Milton and Mane

Milton Takes the Wheel: The Highway 9 Project

• Steve Krokoff and Christy Weeks

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When construction on Highway 9 stopped last summer, Milton residents noticed. What they couldn't see was the extraordinary opportunity emerging from this unexpected pause. In this revealing conversation with Public Works Director Sara Leaders, we explore how Milton turned a challenge into a chance to shape the future of this vital corridor.

What initially seemed like a setback has evolved into something remarkable: Milton gaining more influence over a state highway project. Through persistent advocacy from city leadership and a productive partnership with GDOT, the city now has the ability to help reimagine Highway 9 as more than just a transportation corridor—it will be a thoughtfully designed community asset, integrated with the more extensive Deerfield planning efforts.

Leaders walks us through the exciting possibilities of this arrangement. While still working within GDOT parameters and funding, Milton can now apply "context-sensitive design" principles that wouldn’t typically be possible under standard state highway protocols. With consultants coming on board and public presentations expected sometime this year, this project represents not just infrastructure development but a statement about Milton’s values and vision for its future. As Leaders notes, "We have a different idea of what we want than what the state necessarily sees on a road project," and now, Milton has the opportunity to bring that vision to life.

Subscribe to Milton and Mane to follow this developing story as we continue tracking the Highway 9 transformation and other important issues shaping our community's future.

With the community in mind, this podcast explores the stories, people, and initiatives that make our community unique. Each episode offers insights into local government, highlights Milton's history and future developments, and showcases the vibrant arts, culture, and sustainability efforts shaping our city. Join the conversation, celebrate our community, and discover how we're building a better Milton together.

Do you have an idea for an episode or would like to request a specific topic to be covered? Email Christy Weeks, christy.weeks@miltonga.gov

Learn more about the City of Milton at www.miltonga.gov.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Milton and Maine, the official podcast for the city of Milton. We want to bring you closer to the heart of our community through stories that inform, inspire and connect. Each episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at the people, projects and priorities shaping Milton, covering everything from local government and future development to arts, culture, sustainability and public safety. Whether you're a resident, a local business owner or just curious about our city, this is your front row seat to what makes Milton special. Welcome everyone. I'm your host, christy Weeks, and today we have a very important topic to discuss, one that impacts the daily lives of our residents and businesses. We're talking about a major infrastructure project that recently experienced some unexpected changes the GDOT Highway 9 project. If you've noticed a pause in construction, you're not alone. There have been some developments that we want to break down for you today.

Speaker 1:

The mayor did give a quick update in his state of the city, but we're going to get a little deeper into this with our guest. It's Milton's Public Works Director, sarah Leaders. Sarah, thank you so much for being here. Thank you, christy, for having me. It's going to be a good one. I'm ready. So let's start by addressing I guess you could say the elephant in the room. Construction on this GDOT project has come to a halt. Can you walk us through what exactly happened?

Speaker 2:

Sure. So this project actually started design nearly a decade ago. It's a lengthy process to get from when a project is initiated and created to when it actually goes to construction, and then that takes multiple years to complete. So this one has been visioned and in the works for, like I said, nearly a decade. In December of 2023, georgia DOT we'll refer to them as GDOT throughout this conversation they put out a bid which provided final plans. It had all the quantities needed for the project, so that's what's called a bid for construction. And in December of 2023 is when they received the bids back from contractors and they, like the city, always select the lowest qualified bidder based on those results. So they went through the contract process of awarding the construction contract and construction started in late spring, summer of 2024. And that started with putting up barrier fences and just getting the project established, putting up construction signage and some basic erosion control All the pretty orange stuff, orange barrels yes, exactly Right. And then in June I checked back on the dates it was in June of 2024.

Speaker 2:

Gdot notified the city that there had been some issues with the property that was acquired for the project and they were going to need to halt construction. So as they looked into it further, they found out that right-of-way so what that is is it is land that's owned by the city or the state that services holding the roadway, holding sidewalk, not just the roadway, it's a footprint beyond that to hold all public utilities as well as the roadway. So there's right-of-way and then there's easements that are needed for a project, so they're acquired together from any of the property owners that are impacted. So the right-of-way on the project had not been acquired and the records had been falsified to show that it had been acquired.

Speaker 1:

Oh my goodness, that's a big deal.

