Plan for Intersection Redesign Gets Public Vetting

What some see as improvements, other see as a detriment.

Thursday night, Dunwoody residents and officials attended an open house about plans to redesign the intersections at Tilly Mill Road and North Peachtree Road, and Peeler Road and North Peachtree Road.

The plan would add left and right turn lanes, and a through lane, to each street entering the intersection at Tilly Mill Road and North Peachtree Road.

It would also add a stoplight and turn lanes at Peeler Road and North Peachtree (see the attached PDF for more detail).

Rick Woroniecki, who lives just west of the intersection, said Thursday that very similar plans were proposed by DeKalb County in 2005.

“The community overwhelmingly got it thrown out,” he said about the previous proposal.

Woroniecki said he thinks any improvements to the intersection would be short-lived and shortsighted.

“What it absolutely will do is make the traffic flow like a dream for about a year and when all the cut through traffic that comes through Dunwoody realizes you can get through here so quickly, you’re going to get four or five times as many cars, have very similar problems, except they are going to be at a higher speed at a higher density,” Woroniecki said.

He likes the turn lane from westbound Tilly Mill Road south onto North Peachtree Road, but says the turn lane is far too long for the intersection.

He said the plan looks to be built to highway standards.

“It’s not a neighborhood-scale solution,” he said.

Councilwoman Adrian Bonser sees a lot of benefit with improvements at the intersection.

“It’s so bad,” she said about the bottlenecking at the intersections.

She said improvements would likely help traffic flow, but not enough to attract more drivers to Dunwoody streets.

“I think the change is going to be noticeable, but not so much that people go ‘we’re going to have a new shortcut,’” she said.

Bonser is pleased with the addition of a stoplight at Peeler and North Peachtree, which is an intersection she passes through frequently.

She said when she turns from northbound North Peachtree onto Peeler, cars turning onto North Peachtree from Peeler frequently try to turn in front of her, nearly causing accidents/

It is a dangerous intersection and should really be addressed, she said.

According to data provided by the city, between 2007 and 2010 there were 73 accidents along that section of Tilly Mill Road (12 injury accidents), 63 accidents on that section of North Peachtree Road (15 injury accident) and 15 accidents along that section of Peeler Road (four injury accidents).

Steve Barton, who lives off of Tilly Mill and Womack,  said he understands the argument for a new stoplight at Peeler, but feels any more improvements will just invite more cars with Gwinnett County license plates to use Tilly Mill Road as a shortcut.

“Water seeks its own level,” he said. “Any incremental improvement will draw people from outside our community to cut through here. It is already a cut through corridor.”

Public Works Directors Michael Smith said the project wouldn’t increase traffic volume.

“You still are limited. You are still are going to have two-lane roads at all the approaches to the intersection,” he said. “The goal of the project isn’t to have more traffic going through. It’s to relieve the bottlenecks and the congestion at this intersection. This project would decrease people’s delay trying to get through this intersection. It would also improve safety.”

While only one option was presented Thursday, Councilman John Heneghan said he would've liked to see more.

"I know for a fact there was a lot of research and lots of options," he said. Heneghan said those options, or at least more of them, should have been presented along with the option showed Thursday.

The plan, as presented Thursday would require the city to acquire some right of way along the northern edge of a few properties along the southwest side of Tilly Mill Road at the intersection.

Smith said the city would work with property owners on that issue.

“We’ve done everything we can to try to minimize the right-of-way impact,” he said.

The plan would likely be completed and brought to the council for a vote in the spring. The total estimated cost for the project is around $1.7 million.

Councilman Terry Nall was pleased with what he saw Thursday.

“I know we need to do something because this is one of the most congested interchanges in Dunwoody,” he said. “Is this the right plan? I think we are headed in the right direction.”

Nall said issues brought up by the public Thursday, such as the necessity for turn lanes from every road, need to be looked at further before plans are finalized.

“Overall I like it. I’m glad we’re making progress,” Nall said.