Wednesday, April 24, 2013
The light at the busy intersection will be suspended by mast arms.
The Suwanee City Council approved extra funds Tuesday to display a planned traffic signal at a busy intersection on McGinnis Ferry Road. Officials OK'd a maximum of $25,000 to help construct mast arms to display the signal at McGinnis Ferry Road and Scales Road. The intersection has been the focus of much frustration from nearby residents, especially since a double-fatal accident there last November. Gwinnett County officials, who maintain the road, agreed to place a light at the intersection after conducting a study of traffic patterns. The signal is expected to be installed by the summer. The intersection also sits at the crest of a hill, which limits visibility in both directions. And traffic has increased along McGinnis Ferry Road …
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Suwanee officials are considering how to display the coming signal at the busy interesection.
Gwinnett County officials already have the wheels turning toward a new traffic light at a busy Suwanee intersection. Now, Suwanee officials are considering how to display the new light. Suwanee officials are considering spending up to $25,000 for added display features for the light at McGinnis Ferry Road and Scales Road. The improved display would include mast arms and underground utilities. The default display would be to simply hang the light by wires. The extra funds would mean a display similar to the light at some other busy intersections around town, including at Buford Highway-Lawrenceville Suwanee Road. Gwinnett officials, who maintain the road, agreed to install the light after a recent traffic study. The study was undertaken …
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Suwanee News Week takes another look at some top recent stories. Share your favorites.
Click on the links below for more information. WRONG-WAY DRIVER 'SWERVING AND ACCELERATING': The head-on collision that killed two people on McGinnis Ferry Road in Suwanee last November still reverberates. The police investigation reveals some details about the crash. IRS TAX RETURN ERROR: Well-known tax preparer H&R Block, which does business in Suwanee, acknowledged an error that could delay refunds for some 600,000 people. MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC HQ: A massive building on Satellite Boulevard, which is home to many other large businesses in Suwanee, soon will open for Mitsubishi Electric. SUWANEE FORECLOSURES: Suwanee has not been hit as hard by the real estate downturn as some other cities. However, effects are still felt. GWINNETT CHAMBER …
Friday, March 15, 2013
The police report on the November head-on collision says that the phone belonging to the wrong-way driver was not located.
A witness to the November double-fatality, head-on collision on McGinnis Ferry Road in Suwanee told police that the wrong-way vehicle "was swerving and accelerating" shortly before the accident. Another witness said the "vehicle traveling the wrong way did not have any lights on," according to the police investigation. The crash on the evening of November 28 killed both David Dowdy of Bogart and Jean Strickland of Suwanee. Seriously injured was Mike Strickland, Jean Strickland's son, who was driving their vehicle. Lawrenceville Police compiled the report, as they worked with Suwanee Police at the accident scene. As previously reported by Suwanee Patch, the Gwinnett Medical Examiner has ruled that neither of the drivers "showed signs of …
Thursday, February 7, 2013
The Gwinnett medical examiner has received lab results from the November 2012 head-on collision. The police probe is still in the works.
Alcohol and "common drugs of abuse" were not factors in a November 2012 vehicle collision in Suwanee that claimed two lives and injured another person, according to the Gwinnett medical examiner. ME Ted Bailey said in an email that he has received the reports -- with "negative" results -- from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Forensic Sciences division; they were dated late December and early January. David Dowdy, 47, of Bogart and Jean Strickland, 79, of Suwanee were killed in the head-on collision on McGinnis Ferry Road near the intersection with Scales Road. Strickland's son, Mike Strickland, was seriously injured in the November 28 accident. -- What are your thoughts on this accident? On traffic safety at this intersection? Share …
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
McGinnis Ferry Road is called a 'deathtrap.' Share your thoughts.
