Office of Planning, Environment, & Realty (HEP)
Planning · Environment · Real Estate
The 14th Amendment Highway study is being conducted by a team of consultants led by Cambridge Systematics, Inc. for the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), and will be submitted to Congress pursuant to Section 1927 of the federal transportation authorization legislation known as SAFETEA-LU. This study is one of two companion studies authorized by SAFETEA-LU legislation. The studies focus on highway corridors originating in Georgia, and include the 14th Amendment Highway and the 3rd Infantry Division Highway.1
The 14th Amendment Highway is proposed to extend from Augusta, Georgia to Natchez, Mississippi, servicing intermediate cities of Macon and Columbus, Georgia, and Montgomery, Alabama. A portion of the highway corridor in Georgia was designated as a Congressional High Priority Corridor (HPC-6) under Section 1105 © of the Intermodal Surface Transportation and Efficiency Act (ISTEA) of 1991. The segment from Columbus to Macon was previously studied by the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) as part of the Governor's Roadway Improvement Program (GRIP).
The first stage of this study (underway now) will focus on preliminary data collection, identification of potential highway segments, alternative alignments and conceptual engineering designs for each segment, estimates of construction costs, and recommendations for additional planning studies to be conducted in an optional phase II as directed by FHWA.
Initial project work from July through September will focus on data collection, initial outreach activities, and definition of project control points in each of the key service and terminus cities. Engineering design work will take place in the fall of 2010, to be followed by cost estimation work, and recommendations for further planning studies in the winter and spring of 2011. The project is scheduled to be completed in June, 2011.
No original data collection activities will take place in this study. Existing data sources and reports will be compiled, organized and analyzed. All work will be reviewed and discussed by an Expert Working Group (EWG). The EWG will consist of nine members drawn from the three relevant state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) for Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and the Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) or their designees for the service cities. Additional representation will be drawn from involved federal agencies. The EWG will meet four times during the course of the study at convenient locations within the project region. Additional public information and outreach will include content on the FHWA website. In addition, the study team will explore other methods for broader public involvement during early phases of the work.
1 A bill calling for the US DOT to study both the 3rd Infantry Division Highway and the "14th Amendment Highway" route was introduced in 2004 by members of the 108th Congress (2003-2005) Georgia delegation. The language of these two bills eventually became part of SAFETEA-LU.
