also the soil being unstable and needs to be "reworked". It would not be shocking if the contractor is trying to renegotiate the contract because of such "challenges".
More than 2 years to complete .41 mile? 
Tell City Council [email protected] your thoughts on Old Alabama Rd to Torture Residents 7 Months longer than Expected. Or leave them as a comment :)
Previous Post: OAR to Torment for 13 months & OAR Construction Plans
Source: City of Johns Creek
Why are you taking the heat off of GDOT? Is it really OK that the project is so poorly run that it is even conceivable that the city should have handled it alone and forfeited $4 million? GDOT is also spending our tax dollars. Perhaps they should be hearing from residents directly. Any reason not to post our GDOT rep's information and the GDOT area manager's contact information? They are the accountable parties.
Please post any contactable GDOT info you got for the readers :)
By the lack of activity, their plan must be to let the bad soil sit undisturbed for months on end. Something stinks and it isn't the bad soil. Residents should demand a legitimate response from the city and GDOT not only as to why this project needed one year to complete in the first place but also why it will now take extra time. I'm not a civil engineer but I'm guessing if they actually showed up and worked on it, the project would still be completed by it's original October 2016 estimate.
Hopefully, those who lead JC will take note of the delays and time taken to complete this half mile project. This company should never be hired for any future JC road construction. One can only imagine how long it would have taken them to complete a REAL road project like the widening of Statesbridge Road a few years ago - likely a decade or longer. Better to have hired Kevin for this job!
gdot could care less about this project. machines are gone
I saw the news report last night on WSB. SOIL issues ...REALLY !!!! DOT is up to something , seems like they want more money , enough already with DOT , There was a road there before , Perimeter Church built a HUGE building on said soli, ENOUGH ALREADY FINISH THE PROJECT
GDOT must think CW Matthews work is worthy as the recently awarded them a big contract in North GA.
http://www.daltondailycitizen.com/news/long-delayed-work-on-i--set-to-start-soon/article_66564dc0-d852-11e5-aec9-ef9e5a4e6c22.html
CW Matthews is also hiring 200 workers for other county projects. Fulton is not on the list...
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2016/02/11/now-hiring-c-w-matthews-needs-200-construction.html
It's amazing as you watch these processes. Just enough work is doled out to keep all the current contractors busy but not enough work to bring in additional competition. Tom Black has said on several occasions that there are not enough construction crews to do the paving that is needed, as they are being used in other counties and cities.
This is NOT capitalism. This is Crony Capitalism. The number of vendors that pave would increase were we to release our projects when we have the money(WHICH WE DO!)
So, in the end, the way our city and others bid and release work has enabled the vendors to charge more, stretch out their projects as they start and finish elsewhere to keep their competition at bay, and we are left paying for it in both time and money.
Haven't you had enough of this?
It's all about priorities. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Time to be the squeaky wheel. Also, it's who you know. If anyone knows someone directly at GDOT or CW Matthews, contact them as to how to best get the project moved up and prioritized.
The "challenges" are that CW Mathews is not making any money on this project and is making money on other projects, so they have pushed this to their lowest priority. Fire CW Mathews and hire someone that can get the job done on time!
GDOT Rep is Mr. Mark Burkhalter and County Commissioner is Liz Hausmann.
Has anyone seen the bang up job (literally) they are doing on the roundabout located at Bell Road where it joins up traffic heading towards Abbott and McGinnis? It is an absolute joke!!! A bad joke at that. It is dangerously curvy with very small lanes, leaving no margin for error at all, especially as drivers exit onto Bell heading towards McGinnis. Both sides are bad, but the one heading towards McGinnis is awful. My 6 year old granddaughter could have done a better job laying it out. I have brought this to the attention of the city, making them aware that this is a very "shoddy" job, with a high risk of head on collisions. I was more or less told TWO contractors designed it, one initially and then the other to inspect the design. It passed. Go figure!
Absolutely Ridiculous. It looks like they might be trying to fix it, but so far I see no improvement. Time will tell...
Yes, the Roundabout lanes on the Bell/Boles Rd are narrow and the grade(slant) is awkward as well. It also needs better signage and lighting when approaching at night.
My husband called and spoke to someone in Johns Creek Management and was told the little pond at the church is the problem. The water table effected the dirt on the road and they had to go back to the drawing board to get new plans drawn and then they had to approve more money to deal with Perimeter Church's Pond. I don't know why they couldn't do a write up in the paper to let people know what is happening vs letting everyone stew about the lack of progress. People are usually understanding when there is enough information given; whether good or bad we just want to know. Also, Thornhill is suing Johns Creek for the added traffic through their neighborhood we heard. So maybe that will help move things along.
