Cobb County Turns Down Federal Road Funding

The United States Department of Transportation released $473 million of earmarks that had gone unspent, with Georgia allocated $11 million for state road projects. The stipulation for this funding is that the projects must be ready to go and on the verge of construction. Cobb County at this point does not have projects that meet the funding criteria for these federal funds.

In 2012, the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) will be releasing $87.5 million in federal funds in order to improve the 18 county metro regions, with a 20% match from the counties. Several cities in Cobb County have actually already submitted transportation plans to the ARC to apply for this 2012 funding.

The city of Acworth has applied for funding to help update several of their railroad crossings. Powder Springs has a $1.2 million priority project to improve the intersection at Oglesby and Brownsville in addition to a park and ride lot along HWY 278. There have been other small projects submitted to the ARC for consideration from the Cumberland CID, Kennesaw State University and from Marietta.

The future of funding for Cobb is unpredictable, as is for other nearby areas of Atlanta due to the failure of 1% TSPLOST referendum on July 31st; the 10 year tax would have raised $1 billion for transportation project in Cobb County.  Due to the limited amount of funds available, the ARC will be quite meticulous when reviewing project submissions.

CLICK HERE to read more.