Speaker 2:

There were around 140 parcels on the project and I think maybe five had actually been acquired and the rest of the records had shown they were acquired but they had not been purchased.

Speaker 1:

Oh my, that's unbelievable. I knew there was something going on. I'm going to get the most out of this episode because it's bringing me up to speed. I'm new to the city, so prior to July I had no idea what had happened.

Speaker 2:

I knew there was something going on, but so their main goal, following that finding, was to clean up the disturbance at that point, the areas where there were about 40 parcels that had been encroached upon, where they out without permission without permission, and so they went through the effort. The city stepped in to assist with helping getting contact information for these property owners to explain what happened and to get permission, basically to clean it up right was the first step and that's in progress now.

Speaker 2:

That is wrapping up now with those, those final efforts of the sod and the fence repair are the last outstanding items on that cleanup effort so, with construction at a standstill, going forward with the project because we're in cleanup phase, there was a big decision that was recently made.

Speaker 1:

Milton has now taken over portions of the project. Is that correct, ish?

Speaker 2:

Right, we're in the process of getting everything finalized to set us up to take over managing the various phases of the project.

Speaker 1:

So walk us through what led to that decision and where we are in the process at this point.

Speaker 2:

So it's unique that we had the Deerfield implementation plan underway. That plan, the proposal, was written that there was a component that was coordinating with the Highway 9 widening project. So we at the time we put that out for bid we thought the coordination would be what kind of things can we do in construction to make this a more Milton-esque?

Speaker 1:

corridor.

Speaker 2:

There we go. So we knew there would be interactions between that plan and the project and we'd been in discussions with GDOT about what kind of things we could look at since the project was under construction, and that really helped us set the stage, for we have a different vision for this area than the state necessarily does. Absolutely. Their primary vision is to get vehicles safely through the state route system and ours is a little bit different. We want to make it, as the term has been made, a destination Deerfield, because this was such an important area of the city and part of the planning that's currently going on.

Speaker 2:

The mayor was able to get assistance from Speaker Pro Tem, jan Jones, and Jan Jones and the mayor arranged a meeting with key GDOT staff. The chief engineer came to City Hall to meet with us in person, and the mayor and Jan Jones were there as well, and we had that meeting in August. Following that, city staff met with GDOT to start talking about the things that were brought up in that meeting. We mentioned all the elements that were important to us on the project and so we had some discussions with staff on what can we incorporate now that we have an opportunity with the rework of the project. There was going to have to be some new design plans drawn up, so we wanted to take advantage of that opportunity and to bring in the elements that were important to us.

Speaker 1:

Which is fair. It was a great opportunity to open that door and for y'all to step in and express your door and for y'all to step in and express your needs.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely so. Following that, there were various letters prepared by the mayor that reiterated our points of concern and our requested considerations for the project. Following those letters, Jan Jones and the mayor continued discussions with GDOT. They continued meeting with various staff there to continue advocating for our interests and then in late 2024, the chief engineer arranged a meeting with city staff where GDOT actually proposed an option that the city take over management of the various components of the project Beautiful. That was exactly what we were hoping for. It gave us the most control over what features we wanted to be included in the project Right.

Speaker 1:

So when you're talking about and I'm going to kind of cross over into a little bit of the Deerfield implementation plan, how much of that are you able to include in this GDOT thing? I guess we could kind of look at that type of information when we're talking about the scope of work and how much those two are married together, because it sounds like they're kind of going hand in hand along the way. And I know that there's been a lot of opportunity for the Deerfield implementation plan to get feedback from citizens. So am I crossing too many lines here and getting into a gray area?

Speaker 2:

No, that does make sense and there will be opportunities, especially where there's new developments, where we can look at what the development's proposing and what the project's proposing and have those two align better, when in the previous case it would have just been the project will build and then the developer can and we get.

Speaker 1:

We go with what is already predetermined and preset and then we adjust around it and now we have the opportunity to kind of make those two projects line up a bit better. We do, yes, wow, what does that scope of work look like for us? I know the timeline might be. We'll talk about timeline in a minute. Let's get the scope first.

