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ROCKDALE COUNTY, GA—The Atlanta Regional Commission has allocated funds in the updated Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) to Rockdale County for several ARC planned projects.
The Rockdale River Trail Extension to Conyers is receiving $5.5 million, the Courtesy Parkway project is receiving $13.5 million programmed and a total of $30 million planned, Sigman Road Phase 3 is receiving $4.9 million programmed and $28.9 million planned. Sigman Road Phase 4 is currently in the preliminary engineering and is receiving $420,000 to support this phase.
The trail extension will fill in the gap between 2 existing trails: the 4.5-mile Olde Town Conyers Trail, which begins at Pine Log Park and winds through the City of Conyers ending at Johnson Park, and the 9.5-mile Rockdale River Trail, which begins at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit and connects to the Arabia Mountain trail into Lithonia. The extension will run from Johnson Park to the Monastery, creating over 20 miles of continuous trails and impacting the region by giving residents and visitors a bountiful hiking space connecting towns and cultural resources along the way.
Sigman Road widening has been a robust project that has spanned 20 years, with the first phase completed in the 1990s and the second phase in 2018. Phase 3 will widen the road from Irwin Bridge Road to Ga. Highway 138, while Phase 4 will widen it from Highway 138 back around to Salem Road and I-20. Completing this will give Rockdale County a four-lane divided median highway from I-20 and Sigman Road to I-20 and Salem Road. The TIP offers complete details of the financial allocations provided by the ARC.
The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) is a federally- designated Metropolitan Planning Organization for the Atlanta region that is responsible for developing and updating the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) to meet federal planning requirements and address local needs. The TIP covers the first six years of the MTP and is how federal, state, and local funds are approved for all significant surface transportation projects and programs in the 20-county Atlanta region. The TIP distributes federal funds to construct projects in the MTP: the long-term transportation vision for the 20-county area. Projects included in the TIP are fully funded.
Director Kelley of the Department of Transportation and Director Hammer of the Department of General Services are working closely with the Georgia Department of Transportation on these projects.
“We thank the ARC for allocating this funding to the completion of our projects, which only adds to the elegance and beautification of our amazing county,” Brian Kelley, RDOT Director, stated in appreciation of the funding. “We are excited to get these projects started and continue our best efforts to make Rockdale County a streamlined and efficient place to commute.”