Lee County celebrates imminent opening of Marlow Lane

LEESBURG — After months of anticipation, Lee County officials were able to celebrate the completion of one of the county’s most publicized infrastructure projects with a ribbon-cutting at the new Marlow Lane extension Monday.

Although it won’t officially open until Nov. 1, the new, two-tenths of a mile section of Marlow Lane, which was designed by EMC Engineering and built by Jim Boyd Construction, will connect the Story Acres neighborhood that lies on the western edge of the county with Highway 82, thus creating a new four-way intersection with a traffic signal.

“This is great project,” said Lee County Commission Chairman Rick Muggridge. “It’s an important project for Lee County, and it’s important for three reasons. It’s important for transportation, getting from point A to point B; it’s important for safety, and it’s important for economic development.”

From a transportation standpoint the extension will shorten drive times for county residents living west of Highway 82, the majority of which currently use North Doublegate Drive to connect to 82, where there is a traffic signal.

The prevailing thought is that people heading to and from work or shopping or taking children to and from school will use the new Marlow intersection, thus cutting down on traffic issues during peak drive times.

That trend will have an impact on public safety as well, since the North Doublegate intersection, as well as the length of highway where Story Lane joins Highway 82, is considered dangerous.

“We know Doublegate is one of the most dangerous intersections in the county,” said Muggridge. “Theoretically, the Marlow extension will make that intersection safer as is draws some of that traffic. It will also help to slow traffic heading north, which will make 82 safer.”

That theory holds true for county public safety personnel as well, who say they feel that section of the county will be safer thanks to the Marlow Lane extension.

“I can speak on behalf of public safety,” said Lee County Sheriff Reggie Rachals. “I think this is going to be a good thing. We’ve had numerous wrecks, bad wrecks at Doublegate, and at Story Lane, too. This should take a lot of the load off once people get used to using it.”

In addition to improved, and safer, transportation, county officials also say they believe the four-way intersection created by the Marlow extension will help spur further economic development along the Highway 82 corridor.

“As a county, a government, we don’t do economic development,” said Muggridge. “We can either impede economic development or we can create an atmosphere where economic development can take place. This four-way stop is going to be great for economic development. For whatever reason, economic developers get excited about a four-way stop and there’s already interest in (that location). I think there’s going to be significant private dollars invested in that area in the very near future.”

Muggridge said the Marlow Lane project was also good for the county based on the way in which it was funded, with the county utilizing different financial sources to cover the nearly $380,000 total construction cost.

The county received $250,000 from the Georgia Department of Transportation in the form of Local Maintenance Improvement Grant funds and also received additional grant funding from the State Road and Tollway Authority, further limiting the use of county funds.