Final Phase of Ridgewalk Parkway Widening Starts Monday

The final phase of improvements to Ridgewalk Parkway will start on Monday.

The city of Woodstock is advising residents and motorists that the project to widen the road between Ridge Trail and Main Street will start on Sept. 8.

Motorists who travel through the area are reminded they should expect delays and use extreme caution while utilizing the thoroughfare.

The latest leg of the roughly $1 million project will be funded by Northpoint Ministries, which is building a facility along Ridgewalk Parkway east of the Outlet Shoppes at Atlanta. That stipulation was was part of a condition of zoning imposed in 2008 when Wood Partners proposed building an apartment complex on the same site.

Woodstock in early 2013 approved an agreement with Community & Southern Bank to use a loan to fund the widening of Ridgewalk Parkway from the entrance to the Outlet Shoppes at Atlanta to Ridge Trail.

The loan amount was approved at $2.7 million, with a 1.85 percent interest rate fixed for three years.

The agreement called for the loan to be secured with up to $2.7 million in Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or SPLOST, IV dollars.

The city, along with Horizon Properties, the outlet mall’s developer, and Cherokee County all chipped in to pay for the roadway’s improvements.

The widening was done in conjunction of the relocation of Woodstock Parkway, which was shifted to the eastern part of the Outlet Shoppes at Atlanta’s property and realigned with the entrance to the Meridian at Ridgewalk neighborhood.