14 | Community
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Collier Hills transportation plan recommends safety fixes, traffic circle BY EVELYN ANDREWS evelyn@reporternewspapers.net
Collier Hills, a neighborhood near Atlanta Memorial Park, has completed its transportation plan that recommends a variety of road and safety improvements, including a traffic circle at one intersection. District 8 Councilmember J.P. Matzigkeit is working to get the document incorporated into the city’s comprehensive development plan. It would then be used by the city when it makes improvements to the neighborhood. Neighborhood leaders are trying to make transportation improvements as the area undergoes development and density changes, the plan says. Most of the neighborhood is made up of single-family homes, but some areas are seeing denser commercial and residential developments, creating traffic problems. “We’ve been mainly trying to increase the safety in the neighborhood since we’ve experienced more traffic,” said David Gylfe, who worked on the plan with the Collier Hills Civic Association. The group is planning for increased traffic at the growing Piedmont Hospital campus nearby. Residents also had to contend with lengthy construction on North-
side Drive that included utility fixes, and is set to deal with an up to four-month closure of that road for the replacement of the bridge over Peachtree Creek. Residents have reported an increase of traffic and with that, an increase in speeding and running of stop signs, endangering both the safety of drivers and pedestrians, Gylfe said. “The streets are really poorly designed, especially a lot of the intersections,” he said. Former District 8 Councilmember Yolanda Adrean helped fund the study by giving the civic association $9,000, according to the ordinance. The city has already begun implementing several recommendations included in the transportation, many of them recommendations to make intersections two-way stops, such as the intersection of Walthall Drive and Greystone Road, Gylfe said. The plan, which was led by consulting firm TSW, found that residents’ main complaints and issues were: speeding; pedestrian safety; left turns; gridlock at peak times; and drivers running stop signs. The study recommends fixes that range from a cost of $180,000 to create a curb extension at Greystone Road and put in textured pavement to $1,000 to put in four-way stop signs at several intersections.
Streets (outlined in white) Buildings Parks Streams Spreed/Cut through issues Poor Road Conditions Turning Issues Running Stop Sgin Pedestrian Issues
ALL IMAGES COURTESY TSW
A graphic included in the plan shows the safety and traffic issues raised by Collier Hills residents.
Two photos included in the plan show examples of problems in the neighborhood.
One of the more major proposals in the plan is a traffic circle at Spring Valley Road and Meredith Drive, which would cost an estimated $40,000, according to the plan. The plan also calls for creating three new crosswalks to improve pedestrian access to Louise Howard Park, and two at the adjacent Tanyard Creek Park. The crosswalks would include striping, ADA curb ramps, flashing beacons and a median refuge island. The crosswalks’ projected cost ranges from $7,000 to $30,000. The plan recommends installing a radar speed sign on Collier Road to deter speeding, which have been installed by sev-
eral neighborhood associations around Buckhead. The estimated cost is $7,000. Collier Hills is one of the few Buckhead neighborhoods that the BeltLine will eventually run through, and the BeltLine’s Northside Trail runs through Tanyard Creek Park in the neighborhood. The city’s current transportation recommends making Collier Road a “complete street,” with better pedestrian and bicycle access, the plan says. The Renew Atlanta infrastructure bond program calls for resurfacing all of Collier Road.
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