Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Traffic Study / Road Configuration for Womack - New Dunwoody Academy


Dear Ms. Pope,

When you and I last communicated, I was acting as President of the Dunwoody North Civic Association and was concerned about the traffic signal and intersection improvements at Peachtree Charter Middle School, which is directly adjacent to my neighborhood. I’m very happy that the intersection is now complete (except for the countdown timers which the county has promised) and I would like to thank you again for your professionalism in assisting me in rectifying that situation.

Today I am writing to you as Chairman of the Citizens for Dunwoody, Road & Transportation Task Force. I have a few questions regarding the traffic flow of the new school on Womack and I was hoping that you could help me clear up some issues. The drawing of the new school identifies Womack without any traffic lights, cross walks, nor left turn lanes entering onto the school property. As there are separate entrances for both school buses & passenger vehicles, I want to ensure that traffic flow is not impeded nor safety compromised in any way. I have had a road engineer who is also familiar with the site recommend that left turn lanes and crosswalks will need to be installed and another traffic safety professional gave me the opinion that alternative traffic calming designs be considered for this busy thoroughfare along with possibly dedicated bike lanes for the children who may want to commute via that mode of transportation.

Could you please inform me if the attached site plans are the most recent and if a comprehensive traffic study was conducted on Womack for this project?

Has a final engineered traffic site plan been developed for the site which would show all needed road, striping & signal improvements?

If neither a traffic study nor a final traffic site plan has been developed, I would like to request that both be conducted in the very near future so that the information can be presented to the community in order to alleviate their concerns over the location of the school and the related traffic patterns.

As my committee is also looking into storm water compliance, we are also interested in obtaining these plans and other technical drawings / reports on the construction of the new school. At the meeting at Peachtree which initially introduced the Academy concept, you stated that all drawings and construction plans were and would remain available on line. That evening I reviewed your website and downloaded everything which was available but just recently the documents were taken off the web and or transferred to a different internet location. Could you please provide me (as well as the community) the internet address to continue reviewing these documents as they become available from your shop, the DeKalb County Government and/or the construction contractors? The old address to find the documents was http://sammoss.dekalb.k12.ga.us/Bids/closed.htm

If the City of Dunwoody is created at the end of the year, I would hope to have a smooth transition between the new city and the DCSS, therefore I am interested in ironing out these and other related issues like this, well before the school is ready for occupancy.

If road and or signal improvements are required to be done by the new City, I fully expect that we be informed of these needed improvements ASAP so that we can budget them appropriately. I also expect that all engineering and design plans of the needed infrastructure improvements be handled by the County government currently in place.

I look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,

John Heneghan, Chairman
Roads & Transportation Task Force
Citizens for Dunwoody

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1 comment:

  1. Steve BartonMay 15, 2008 at 9:08 PM

    John: Thanks for inviting me to comment on your post/letter. Here is the email I sent you the other day on the plans, in the interest of sharing ideas with all who are interested.

    *****

    Bob and John:

    Thank you John for forwarding these docs.

    I specifically asked Patricia Pope about traffic signals at the meeting where they unveiled the 4th/5th grade academy plan.

    She said that determination belongs to the county government, but that she expected a traffic light to be installed at the main entrance (eastern, not opposite entrance to Lakeland Woods Ct) and she referenced what was done at PCMS.

    An idea I had and mentioned to her (and then Ms. Pope said the county would handle it) was an all-way stop sign rather than a traffic signal at the school entrance. The four-way stop at the high school works well to slow traffic because drivers know (unless it is their first time on Womack) that they cannot speed on as fast as the straight road allows because they will have to stop -- there is no way they can hit a green light at that four way. A stop sign on that straightaway might work better than a light to restrain the speeding.

    Plan does not show new sidewalks on Womack. The south side already has a sidewalk. The sidewalk ends at Lakeland Woods Ct on the north side. Continuing the sidewalk from LWC to the main entrance and a crosswalk would be appropriate. Not sure that a new sidewalk all the way to Tilly Mill on the north side would get much school use, though other runners/walkers would appreciate it.

    I am concerned about how the slopes will be handled where the turn lane and the new parent drop-off entrance will be constructed. The wooded ground rises from Womack to the south -- will there be retaining walls or will the ground be scoured and sloped back from the new lanes so that walls are not used?

    Good luck with that meeting and I would appreciate other opinions on that all-way stop idea (yes, drivers hate figuring out who goes next, but we all manage at the high school intersection).

    -- Steve Barton

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