Open house about Windy Hill Road/Cobb Parkway redesign March 16

A front end loader scraping pavement

The Cobb Department of Transportation (Cobb DOT) will have an open house about the options for improving traffic at the intersection of Windy Hill Road and Cobb Parkway on March 16, 2022, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Windy Hill Community Center, Legacy Hall, 1885 Roswell Street, Smyrna, GA 30080.

Cobb DOT staff will be on hand to describe the possible redesign and take questions from the public.

The Cobb DOT’s website describes the project as follows:

The Cobb Parkway (US41/SR 3) at Windy Hill Road Grade Separation Scoping Study will explore alternatives to improve traffic operation and safety at this heavily travelled intersection. Alternatives will be considered to grade separate Cobb Parkway and Windy Hill Road to eliminate some of the vehicle conflicts that are strangling the operation of this critical intersection. Grade separation involves aligning the roadways at different heights to reduce disruption of traffic flow when they cross each other. Other alternatives that do not physically grade separate the two roads will also be considered.

Each alternative will be appraised by a variety of factors including safety, traffic operation, cost, right-of-way (ROW), accessibility to adjacent commercial development, bicycle and pedestrian movements, constructability, and aesthetics. Stakeholder and public involvement will play a key role in identifying issues, developing potential solutions and evaluating alternatives, and as such will include a variety of outreach tools and techniques to connect and engage. The process will result in a recommended alternative for future further study.

The Cobb Parkway at Windy Hill Road intersection has long been recognized as a major source of congestion and travel delay, both locally and regionally. The project to grade separate the intersection is identified in the 2015 Cobb County Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP) and included in the 2016 and 2022 Cobb County SPLOST. Additionally, it is an approved roadway project in the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP), which allocates federal funds for the highest-priority projects in the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). This scoping study is the first step in the process to identify the appropriate improvements and determine their feasibility for this complex project.