Media Center

By Bill Baldowski

District 13 U.S. Rep. David Scott, D-Jonesboro, said he views the Ga. Hwy. 92 relocation project in Douglasville as another example of “God’s work.”

In his address before more than 250 people attending last Friday’s groundbreaking ceremony for the project at Jessie Davis Park, Scott said the amount of cooperation and teamwork needed by Douglasville and Douglas County officials as well as state and national leaders to bring the project to fruition could not have been done unless, as he termed it, “God was in control.”

“When you do God’s work, you bring everyone together,” he said.

Scott was one of nine speakers to address the crowd on hand to see the ceremonial groundbreaking for the project.

The relocation portion for Hwy. 92 will be a 3.1-mile project which will include six lanes with acceleration and deceleration capabilities and state-of-the-art signalization technology at key intersections.

The most unique feature of the project, however, will be the underpass beneath the Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks, Bankhead Highway and Strickland Street, said city of Douglasville spokesperson Kellie Hunter.

“The underpass will provide seamless connectivity for daily commuters and emergency vehicles,” Hunter said.

Most importantly, the underpass will provide Douglasville and Douglas County emergency responders easy access to WellStar Douglas Hospital, she said.

Douglasville Mayor Harvey Persons called the Hwy. 92 relocation project an event that had been in the making for 30 years.

Persons said when construction is completed as scheduled in 2018, Douglasville will have available “a greatly needed, and long-awaited, six-lane highway running north-south through our city, which will include our community’s first grade-separation railroad crossing.”

Persons echoed Scott’s belief that collaboration was the key to the transportation project.

Although the congressman said he appreciated the accolades he had received in bringing this project to reality, he said he had “a whole lot of help from many individuals, including Georgia’s congressional delegation, in moving this project from a vision to what we are celebrating here today, its reality.”

“We are standing here on the big shoulders of those who came before us and sustained this vision,” Scott said.