Interstate Expansions Could Uproot Residents

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Residents in the Pleasant Hill Community could be uprooted from their homes to make room for highway expansions. The Georgia Department of Transportation was supposed to keep the community informed about the plans but one local leader says residents haven’t heard a thing.

I-75 runs right through the Pleasant Hill community. Fifty years ago the highway split the neighborhood in half. There are now plans in the works to make the interstate even bigger and it will affect homes closet to the road.

“There was promises made that they would not do this again, that GDOT would take into consideration all of the interest and all of the concerns of the neighborhood,” Macon City Councilman Rick Hutto said.

Close to 30 homes could be uprooted and relocated. Hutto says GDOT was supposed to keep the community informed, but he says that hasn’t happened.

“We were assured by GDOT that they would have all these consultants to have these meetings in the neighborhood to keep them abreast,” he said. “They haven’t been told anything.”

GDOT officials say they are reaching out to residents so they can start inspecting these homes. They will figure out which one will make the move and which ones GDOT will try to purchase.

“In this mitigation process, we have estimated cost at around 10 million dollars and that allows our engineers to go in and look at the stability of the homes, decide which ones can be moved if they can be,” Kimberly Larson with GDOT said.

But Hutto says GDOT won’t help with the repairs afterwards.

“What they said was if we decide to take your house then at the time we will fix all that but in the meantime, for the next three to four years you’re just going to have to live there even with those holes, even with boards pulled up, even with carpets pulled up,” he said.

GDOT officials say it will also pay for temporary housing and all the expenses involved in moving the homes to a new location. Over the next few weeks they’re setting up meetings with the residents and hope to have a plan by 2013.