Community Corner
Regional Transportation Body Reactivates Project To Widen U.S. 441 With Bishop Bypass In Southern Oconee County
The U.S. 441 widening and Bishop bypass also were a topic of the meeting of the Land Use and Transportation Planning Committee on Tuesday.
The Madison Athens-Clarke Oconee Regional Transportation Study (MACORTS) Policy Committee Wednesday morning took the first step toward reactivating the construction of a bypass of Bishop and the four-laning of U.S. 441 from Watkinsville to the Apalachee River.
The project now goes to the public comment stage, with a key meeting to be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Feb. 24 in the Community Center at Oconee Veterans Park.
If the project is approved again by the Policy Committee on April 8, the Georgia Department of Transportation has promised to provide $1 million for preliminary engineering in the current fiscal year for the roadway.
The route of the bypass around Bishop, which has been an obstacle to the project in the past, has yet to be determined and will be established in the design stage.
For more on this story, including a report on the somewhat contentious meeting Tuesday night of the county’s Land Use Committee, go to Oconee County Observations.
Pictured: Abe Abouhamdan, Chair of the Land Use Committee