@Anonymous If that little pond was holding up construction of the Central Business District, rest assured it would have been already addressed.
This is about incompetency, and nothing else. From Parsons Road to Bell Road to Old Alabama to the Florida T at Waters Road to what they proposed on Barnwell Road, the person in charge of all of this is the same.
And all he is interested in is getting the most federal dollars so that he can smile and say "But we saved money".
Where I come from Time IS Money.
Anyone wonder why we the people are SICK OF IT!
Honey, I can’t mow the lawn today because we have a soil problem. I think it will fix itself if I don’t do any work for several weeks or months. I will mow it after that, okay?
Mark Burkhalter
[email protected]
As a Civil Engineer who has designed and project managed dozens of much larger jobs throughout my career, the new design and construction administration gets a "D" grade. The final intersection and road design looks like an amateur attempt, at best. On Old Alabama (OA) two additional 300' long lanes are needed, one on each side of (OA). The first should be a dedicated right access lane when turning right onto (OA) from 141. The other a dedicated right lane when turning right from (OA) onto 141. Furthermore, a double left turn set of lanes when making a left from 141 to (OA) would have been a big help. Right off the project lacks at least two (OA) lanes at the intersection and one on 141. It will do little to improve traffic flow.
For the civil engineer. I thought you just about described what the project will be when completed: East bound OA - one dedicated right turn and 2 dedicated left turn: - West bound OA - 2 lanes to Buice Rd. Don't know about another lane on 141, a lot more issues there - Michigan U Turn, etc.
@Anonymous,
It's disturbing to me that we are doing a less than adequate job now, when the land is undeveloped on the south side of Old Alabama, and the COJC could have gotten the land needed to do it the best way that would service this area for decades at the lowest possible cost..
I believe if we were going to suffer through this, we should have three left turn lanes from Old Alabama to 141 north, and one continuous flow right turn lane onto 141 south, which would then merge with traffic.
While I am not a traffic engineer, I have spent decades working with queue management. The ultimate objective here is to keep the light green on 141 as much as possible. Three left turn lanes would service Old Alabama, and reduce the amount of time traffic on 141 was stopped to process the left turn traffic.
We are clearly missing something in our planning. Last evening, I was on Jones Bridge going north approaching Morton Road. Northbound was stopped and ten cars deep. Morton Road was stopped. No cars were headed southbound. All of these cars were sitting for no reason whatsoever. This is one of our newest intersections. What intelligence is there in that set up?
It was 9:15 p.m. or so. In years past no one would have been sitting there waiting at that time of the evening. The intersection would be better served by going to a flashing yellow on Jones Bridge and a flashing red on Morton Road. Instead, 15 drivers wasted 15 total minutes for no reason whatsoever.
It seems we do the minimum required to get the Federal dollars, and that is it. What a waste of my federal tax dollars and yours.
Politics is at the heart of this slowdown. Vote against MARTA and the State and GDOT powers are happy to play hardball with Johns Creek. Don't let them get away with it!
On one hand we have created a City to create our own destiny. And on the other hand we have given control of our destiny to outside entities such as the GDOT.
Were we still unincorporated, would we be having such a lack of accountability on projects such as we see at Old Alabama Road?
Second, the name of the road is "Old Alabama Road". So who originally did the analysis of this project and did not discover their were "soil issues"?
Isn't it time someone was actually held accountable for failures of projects such as this? How do we make sure that this does not get repeated yet again in the next project?
The City Council seems unable to do anything but defend the City Staff. At some point the Council needs to demand more of the City Staff, or the residents need to demand more of the City Council.
You and I cannot do anything about the City Staff, so it will be up to us, the residents. I hope you have taken the time to print the numbers of City Hall down. Place them in your vehicle and call the next time you are sitting there while your clock ticks away.
The traffic circle on Sargent Road was supposed to be completed before Dec 31. It was just completed March 3. Don't believe any forecasted completed dates our administration or contractors provide. Those premature dates are simply to lull the residents and taxpayers into a false sense of planned progress and keep the outrage stifled at the outset of projects. Contractors always ask for more money even though they offer firm bids and our government leaders always grand the extra expenditures. What a wonder way to run a railroad.
GDOT has moved up the deadline to December 2016 from May 2017. Hopefully this will not be pushed back.