VALDOSTA — The City of Valdosta has allotted $16.3 million to fund the construction and improvement of roads and drainage infrastructure, if voters pass the seventh cycle of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax on Nov. 6.

With the Transportation-SPLOST voted down in August, the city must rely on SPLOST revenues to make improvements throughout Valdosta, said City Engineer Pat Collins. Otherwise, property taxes will likely increase and the city will require grant money from the state and other revenue sources.

“I don’t know how we would come up with this type of money,” Collins said. “The good thing about SPLOST is that it’s paid by everyone who passes through town. It’s not just property owners who use the roads and sidewalks, it’s all the folks who come through town and spend their money.”

If the SPLOST passes, the city will dedicate about $8.27 million to road improvements — half of the allotment collected through the penny tax over the next seven years. The projects in queue include the construction of two roundabouts in the Five Points project area.

The Georgia Department of Transportation grades the performance of intersections and roadways similar to a report card, Collins said. The current Five Points intersections — where Patterson, Ashley, North Valdosta Road and North Oak Street Extension meet — have been operating at a grade-F level for a number of years, the lowest possible grade, he said.

The roundabout project is expected to bring the area up to a grade of A, allowing motorists to move efficiently through the area without having to wait for traffic lights. Drivers would yield briefly and proceed through the roundabout, selecting the road along which they wish to continue.

“These are not traffic circles,” Collins said. “A traffic circle is meant to be an obstacle in the roadway to make people slow down.”

Roundabouts “have been around a long time,” Collins said, citing their efficiency in European cities and Atlanta.

“They constantly keep traffic moving,” Collins said. “You don’t have the long queuing that you have with traffic lights, and it would be large enough to accommodate large trucks, rescue vehicles and commercial tractor-trailers.”

If SPLOST VII passes, the city will create a mock-up of the roundabouts at the Five Point area using cones for citizens to drive through and see how the intersections function, Collins said.

Other road improvements include Gordon Street, adding drainage and sidewalks along Troup Street from Hill Avenue to Gordon Street and the widening of Lankford, said Collins.

Road improvements are difficult, sophisticated and expensive projects, which is why half of the money is allotted for this purpose, said Collins, who prefers a pro-active approach to municipal projects.

“It’s critical that we not just let things expire through their useful life and find ourselves making emergency repairs and reacting to things,” Collins said. “It’s important that we look ahead, that we make improvements and that things are replaced, and that’s what we use SPLOST money for — making Valdosta safe, clean, pretty and fun.”

 The city plans to spend $3.62 million of the SPLOST funds to improve drainage infrastructure in problem areas. Part of that money will go to the construction of regional stormwater facilities at the Five Points area and in the area between Norman Drive and Hightower Circle, Collins said.

The facilities, really just retention ponds or small lakes with flow control, will collect and store stormwater as well as contain non-point-source pollutants like grease, pesticides and grime washed off the asphalt during the first inch of rain runoff.

Pollutants stay in the pond until plants and the soil absorb them, a process common to any body of water, including natural lakes, Collins said.

The city has allotted $2 million for road and street resurfacing projects. The GDOT will match those projects with 70 percent of the project total for all resurfacing.

“In some of these neighborhoods, it’s been 30 or 40 years since the roads have been resurfaced,” Collins said. “It’s important that we go in and mill and resurface before they break up too bad.”

The city will spend about $1 million on sidewalks and another $750,000 on ditch piping and traffic improvements. Together, these improvements satisfy the “clean and the pretty” aspects of infrastructure development, Collins said.

This development includes building ditches along roadways to improve drainage, filling potholes, widening lanes, improving intersection visibility and striping for bike lanes.

“Whenever we do road improvements in the future, and widening projects, we’re going to make it a point to add bike lanes,” Collins said. “It’s just pleasing when you go down the road and see things are in order and neat. It lessens stress levels, and makes us proud of where we’re from.”

Lowndes County plans to spend more than $18.5 million on similar projects in unincorporated areas, according to County Clerk Paige Dukes. Their priority list is yet to be determined, and won’t be finalized until the end of next year, when SPLOST revenues can be evaluated, Dukes said.

The SPLOST Steering Committee will kick off its pro-SPLOST campaign, 10 a.m. Friday, South Georgia Medical Center parking garage on Patterson Street. The public is invited to attend and learn more about SPLOST projects.



SPLOST Steering Committee Kick-Off

SGMC Parking Garage, Patterson Street, 10 a.m. Friday

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