The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has released a report showing the impact the Transportation Investment Act (TIA) has on the CSRA.
TIA is a 1% special-purpose tax designed to fund transportation programs in GDOT districts that approved it. In 2012, voters in District 2, which includes the CSRA, were one of only three districts to approve the tax. That 10-year term, now called TIA 1, raised $746.9 million for 84 projects across the district.
Kyle Titus, Columbia County Engineering Services Director, told ABD that the TIA funding has been an incredible funding source for county projects.
“It’s incredible to be able to utilize funds across the region, to build, construct, improve, and maintain heavy highway projects,” he said. “The way TIA is set up, the mechanism by which it operates, allows for local projects. We’re not waiting on GDOT to deliver the projects. By allowing the local governments to execute project frameworks or agreements with GDOT and deliver these projects in-house, we can expedite these improvements much more quickly, much more efficiently, and many times much more cost-effectively.”
Among the local projects, Titus pointed to the widening of Flowing Wells Road and the creation of the divergent diamond at Lewiston Road and Interstate 20 as two of the most successful.
However, he said there are projects funded by TIA which don’t involve new construction but have the biggest impact on county transportation. Much of those will be funded by TIA 2, which took effect in 2023.
“A big one that kind of goes unseen daily is the massive amount of resurfacing funding that was approved in TIA 2 for Columbia County,” he listed. “We had around $32 million approved for resurfacing roads throughout the county, and a lot of these roads would not be able to be resurfaced as quickly, even though they have needed it significantly. These include roads like Evans to Locks Road, Blackstone Camp Road, Stevens Creek, and Baker Place Road. These are heavily traveled and have seen their useful life or are nearing the end of their useful life.”
Projects that become reality with TIA funds are also a boon for economic developers.
“It helps all of our efforts. It helps the county’s efforts. It helps private industry. It’s really good for the entire region,” said Cal Wray, President of the Augusta Economic Development Authority AEDA. He then pointed to a project they requested.
“We actually have a rail project, trying to take trucks off the road to make it safer for other cars. We have roughly 20 to 22,000 linear feet of rail that will go into the Corporate Park to serve our industries. It will help try to take freight, truck, and tractor-trailer traffic off the road and either bring product in or send product out by rail, giving another component to the Corporate Park.”
It is not just road and rail construction projects that benefit from TIA funds. That money can be used for projects involving any new or existing transportation infrastructure, including mass transit, ports, terminals, bike lanes, pedestrian facilities, and airports.
“It is ‘transportation’ infrastructure, and aviation is a form of transportation,” pointed out Lauren Smith, Assistant Director of Marketing and Public Relations at Augusta Regional Airport. “We expanded some taxiway infrastructure so we can accommodate movement on our runway systems in an easier manner for pilots. Our coworkers in the FAA control tower here in Augusta love that the project’s been completed. It makes it so much safer and less confusing for pilots on our runway system.”
Titus said one of the most unique aspects of TIA is its funding mechanism. For every dollar collected, 75 cents go into the overall funding, while 25 cents go to each local government to create a discretionary fund.
“That has been huge for us, because once the program list is approved, that list can’t change. But that doesn’t mean that from time that we don’t have additional transportation needs that come up or that need to be addressed,” he said. “Being able to utilize the 25% towards an intersection project that we realize that needs to be modified, or a new sidewalk connection project, or a new traffic signal needs to go up, that discretionary pot can be dipped into to supplement our transportation needs.”
There are 162 projects in the CSRA on the TIA 2 list. Twenty have been completed, 53 are under construction, and the remainder are in pre-construction.
The full report on TIA projects is at https://www.ga-tia.com/