Speaker 2:

So initially we worded it as and these were actually the words from the chief engineer is that the city has a different idea of what we want than what the state necessarily what they typically see on a road project. So we have a chance to reduce impacts where feasible. So some of those easements I was talking about that it's, you know, a set distance behind the right-of-way that's needed for the project Well, we can take a closer look at those and see where we can reduce them If there's trees within those where we want to save trees. So, looking at the impacts overall along the project, we also, like I mentioned, plan to work with the proposed developments to incorporate both projects into the design effort so we're not redoing and we can have them both complement each other.

Speaker 2:

We use the term context-sensitive design and and that's actually a GDOT term and we plan to bring that up many times during this project that we want to look at the surroundings. We want to look at the area and select a design option that best landscaping and some of the softscape, the sidewalks, multi-use paths, walls. We plan to look at some possible protected pedestrian crossings so it's not at a signal where you have vehicles that are turning left and right, and not necessarily looking out for pedestrians. If we can get separated pedestrian signals, that's going to be. A goal of ours is to look where people would want to cross and to give them the safest possible crossing opportunities of this four-lane roadway.

Speaker 2:

From a roadway standpoint, we would be looking at lane widths. There's some flexibility in looking at maybe a reduced inside lane width. We're going to look at roadway geometry and what that means is it's the curves in the roadway, whether it's a vertical curve, where you have a hill or a sag, or a horizontal curve, which is where the roadway turns one direction or another. So there may be some opportunities to look at changing the geometry a little bit. If it helps reduce some of those impacts. We will have more flexibility in the design on this effort. It is still a state route, so we do have to meet certain standards and requirements of GDOT. They will still review our plans and be part of the process, but we're going to have much more involvement in it and be able to present options that aren't typically considered on a state route widening project.

Speaker 1:

What a great partnership, though. What a fortunate way to be able to address the things that are going on here in Milton and keeping citizens and travel ways and things like that in perspective that would better suit the community as a whole versus just getting one piece of a state route taken care of.

Speaker 2:

Yes, oh, I did want to say so. Back to the scope of the project and just the understanding that the city has when we expressed our full support for managing the project. We also want to thank GDOT for their partnership and their support and entrusting us with this opportunity. We are a qualified agency to manage federal money, so we do have some projects through GDOT that have federal funds that we've been successful in managing and have shown that we understand the projects and the process. So did want to offer that thanks to GDOT and, like you said, what a great partnership and that they recognized this opportunity for the city to be so involved.

Speaker 1:

I think it's fabulous and relatively I'm going to guess rare. Yes.

Speaker 2:

I would say so.

Speaker 1:

So now let's jump into timeline and see where we are. I know things are details are still being ironed out, but if there's a general timeline we can look at because the mayor has mentioned a few in the past and I want to check with you and see what's what- sure.

Speaker 2:

So the city plans to hire a consultant for both the design and the land acquisition on this project this summer. Our goal and we're still working through the details with the state is if we could have the designer as well as the acquisition team all part of the project early on we can look for opportunity to make adjustments and understand the impacts and to have both engaged. We'll help the schedule as well if we can get some of that right-of-way acquisition authorization funding authorization you keep those mouths full At the same time as the design. That would benefit the schedule and allow us to run a couple things going at the same time. So typically you don't start right-of-way acquisition until your plans are nearly finalized. But we want to bring both teams in on the front end to get a head start on it. Again, we're still working through the details we proposed.

Speaker 2:

That question to GDOT is can we get some of that funding authorized sooner and is there any issue with hiring both agencies at the same time?

Speaker 2:

That's our goal is to begin that procurement for selecting a consultant. Their schedule will be very important in their proposal. You know how quickly can they hit the ground running and turn around various delivery points in the project and while we're in the procurement stage, we're also working on agreements with GDOT that will outline our roles and responsibilities. They have agreements that set up the project funding and then they're also going to have a separate agreement with us that relates to the specifics, because this is such a unique situation. So we expect the funding agreement first sometime this summer, and right now the funding is proposed to be authorized in GDOT's fiscal 26, which starts July 1st of 2025. And that's as of right now. We've asked if we were to advance timelines, will funding be available? So we do still have some outstanding questions. We're working through with them on the timeline, but our goal is to get our procurement going and get a consultant selected that will help us through this process, make it a little smoother, a little more cohesive along the way, bridge those gaps.

Speaker 1:

Yes, so you mentioned earlier that this whole plan started a decade ago. So knowing that there is a lot of time invested, I know the big question that comes up quite a bit is when will we see construction start? Random guesstimate on that at all.

