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Calvary Church project added to road upgrade list
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A transportation planning group voted Tuesday morning to add a project involving Calvary Church Road to its 2008-13 roads program.

Construction is about a year away on the project, with funding expected to be split evenly between local money and an Economic Development Administration grant, said David Fee, transportation planner for the Gainesville-Hall Metropolitan Planning Organization.

The project was among several additions and changes to the organization’s Transportation Improvement Program as approved by the group’s policy committee.

The work would involve 2« miles of Calvary Church Road, which runs between Ga. 60/Candler Road and Poplar Springs Road in South Hall.

Plans call for widening the road, and installing curbs and gutters, a storm drainage system and turn lanes at major intersections, said Srikanth Yamala, the planning group’s transportation planning manager.

The work also would involve straightening certain stretches.

"It is a very tight and twisty route, without much of a shoulder," Yamala said.

Calvary Church mostly is rural but connects to many public sites, including the Hall County Detention Center, Chicopee Woods Agricultural Center and Chicopee Woods Elementary School.

It also serves two new industrial parks, Yamala said.

The road project is expected to cost $3.7 million, or $250,000 for preliminary engineering, $300,000 for buying right of way and $3.15 million for construction.

Plans call for Calvary Church to be widened to 24 feet, with the road width varying in different places, said Jody Woodall, a civil engineer in Hall’s public works department.

"There are areas that are about 20 feet (in width)," he said.

The project will extend from Ga. 60 to Chicopee Woods Elementary, which is at 2029 Calvary Church Road.

"We’ve had some industrial and school development on the road, and the development of the new Gainesville (Business Park) would add more new traffic," Woodall said.

"So, as part of all that, we looked at trying to improve the corridor slightly."

Gainesville and Hall County are developing the 171-acre business park, which is off Calvary Church at New Harvest Road.

Woodall said the county hopes to apply for the economic development grant within the next two weeks.

"If the grant is approved, we’ll probably get to right-of-way acquisition toward the end of this year and construction probably next year," he said.

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