Agreement Covers the New Bridge Design for McDonough Parkway

Henry County approved a supplemental agreement for design services during the March 21 board meeting. The agreement covers the updated bridge design for McDonough Parkway.

The update is in response to comments made by Georgia DOT. The new section of parkway will extend between highways 42 and 155.

McDonough Parkway Bridge Design

The new section of McDonough Parkway, referenced as the north segment by MHF News, will complete the McDonough bypass. When done, motorists will have an alternate route around downtown McDonough. The north segment will run between state route 155 at Turner Church Road and state route 42 at McD. Pkwy.

The project includes a new bridge over state route 155. This bridge will provide better mobility for motorists on the parkway and Turner Church Road to ”fly over” highway 155. A quadrant road will connect down to 155. For anyone familiar with how the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia intersects highways, this will be very similar.

Henry County hired Kimley-Horn engineering firm to be the project engineer in 2010. They completed a final set of plans for the project in 2019. The county also completed right of way acquisition around the same time. In 2021, voters approved the transportation SPLOST ballot question, to include construction funding for the project.

In November 2022, Georgia DOT submitted comments to Henry County seeking changes to the proposed bridge design. This was based on policies adopted by GDOT since 2019 when they approved the final plans. Now, Henry County has approved a supplemental agreement with Kimley-Horn to update the McDonough Parkway bridge design.

Kimley-Horn will update the design based on the state DOT comments. The update will cost the county $56,400. They will also revise the plans following one more additional round of state comments at no additional cost. Any subsequent revisions beyond that would require another agreement.

Once the bridge design plans meet state DOT requirements, then Henry County should receive the state permit to build it. Following the permit, the county will be able to bid out construction for the project.

Featured image shows the concept layout for McDonough Parkway at state route 155. Henry County photo.