For quite a while, Doraville’s residents have been waiting for the new Super H-Mart development (next to the GM plant) to com online. Northwoods resident, Rick Dovi, drove out to the site recently and took photos. From the images he took (visible below), it looks like it is almost ready to open. In fact, a few stores in the new shopping center — most notably the Japanese restaurant, “Shoya.”
It’s only a matter of time before Super H-Mart itself opens and gives Kroger and Publix a run for their money.
I haven’t heard or read anything of Buford Highway street lighting for months now, so I don’t know if the matter of removing the old lights, and operating and maintaining (O&M) the new lights, has been resolved (making this an after the fact footnote), or the matters are still dragging along.
I wrote Congressman Johnson’s office in November inquiring about the Buford lighting installed by GDOT a few years ago. I specifically inquired why GDOT did not install lighting that would eliminate the ramshackle old lighting, and why GDOT not conclude an agreement with Doraville to O&M the new lights after installation.
The Congressman’s response was received one half year later (instead of what I expected would be 90 days, for reasons I won’t detail here). It included a letter from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) that advised that new lighting that would eliminate the existing lighting was beyond the scope of the project. (That was no surprise, but it doesn’t mean GDOT could not have or should not have installed such lighting at its expense anyway. I’ll attach an Adobe file image of Congressman Johnson’s response including the FHWA letter to an e-mail to those that request it.). The FHWA letter also stated that GDOT had concluded an agreement with DeKalb County to O&M the lighting. The federal dollars used to construct the project require a commitment to O&M the construction for some minimum period of years.
Based on the FHWA response I suggest that a Doraville a Georgia Open Records request of GDOT and DeKalb County seeking the agreement if the city has not already done so. My expectation is that any such agreement would make DeKalb County responsible to O&M the new lighting for some minimum period of years, and bind DeKalb to do so unless they get another entity [Doraville] to be responsible for O&M. If there’s no GDOT DeKalb agreement, GDOT is responsible for the O&M for some period of years.
I suggest that Doraville secure the services of an Engineer to assess the lighting and make a recommendation concerning the old lighting. Currently there are only lighting guidelines and no objective illumination standard required of roadway lighting. (Think I 85 between the Fulton County line and Spaghetti Junction, 12 lanes, 150,000 vehicles per day, and nary a light). Doraville’s removing the old lighting may involve some risk of litigation, but the risk may be such that it is preferable to the thousands of dollars spent annually on O&M of the old lighting.
PS – I noticed there does not appear to be any more old lights on the west side of Buford Highway between Shallowford Road and I-285, when I seem to recollect there used to be some lights. Perhaps the lighting has been resolved.
