The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners has approved a $78,000 traffic study for the Ga. 140 corridor, a move one county official hopes will prod state highway officials to accelerate their own plans for the road.

The study, by the Pond & Co. engineering firm, covers Ga. 140 from I-575 in Canton to the Little River Bridge on the Cherokee-Fulton county line near Roswell and Alpharetta. It would determine the need for short-, mid- and long-range capacity improvements.

Staff said the Georgia Department of Transportation has long-range plans to widen Ga. 140 from two to four lanes, but Board Chairman Harry Johnston told commissioners he’s heard that may not happen until about 2037. “That’s a completely unacceptable period of time,” Johnston said.

“We have a tentative plan to try to make some improvements substantially at Cherokee County’s own cost … and maybe persuade DOT to accelerate the Fulton County leg of improvements so we have much better two-lane road with better functioning intersections and continuous turn lanes,” he said.

“It wouldn’t be a forever solution, but it would buy us 10 or more years of reasonable productivity for that road,” Johnston said.

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Thousands of UGA students enjoy during the annual “Frat Beach” party for the weekend of the Georgia-Florida football game on St. Simons Island, Friday, November 1, 2024. On the weekend of the Georgia-Florida football game, St. Simons Island’s East Beach becomes “Frat Beach,” an open-air party teeming with thousands of highly inebriated college students. (Hyosub Shin / AJC)

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