Close to 100 people showed up at a town hall meeting in Gwinnett County Thursday night to voice their concerns over the new I-85 HOT lanes.  The crowd first listened patiently to the only two state lawmakers who attended, Sen. Renee Unterman (R-Buford) and Sen. Curt Thompson (D-Tucker).

“I’m not an engineer, but I do know if I walk on the Jimmy Carter bridge and look out, you can’t tell me that that’s working,” says Thompson.

Unterman complained her own questions have not been fully answered by officials with the Georgia Department of Transportation or the State Road and Tollway Authority.  Representatives from both agencies as well as the governor’s office were invited to attend the meeting, but none came.

“When do you say ‘yes it’s a failure or no it’s not a failure’… everyone tells me to sit back and wait, but it’s very difficult for me to sit back and wait when I get the emails and the phone calls,” she says.

Thompson says the federal government could grant a waiver to halt the project, but neither he nor Unterman had much hope anything could be done until the two-year trial period is up.

Howard Rodgers, one of the founders of Stolenlanes.org which sponsored the meeting, says the group will not give up its fight.

“We’re in this for the long haul and if it takes two years to get the governor’s attention to make it go away, then two years from now I’ll be standing here happy that it’s gone,” he says.