The south end of Abercorn is crowded on the best of days, and it’s going to get worse.
Right now, about 42,000 vehicles a day use some sections of the commercial corridor that links the Truman Parkway and Veterans Parkway to U.S. 17 and Interstate 95.
That stretch also connects Savannah with Richmond Hill, Liberty County and Fort Stewart and provides access to regional activity centers such as the Savannah Mall, Armstrong Atlantic State University and St. Joseph’s/Candler hospitals.
When the final phase of the Truman Parkway is finished next year, it’s expected to spill another 23,000 vehicles a day onto the two-and-a-half mile stretch of Abercorn between the Forest River bridge and Deerfield Road, and that number is expected to increase steadily.
The only potential solution offered by state transportation officials has been to add lanes to Abercorn, but that would be expensive, would mean displacing businesses or leaving them with little or no frontage and still would end in intersections that would become chokepoints.
Local planners have a different, non-traditional idea.
A proposal developed by the Coastal Region Metropolitan Planning Organization would build an elevated four-lane expressway above Abercorn’s median, which would separate regional commuters from local traffic. It would stand about 35 feet high at its base, run 2.6 miles from an intersection west of Rio Road to the south end of the Truman Parkway at Holland Drive and would add two lanes in each direction.
The project could cost an estimated $212 million, and some of the funding might have to come from a toll on the new bypass. Construction would be at least 10 years away.
“If we ever build this in a relatively near time frame, I’m talking the next 10 years, we may be the first to do this type of construction in this type of land use character in the world,” Tommy Thomson, executive director of the planning organization, told the Savannah Morning News.
Planning officials looked at other options before turning to the elevated parkway. They rejected suggestions for street widening, reversible lanes or construction of a parallel road because those options would be ineffective, too costly and would require too much property to be bought and too many businesses displaced.
For the elevated expressway, only limited amounts of right-of-way would be needed, mostly at intersections where turn lanes would need to go. The footprint of the structure would be 10 feet wide and would fit within the existing 20-foot median along most of the route.
Construction would be bearable because the structure would not encroach on most of the existing travel lanes.
By removing high-speed commuter traffic from the street level, the corridor would become safer and more accommodating to pedestrians and bicyclists, planners say. Bike lanes and sidewalks would be installed as part of the project.
The Georgia Department of Transportation already has approved plans and money to build a flyover at the King George Boulevard interchange with plans to finish that project by 2016. Another plan would add two lanes on the Forest River bridge by the Veterans Parkway ramp by re-striping the road and is likely to be finished before the King George project.
Eventually, those improvements and planned overpasses farther west, along with the elevated expressway, would make it possible to take the Truman Parkway from downtown to I-95 without hitting a traffic signal, said Thomson.
One issue with a proposed elevated expressway that has to be confronted is esthetics. Elevated roadways have a negative image visually and have been connected to problems with blight. Local planners say one reason for building the roadway 35 feet above ground is to ensure the visual qualities of businesses and other property along its route are retained.
Of course, too, there’s the basic question of whether it will accomplish its goal — move more traffic faster and smoother while taking congestion away from Abercorn Street.
One success story took place in Tampa where a 10-mile elevated expressway has become an internationally recognized success in significantly reducing congestion and travel times after opening in 2006.
The reversible Selmon Expressway overpass provides three lanes into Tampa during morning peak hours and out of the city in the afternoon. Use of the road has exceeded expectations, while traffic flows at the set speed limit, said Sue Chrzan, with the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority.
Another question is cost: $212 million is a lot of money, and would motorists be willing to pay a toll in return for the convience of an unimpeded commute?
Special purpose local option sales tax funds also are being considered, but, says the planning commission’s Thomson, “That’s all the stuff that gets discussed in the next phase.”
To begin the process of answering those questions and getting public input, three public meetings were scheduled this week. The first was held Tuesday. The next one takes place this morning and another is set for Thursday.
If you have an interest in the traffic funnel known as south Abercorn Street, whether as a commuter or business operator, this is the time to step forward, look at the proposal and begin to talk through whether it makes sense. The key thing is to keep an open mind and not reject it out of hand because it’s different. Sometimes ‘different’ is better.