PAULDING COUNTY’S TOLL ROAD PRESENTATION
Spalding County Manager William Wilson is currently investigating the local impact of a multi-county toll road proposed by Paulding County Board of Commissioners Chairman David Austin.
“It’s going to take a while to work through the nuances of this project,” said Commissioner Raymond Ray. “We’re looking at it being six months before we even talk about making a decision,” he continued.
During the commissioner’s meeting on Monday, April 18, Austin proposed the “Western Commercial Connector,” a 113-mile-long toll road that would essentially form an outer highway perimeter, bypassing Atlanta by connecting to I-75 at exit 198 (High Falls) on the south and exit 285 (Cartersville) on the north. This proposed path puts the Connector passing through the southern part of Spalding County, though if Spalding County decided to participate, they would be able to make the decision about where it and its interchanges with existing roadways would be placed, said Austin.
This connector would alleviate traffic problems on the interstates through Atlanta by providing freight trucks not bound for Atlanta another highway. Austin warned that events in the near future, such as Atlanta population growth and the deepening of the Savannah Port and Panama Canal will only increase the freight traffic on the interstates.
“These things spell huge problems for our interstate system,” said Austin, “but great things for our state and communities… it’s these things we need to address because they’re not being addressed by the state.”
Therefore, Austin said, it’s time for local governments to take initiative to solve a regional transportation problem by forming a multi-jurisdictional transportation authority that would include Paulding, Bartow, Carroll, Coweta, Spalding and Lamar counties and the cities of Catersville and Villa Rica. This authority could privately contract the $2 billion, four-lane, limited-access highway that would be mainly funded by tolls. “Regional alliances are the wave of the future,” said Austin.
Sources say that Lamar County has expressed disinterest in the project while Carroll County Commissioner John Wilson was quoted in the Times Georgian saying, “I love the idea and I want to learn more about it. I know there will be a lot of questions between now and then, but it’s worth looking into.”
Spalding County Commissioner Ray noted that joining the authority was one of the board’s main concerns. “We’re going to have to look into what rights we’re giving up, such as imminent domain, by entering into the authority.” Other county’s decisions on whether to participate could also have an influence on where the highway would have to be placed; “It could make it a whole different picture,” said Ray. “We just want to be prudent and investigate our options on this.” Ω
The GRIP 
This project would require seizure and condemnation of private property by a Development Authority originated by and operated by private investors who, by partnering with the Counties involved will be able to exercise the right of eminent domain
And for what? Economic development? This project would bring a trifling amount of economic development to our county.
This is a limited access truck toll road that will blast through the county with only two interchanges. The proposal states that other existing roads will be bridged over. This project will foster no new business and other than temporary construction jobs will create no new employment.
The only possible economic development in Spalding County that it would provide would happen at the two proposed interchanges. And we know what kinds of business tend to spring up along truck route interchanges: gas stations, huge parking lots for trucks on break, risqué restaurants, etc.
So who would this toll road benefit?
Truckers of course. And Atlanta commuters. But the primary beneficiaries would be the private developers in Paulding County and the investors interested in constructing the project. There are six counties and two cities involved and they would get to split whatever might be left after the developers and investors take their share.
J Matthews, Lamar County Commission Chairman has gone on record as saying “we were not interested” and “it was all designed to help their neck of the woods” (meaning Paulding County).
I believe our Commissioners will realize that this project will in no way benefit Spalding County – I certainly hope they do.
I suppose the first clue that is a half-baked scheme to enrich developers in Spalding County is the fact that they misspelled “Proposed” on the first slide of the presentation.