Land swap would ease traffic jam
By Sebastian Kitchen
Montgomery Advertiser
One thing is keeping Montgomery from widening Perry Hill Road, and it's a thing that should be easy enough -- an OK from the City Council.
Council members are expected to give their approval Tuesday to a land swap with the school district that would let the city do extensive work on Perry Hill Road from Harrison Road to Atlanta Highway. Segments would be broadened to five lanes.
In the deal, already approved by the Montgomery County Board of Education, the school district gets land for athletic fields near Loveless Academic Magnet Program High School.
"It is a good win-win," Jeff Downes, executive assistant to Mayor Bobby Bright, said of the land swap.
School board members and representatives from LAMP also have approached the mayor about acquiring city land that runs along Oak Street and West Jeff Davis Avenue, Downes said.
The city also intends to widen Perry Hill Road from Interstate 85 to Harrison Road. Most of the preliminary work already is done.
Perry Hill Road is a traffic nightmare during the school year, when parents are taking or picking up their children from Goodwyn Junior High, Head Elementary and St. Bede Catholic schools. All three schools are within about a mile of each other.
"It can really get to be a mess over there," said Michelle Fowler, whose children attend Goodwyn and Head. "There is just too much traffic for that area."
Kim Myers drops off and picks up her children at St. Bede.
"There is really only one way in and one way out, and the fact that Perry Hill Road is so narrow does not make things easier," she said. "Many times, I just sit there and hold my breath when I need to turn. It's very dangerous."
The Perry Hill project, being paid for with mostly federal funds, is part of the city's plan to improve the north-south corridors, Downes said. The city has several major arteries moving east-west including East Boulevard, Vaughn Road and Atlanta Highway.
"We don't have a lot of capacity north and south," Downes said.
The current north-south corridors are "pretty restricted," he said, including Decatur Street, Ann Street, Zelda Road and Court Street.
Staff writer Antoinette Konz contributed to this report.