Springlake Civic Association

Northside Drive Expansion Update

May 16, 2002

Thank you to Michael Kilgore of Channing Valley for coming to our meeting on April 15 to update us on the status of the Northside Drive expansion project. At the present, the DOT is looking to expand Northside Drive from I-75 to Collier Road to 4 lanes. This of course is not of the best interest of Springlake or our surrounding neighbors. Evidently, the DOT did a traffic study last year and this is the best conclusion they could come up with to accommodate the traffic needs. Supposedly they also looked at other 3 lane alternatives as well and chose the 4 lane one. As a collective group of neighbors, we are proposing that Northside Drive stays 3 lanes all the way. The now reversible lane will be a perpetual turning lane starting at I-75. There will be a set of turning arrows at the light at Collier Road for going both North and South on Collier from Northside. The only exception would be to add a permanent right hand turning lane on Northside heading North to turn onto Collier Road to go towards the hospital. There is a 100 foot easement at that part of Northside that has been there for many, many years. This should be the only ?“expansion?” we should see on Northside if any at all. There is also talk of increasing the left hand turning lane of Collier Road coming from Howell Mill to go North on Northside to accommodate 10-12 cars opposed to only 4. The DOT has also proposed adding sidewalks from I-75 to Atlanta Memorial Park on the West side of Northside. These are standard size sidewalks not a PATH project. Claire Muller is very much in support of this plan.