Speaker 2:

So typically the number of partials on this project is a. I believe it's a three-year acquisition timeline. But that's our hope is that we can aggressively push the schedule while still attaining our desired changes. Not necessarily completely change all the work that's been done before, but look for all the opportunities been done before. But look for all the opportunities. Keep what we can. Run that acquisition alongside design as closely as we can, given we still have to follow the GDOT process for acquisitions.

Speaker 2:

So GDOT has stated that they're willing to let the city drive the schedule on this project. Funding is a piece of that which they control when that's authorized. But our goal is to advance that acquisition as much as we can. We feel like we can get the design up to speed fairly quickly and get at least part of the project identified that this segment's ready for acquisition. So it's going to be a challenge to split it up like that and we do have to still get the state's approval because they are this is still a hundred percent state funded, so there are checkpoints and I would expect no less.

Speaker 1:

I mean pretty standard Um, but what an opportunity for Milton to get involved. So, along those same lines, aside from what you've already put forth, are there any significant changes the community should be aware of?

Speaker 2:

I mean, I think we've already kind of covered the timeline and how we're going about it, but as far as the community any impacts, so our first step with our consultant will be updating the concept, and the concept's what lays out all the basis of the project and then we get into the detailed design. So by updating the concept in that stage, we do plan to go back to the public with that updated concept and that'll show every major change we're proposing to the original design.

Speaker 1:

That's great, I mean. I think people want to know what's going on along the way, and to have them have the opportunity to participate and express their opinions is incredibly valuable. When will plans be shared with the public, because you just kind of opened that door a little bit, talking about redesigning the plans and having them available. What are you thinking? Is that going to be a 2026 approach?

Speaker 2:

I would say it would be aggressive to get it completed, get that concept updated within the first six months. But that's a goal that I'd like to push the consultant towards is getting that concept update in the first six months.

Speaker 1:

No pressure there, so is there anything else you want to share that's coming up on this project? You've kind of run a pretty good summary as everything that's happened thus far. Is there anything else we should know about?

Speaker 2:

everything that's happened thus far. Is there anything else we should know about? I'd just say looking for continued opportunities with the Deerfield plan, that that is going to heavily influence how we move forward on the widening. So staying engaged in that, staying involved in that as it wraps up, will be a good way to begin to contribute to what we look at in the non-widening project.

Speaker 1:

so, with that on the table, I just want to let the listeners know that there is an immense amount of information on our website regarding the deer field implementation plan, where we are at this point. We, our communications department, puts out regular updates as to what's being discussed in council, what the resolutions are, what the status is, and so, if you're interested, please head over to the website and I will be able to put a link to the Deerfield implementation plan page in the show notes, so it's pretty easy to find those details. Sarah, is there anywhere where we're documenting the updates on the Highway 9 project?

Speaker 2:

We do plan to create a page, or either a project page or a specific web page that is separate from the GDOT does have a project database, but we plan to tailor one specifically to our project as it gets ready to kick off.

Speaker 1:

Perfect, so we'll keep you guys updated on that. This probably isn't the last time you'll hear Sarah Leaders on here talking about the Highway 9 project. I think this is a great opportunity to keep the information out in the open and be able to answer any questions. So if anybody has questions, feel free to send them over to me and I'll sure to get them to Sarah and maybe we can address that in another episode. But thank you, Sarah, for walking us through these updates. I know our listeners appreciate the transparency and effort that goes into making these projects successful for Milton.

Speaker 2:

We are really looking forward to this project, this unique opportunity, and are just very excited about the future of State Route 9.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, stay tuned. There's more details coming. Before we wrap up, I want to remind you all that the information will all be in our show notes. If you are curious about anything going on in the city, check out our website, check out our social media pages and, of course, don't miss an episode. Be sure you subscribe. We are available on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks again and stay tuned More coming your way. Thanks for listening to Milton in Maine. We hope this episode gave you fresh insights into what makes our city so special. Stay connected and don't miss an episode by subscribing to this podcast on your favorite platform and following us on social media for all updates. And, of course, if you want to learn more about the city, visit us online at wwwmiltongagov for resources, news and upcoming events. Until next time, thanks for being part of the conversation and we'll see you on the next Milton in Maine.