Once a Haven for Speed Demons, Chamblee Tucker Road Gets a Makeover
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result. For years, Chamblee Tucker Road has been the site of excessive speeding, as well as some dangerous, and occasionally deadly, automobile accidents. But nothing was ever done to help curb those problems; the insanity just continued.
The City of Tucker in recent years prioritized Chamblee Tucker Road, looking at various safety measures and strategies that could be employed to change driver behavior. Leaders consulted transportation experts to do a deep dive on various strategies that could solve the problem.
“There is never any one-size-fits all approach to deal with the issues we were facing on a street like Chamblee Tucker,” said Tucker City Engineer Ken Hildebrandt. “We knew we needed to think outside the box a bit to customize a solution that would make a difference on Chamblee Tucker.”
“Having driven the corridor for decades, there was no question that something had to be done,” explained Michelle Penkava, who served on Tucker’s City Council representing District Three from 2016 until leaving office at the end of 2021. “I represented that area, and I would hear from constituents all the time about speeding along Chamblee Tucker. My kids went to school at Livsey Elementary, so I saw it every day with my own eyes. It was dangerous at times, and we now have the quantitative data to prove it.”
The four-lane road, which runs from Tucker’s northernmost boundary at the intersection with Tucker Norcross Road all the way to the intersection with Lavista and Fellowship Roads by Tucker High School, is now about to get a massive facelift, which aims to solve some of those longstanding safety problems. Last year, Penkava and Anne Lerner, who is in her second term representing District
Three on the City Council, backed a plan to reduce the number of lanes on Chamblee Tucker from four to three, essentially creating a road diet with the intent to create a safer route for all forms of transportation and pedestrians. Chamblee Tucker will have one lane travelling in each direction with a center turning lane. Flashing pedestrian beacons will be installed at seven locations, as well as raised islands for additional safety.
“Chamblee Tucker’s current configuration has led to many accidents – a great number of them associated with impatient drivers trying to avoid slowing down or stopping for turning drivers," said Penkava. “The center turn lane with intermittent curbed islands will greatly reduce this key factor in accidents. In fact, DeKalb County studied Chamblee Tucker well before Tucker became a city and came to a similar conclusion, but never implemented a plan.”
The new traffic pattern and traffic features will take some getting used to, Hildebrandt acknowledged. To that end, the City’s contractor will be putting out orange traffic barrels to mark off the new pattern giving drivers the chance to experience the changes before construction starts later this spring. The $ 2.2 million project will include a repaving and restriping of the roadway and is expected to be completed later this year.
Change is hard, so the City asks for your patience as it provides improvements that the surrounding community has sought for many years. And that may just break the cycle of insanity on one of Tucker’s busiest roads.