Public comment again is strong on traffic safety in Suwanee after a head-on vehicle collision last week claimed two lives. "That intersection has been a deathtrap and many of us have (complained)," Suwanee Patch commenter Laura Wade said recently after Jean Strickland of Suwanee and David Dowdy of Bogart were killed November 28 in a collision on McGinnis Ferry Road. The wreck happened at the intersection with Scales Road, between Buford Highway and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard. Similar citizen complaints have been voiced about safety along Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, which regularly has several intersections on police safety "hot sheets." -- What do you think needs to be done to help traffic safety on Suwanee streets? Tell us in the …
Friday, November 30, 2012
A child of one of the people killed was injured and hospitalized Wednesday.
The head-on collision that killed two people Wednesday (November 28) on a major Suwanee street also injured another person. Mike Strickland, who was driving one of the cars in the McGinnis Ferry Road accident, was injured and transported to Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville, according to Suwanee Police. Mike Strickland's condition is not currently known. Gwinnett Medical Center officials could not be reached for comment Friday. Mike Strickland's mother, Jean Strickland, was a passenger in the Mercedes driven by her son. She died as a result of the collision. Also killed was David Dowdy, 47, of Bogart, Ga., who was driving the other vehicle. The collision happened about 6 p.m. near the intersection with Scales Road, not far from …
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Suwanee Police, Gwinnett Fire and Emergency officials respond Sunday on McGinnis Ferry Road.
Updated Oct. 24, 2011 A motorcyclist was injured Sunday morning when he and a car driven by a Suwanee resident collided. Gwinnett Fire/Emergency Services and Suwanee Police responded quickly to the accident, which happened about 8 a.m. The motorcyclist, whose residence was listed as Talking Rock (Pickens County), Ga., was transported to Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville with lacerations to the head and face, according to Suwanee Police records. The accident happened in the 4000 block of McGinnis Ferry Road, between the AMLI apartments and the Landmark apartments (formerly Colonial Grand). The driver of the Honda Odyssey van was turning left out of the AMLI apartments to head east on McGinnis Ferry and "did not see" the motorcycle …
34.044743
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4000 McGinnis Ferry Rd, Suwanee, GA
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Friday, October 7, 2011
Recent completion of the bridge over I-85 means the name formally will convert to McGinnis Ferry Road in the area.
Some recent progress in Suwanee also means a bit of history will be erased. Gwinnett County officials confirmed Thursday that the new stretch of road and bridge that extends over I-85 from Satellite Boulevard to Old Peachtree Road formally will be renamed. It now is known as Burnette Road, but will become McGinnis Ferry Road. Spokesperson Heather Sawyer said that county Planning and Development officials have been mailing letters to property owners in the area to inform them of the change; the county Department of Transportation also has been working on this project. It is not known when the name change will become official. Since the street is in an unincorporated area, Gwinnett County is the naming authority. Burnette Road is named after…
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Gwinnett, city and state officials turn out Tuesday for the formal dedication of the bypass and bridge over I-85.
Josh Clark looked down the new McGinnis Ferry Road bridge over I-85 on Tuesday in Suwanee and remembered a different scene. "I used to live down there ... an old farmhouse on the right," said Clark, now a Buford resident who also is a member of the Georgia Legislature representing part of Suwanee. Clark and several other city, county and state officials turned out for the formal dedication of the McGinnis Ferry Road project, which includes a four-lane bridge over I-85. The ceremony at Celebration Drive, formerly Gwinco Boulevard, included a ribbon-cutting with all five Gwinnett County Commissioners. The bridge opened to traffic in August. The 1.6-mile road extension connects Satellite Boulevard to Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road and provides a …
William Combs
6:42 pm on Tuesday, December 4, 2012
I have been pushing for a reduction of speed limit to 45 on PIB at McGinnis Ferry, Moore Road and Sewanee-Dam Road. The limit on PIB starts out from I-285 at 55 mph on the limited access section, drops to 45 through Duluth, then jumps to 55. That was OK when there was limited development around McGinnis and beyond, but in the last 10 years that has changed. There is much more development in that … more ›