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Shackelford optimistic on freeway route, commuter rail
By Nancy Badertscher
The Macon Telegraph
The state's transportation chief told legislative budget writers Monday that he expects to win the battles over the controversial route of the Fall Line Freeway through Bibb County and a Macon-to-Atlanta commuter rail service.
Wayne Shackelford, commissioner of the state Department of Transportation, said the Fall Line Freeway fight could be the longest.
He said the state transportation department could know within a few months whether it has proved to the federal government that the only feasible and prudent route for the freeway in Bibb County is along the Eisenhower Parkway Extension and through the Ocmulgee Old Fields, an area considered sacred by the Creek Indians.
But Shackelford said he expects opponents of the freeway route to file a lawsuit once the federal government makes a decision.
"We'll win the battle. We just may be a lot older," he told a joint session of the House and Senate appropriations committees.
The environmental impact study was required after the Ocmulgee Old Fields were deemed eligible in 1997 to be declared a traditional cultural property. The freeway, which was designed to link Augusta and Columbus and to be an economic boon to dozens of small communities, has several segments completed or under construction.
Shackelford was much more optimistic about the push to bring commuter rail service from Macon to Atlanta at a projected cost of $168 million.
He said the rail project was bolstered late last year when the federal transportation secretary agreed to expand the area designated as a high-priority rail corridor to include Atlanta and Macon.
"We're going to get fairly easily passenger rail to Macon," he said.
The new federal designation will make the Macon-to-Atlanta rail line eligible for crucial federal dollars, Shackelford said.
"That's going to come fairly quickly," he said.
He warned budget writers to expect major funding requests next year for the Macon-to-Atlanta line, as well as for one linking Athens and Atlanta.
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