ATLANTA – The State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA) signed off Monday on two major highway improvement projects.
Board members unanimously approved resolutions authorizing agreements between SRTA and the Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) to split oversight of upgrades to intersections along Georgia 316 and an overhaul of the heavily congested Interstate 285/I-20 West interchange.
The 316 project calls for building seven grade-separated intersections along the busy highway connecting Athens with I-85 in Lawrenceville both to improve traffic flow and safety. The intersections involved in the project are in Barrow and Oconee counties.
The work will be done through three contracts worth about $350 million in total. The first of the three contracts will involve two Georgia 316 intersections in Barrow County.
The DOT plans to issue a request for proposals from interested road builders for the $100 million contract next month and announce the apparent winner of the bidding in December. Construction is due to start during the fall of next year.
The second project calls for redesigning the I-285/I-20 West interchange west of Atlanta, ranked the fifth-worst bottleneck in the nation by the American Transportation Research Institute.
The nearly $1 billion project will involve removing the left-hand entrance and exit ramps and building a westbound collector-distributor system from the interchange to Fulton Industrial Boulevard. Lanes will be added along I-20 from Factory Shoals Road to Hamilton E. Holmes Drive and along I-285 from Donald E. Hollowell Parkway to MLK Jr. Drive. Several bridges also will be replaced.
In April, the DOT chose two finalists for the work. The agency plans to announce a “best value proposer” during the second quarter of next year.
Under the agreements between SRTA and the DOT, SRTA will finance the projects and pay the contractors, while the DOT will manage the construction. The State Transportation Board already has approved both agreements.
ATLANTA – Georgia will receive $1.3 billion out of a $42 billion nationwide federal investment in broadband expansion, the largest in U.S. history, the Biden administration announced Monday.
The funding, which comes from the bipartisan infrastructure spending bill Congress passed in 2021, will expand broadband and strengthen access to affordable, high-speed internet across the state, particularly for the estimated 15% of Georgians who currently lack reliable broadband access.
The money will be distributed to various local contractors by the Georgia Technology Authority to build out the state’s broadband network.
“This is great news for our state,” said U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., who hosted Jessica Rosenworcel, chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), last year at a public forum in Jackson County on the need for broadband expansion.
“This federal investment means life will get easier for hundreds of thousands of Georgians and provides the tools and infrastructure our communities need to be competitive in the 21st century.”
Warnock has raised concerns about the accuracy of a broadband map the FCC put together. He said up to 220,000 Georgia locations that lack high-speed internet service may be missing from the FCC map.
ATLANTA – Controversial legislation imposing mandatory minimum prison terms for gang recruitment in Georgia will take effect July 1.
Senate Bill 44 is one of dozens of bills the General Assembly passed this year that will become law with the start of a new fiscal year.
Passed by the legislature’s Republican majorities along party lines, the bill requires judges to impose prison sentences of at least five years on those convicted of recruiting gang members. It also mandates tougher penalties for recruiting to a gang anyone under age 17 or with a disability, requiring at least a 10-year sentence.
“Come after our children, and we will come after you,” Gov. Brian Kemp warned in January during his annual State of the State address to members of the Georgia House and Senate.
The governor made Senate Bill 44 part of his agenda for this year’s legislative session and signed it during a ceremony in April.
“There’s no room for street gangs in Georgia,” Sen. Bo Hatchett, R-Cornelia, one of Kemp’s Senate floor leaders, said when the bill was debated on the Senate floor in March. “[Senate Bill 44] is going to help prosecutors across the state. It’s going to help children. It’s going to really provide serious penalties for someone that tries to recruit a child into a life of crime by asking them to join a street gang.”
When the bill reached the House, Republican leaders amended it to restrict judges’ abilities to allow suspects accused of certain crimes to be released without posting a bond if they have been convicted of bond jumping within the past five years or if a bench warrant for failure to appear in court has been issued within the past five years.
Judges also will have to consider the suspect’s criminal history before allowing no-cash bail.
Senate Democrats objected that the amendment broadened the bill beyond its original scope of cracking down on gang activity.
“Let’s say you miss court for some reason and there are plenty of reasons to miss court,” said Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs. “Now all of a sudden, the judge does not have discretion for five years to let you go on your own recognizance. They have to put a cash dollar value on your bail.”
Hatchett dismissed those concerns as unrealistic.
“If you do not show up for court and you have a bench warrant – let’s say you had work – and then you go back to court, you tell them, ‘Hey, I didn’t show up.’ Then, the warrant will be recalled,” he said. “Once the warrant’s recalled, the five-year clock no longer applies. That’s what it says in the bill.”
Not all – or even a majority – of the bills the General Assembly passes each year are along party lines. The following four measures that will take July 1 had bipartisan support:
— House Bill 31 ensures that the money that goes into the state’s Hazardous Waste Trust Fund is used to clean up hazardous waste sites and isn’t siphoned off for unrelated purposes.
— House Bill 383 increases penalties for criminal suspects charged with assaulting health-care workers or hospital peace officers on a hospital campus.
— Senate Bill 55, the Lemonade Stand bill, will allow Georgians under age 18 to sell non-consumable goods, pre-packaged food items and non-alcoholic beverages on private property without requiring a permit or license or paying a tax.
— Senate Bill 220 creates a program to fund preservation of agricultural properties from development.
ATLANTA – Georgia continues to attract electric vehicles parts suppliers to service the two EV manufacturing plants under construction in the Peach State.
NVH Korea announced plans this week to invest $72 million in a new EV parts plant in Henry County. The project will create more than 160 jobs.
“The incredible growth of the e-mobility and battery industries in Georgia is a testament to our ability to support large suppliers like NVH Korea,” Gov. Brian Kemp said. “We’re proud to welcome them as the latest partner in making Georgia the epicenter of the industrial revolution of our time.”
NVH Korea specializes in automotive noise, vibration and heat-control parts. The company also operates a plant that produces floor mats, cargo mats and cargo trays.
The new facility in Locust Grove will supply battery parts for EVs for manufacturers including Hyundai Motor Group and Kia Georgia. Hyundai is currently building a $5.5 billion manufacturing facility in Bryan County west of Savannah, the largest economic development project in the state’s history.
The Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Global Commerce team worked with the Henry County Development Authority, Georgia EMC, and the Technical College System of Georgia’s Quick Start program to land the project.
Several EV parts suppliers have begun to build manufacturing plants in Georgia following the announcements of the Hyundai Motor Group facility and another major EV plant being built by Rivian east of Atlanta.
“There is an economic transformation happening in communities across Georgia as manufacturers create the jobs of the future in line with cutting-edge technologies and industry trends,” said state Commissioner of Economic Development Pat Wilson said. “These companies enrich the local industry mix, provide well-paying jobs for Georgians, and continue to build on our already robust statewide mobility ecosystem.”
The new plant is due to begin operations during the second quarter of next year.
ATLANTA – The director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) is returning to a former job after less than a year at the helm of the state agency.
The Cobb County Commission is scheduled to vote Tuesday on making Mike Register the county’s director of public safety.
Register served in that post as well as chief of police in Cobb County and assistant chief of the Cobb County Sheriff’s office before Gov. Brian Kemp appointed him to the GBI post last August.
“I greatly appreciate Director Register’s service in this vitally important public safety role for our state, and we wish him and his family well in their next chapter,” Kemp said late Thursday.
“The Georgia Bureau of Investigation and its future success will continue to be a top priority of my administration as we work to keep Georgia families safe and support our local law enforcement partners across the state.”
Register will remain at the GBI through July. An announcement on his successor will come later.
