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New tunneling techniques can ease Atlanta's congestion crisis
By Amanda Kathryn Hydro
In April, Forbes ranked the metro-Atlanta region the second most congested city in America. It has been estimated that the direct cost of that congestion to Georgia motorists is $1.75 billion per year. Fear not my fellow weary travelers, there are solutions out there that, by thinking outside the box, can address this looming crisis.
On a recent trip to the metro area, I learned that Cobb County has broken ground on a 24-foot diameter wastewater tunnel that will be 29,100 feet (5.5 miles) long. This sewer tunnel will run from just south of Austell to the South Cobb Water Reclamation Facility just north of I-20. I was already aware of the Chattahoochee Tunnel that is 18 feet in diameter and 9.5 miles long, and it got me thinking about tunnels and creative solutions to the congestion crisis that Atlanta faces day in and day out.
What if I were to tell you that there is a way to provide the needed capacity in the most congested area, the Downtown Connector, while protecting Atlanta's neighborhoods? Well, my colleague, Robert Poole has proposed building a double-decked road tunnel, (similar to the new sewer tunnel that is currently underway in Cobb County), which would link the southern terminus of Georgia 400 with I-20 and later with the northern terminus of I-675. This tunnel is only one of perhaps half a dozen major projects needed relieve metro Atlanta's congestion but would provide the most dramatic relief. This proposed tunnel would have an inside diameter or 45 feet and each deck would have three 11 foot lanes and an overhead clearance of 12 feet allowing the tunnel to accommodate buses as well as SUVs and cars. The northern tunnel would be 5 miles long and the southern one would be 3.1 miles in length.
According to Civil Engineering, Georgia's location in the Piedmont region gives the metro area geology especially suitable for tunnels. The region consists of metamorphic and granitic rocks which were formed more than 200 million years ago during the formation of the Appalachian Mountains, thus providing a strong, underlying framework for such tunnels, which can easily be excavated using state-of-the-art tunnel boring machines.
Although, Poole's proposed tunnel is large, there are similar ones being built all over the world: Brussels, Paris, Brisbane (Australia), Madrid, Buenos Aires, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), and half a dozen in China. And closer to home, a 47 foot diameter tunnel is being bored under the Niagara River in New York.
In the December 2002 edition of Georgia Trend, Jerry Gillo talked about Atlanta's sewers. He said, "They're old, they're broken, they're leaking and overflowing…threatening the health of city residents… Atlanta hasn't done enough to fix its crumbling sewers over the last three decades, and has been punished already…"
Couldn't the same be said about Atlanta's roadways today? They are old. They are broken. They don't have enough capacity for the Atlanta of today, let alone tomorrow. The mounting congestion is harming the region's economy and the calamity has been building for over 15 years. With the roads in a state of gridlock, goods and people can not get from point A to point B and emergency vehicles can be delayed resulting in a fatal outcome. Congestion shrinks our circles of opportunity - our possibilities are limited in entertainment, recreation, social life and even employment. Perhaps most harsh, is the effect that congestion has and will continue to have on Atlanta's economic competitiveness.
Also in 2002, Atlanta elected a new mayor, Shirley Franklin. She labeled herself the Sewer Mayor and declared, "We owe this to our neighbors, to our children… it is our responsibility to future generations."
Shouldn't public officials and transportation officials in Georgia be just as committed now to ensuring the economic vitality of the region for our children and all future generations? Shouldn't everyone who benefits be willing to pay for the additional transportation infrastructure needed to relieve Atlanta's gridlock? Isn't it worth looking into alternatives such as public-private partnerships to deliver such solutions? With the right kind of partnership, the risk of cost over-runs and late completion can be shifted to the private sector, rather than being on the taxpayers' shoulders.
Tunneling has been going on in Georgia for over 30 years since construction on the MARTA Peachtree Station began. Most such tunnel projects have been completed on time and delivered what was promised. While some critics say that we can't build our way out of congestion, that's a broad over-generalization. Other world-class cities are embracing solutions like tunnels that can relieve congestion while preserving the region's quality of life. Tunnels are the least visible and least-obtrusive form of new highway capacity.
In 2004, Refik Eilbay, the director of tunneling services for Jordan, Jones and Goulding, a leading Georgia-based engineering firm told Tunnel Business Magazine, "The area continues to grow, so the City is developing long-range plans to deal with the population increase. Because there is less and less surface space available to support infrastructure growth, it will continue moving to the last remaining frontier - the underground."
I believe, along with my colleagues at the Reason Foundation, that the last remaining frontier is a significant part of the solution to Atlanta's congestion crisis.
Amanda Kathryn Hydro is director of policy development at Reason Foundation. An archive of her work is here. Reason Foundation's transportation research and commentary is here.
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