City Mulls Big Creek Parkway Concepts

Though the process of looking into the feasibility of Big Creek Parkway is well underway, an exact proposal and its potential impact on local residents is still yet to be seen.

"We are still very early in this process, but, yes, there will likely be some impacts," Roswell Transportation Director Steve Acenbrak told Patch.

If completed, the two-lane parkway would divert traffic from the interchange of Ga 400 at Holcomb Bridge Road. But since the area is already heavily developed, to build the parkway means something else has to go. Right now, proposed alignments for the parkway show it could go through areas that currently consist of single-family homes at Liberty Square and apartments along Warsaw Road and Ga 400.

"During the past five years that this project has been discussed, it has been communicated to the public that some level of displacement would need to occur if the road were built," said Acenbrak.

Several options to connect Warsaw Road with the proposed bridge over Ga 400 have been presented by the consultant, Gresham, Smith and Partners. But each of them run between Liberty Square and Roswell Creek Apartments, according to the city.

"Depending on which option is ultimately chosen, the impact to Liberty Square could be relatively minor, with approximately one to four displacements within Liberty Square," Acenbrak said. "Other options would require substantially more displacements within Liberty Square, but would provide a greater buffer between the roadway and the remaining homes within Liberty Square. This would also provide a greater buffer between Liberty Square and the Roswell Creek Apartments."

At past public meetings local residents have complained that traffic is already a problem on Warsaw Road, it's an issue which has been acknowledged by the city. Still, the potential alleviation of a major east/west artery like Holcomb Bridge Road could be worth the hassel of adding vehicles to other areas or even having to demolish existing structures.

"Remember that our city is over 150 years old and I can tell you the road network we have is not ideal," said Acenbrak. "Fixing it at this point continues to be challenging."

The proposed parkway would include sidewalks and trails, with a route to Big Creek Park. The road is estimated to cost between $42 to $50 million to build. But, so far, only the design and evaluation of the road's impact has been funded. This phase scheduled to be complete by the fall of 2014.

"There will be more public meetings, more engineering and more number crunching before we are even close to presenting a recommendation to the mayor and [Roswell] City Council," Acenbrak said.