Plans Underway in Montgomery County to Set Speed Limits for 153 Miles of Paved Roads

Montgomery County Commissioners have approved an agreement with a Statesboro firm to initiate work on establishing speed limits for 153 miles of paved, off-system roadways in the county. At its February 8 session, the Commission approved a proposal for EMC Engineering Services, Inc., of Statesboro to provide engineering services for a lump sum fee of $26,000.

“The county has never established speed limits for offsystem, paved roads except those that were previously state routes,” County Administrator Brandon Braddy said. The project will be paid for with TSPLOST funds.

The work to be completed continued from page

by EMC Engineering involves conducting research and reports necessary for the development of a county ordinance for speed limits. “This will only apply to paved roads, not to unpaved county roads,” Braddy said.

All of the work conducted by the firm will comply with Georgia Department of Transportation policy regarding establishment of speed zones and will include necessary public meetings, planning, site visits and reports necessary for decision making by the County Commission.

The work will include two preliminary input meetings with interested parties prior to the adoption of the ordinance revision to allow public input. These meetings will be information gathering sessions to allow those with the most knowledge of local roadways the opportunity to provide input regarding the appropriate speed limits for the roadways under scrutiny.

The firm will use available online data including GDOT county maps, online aerial and topographic mapping, tax assessor’s website parcel data along with GDOT STARS traffic information and other online data sources. These courses, long with data gathered during preliminary input meetings, will be used to determine the initial speed limit for the targeted roadways.

Site visits will be made to each road where EMC personnel will ride each mile of the subject roads at the speed limit determined to assess the safety of the initial sped determination from a geometric standpoint. Areas that require cautionary signage will be noted on the speed limit analysis sheet. Adjustment will be made from these site visits which will be used in the final ordinance.

The firm will develop an ordinance that meets GDOT policy and attend one County Commission meeting to discuss findings and answer questions about the proposed ordinance prior to its adoption.