The U.S. 411 Connector project remains on track, Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Vance Smith told members of the Rome Rotary Club on Thursday.

“There’s been a plan there for some time, and we’re moving forward,” he said.

A public hearing is scheduled for March 18 to take comments on some slight modifications sought by the Federal Highway Administration. The open house-style event will run from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Cartersville Civic Center, 435 W. Main St.

The changes are at the eastern end, where the new road will link to Interstate 75 at Ga. 20. Smith said the proposed route through Bartow County would be unchanged from its starting point at the U.S. 411/U.S. 41 interchange.

Smith also rejected recent charges that the Connector signals an attempt to revive the controversial Northern Arc link between I-75 and I-85.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel and Jeff Anderson, founder of the Northern Arc Task Force, called Wednesday for the Connector to be realigned farther north — away from the Ga. 20 path once proposed for the Arc.

“I don’t use the term ‘Northern Arc.’ I always say ‘East-West Connector,’” Smith said. “But that was before my time. The 411 Connector is just an individual job we’re trying to get done for the people of Rome.”

Smith was accompanied at Rotary by several top staffers, including GDOT Planning Director Todd Long, who is charged with drawing up a statewide transportation priority plan.

In response to a question from the audience about deepening state budget cuts, Smith said every GDOT employee is taking one unpaid furlough day a month.

The department has absorbed cuts so far, Smith said, but the legislature is working on a new round that “is not going to be pretty.”

“At some point we’re not going to be able to deliver services,” Smith said.

Smith said it costs $10 million to $11 million to mow every state right of way, so the GDOT mowed only once last year — despite complaints from the public.

Mary Hardin Thornton, director of Keep Rome-Floyd Beautiful, drew a smile from him after the meeting when she said natural medians with wildflowers are preferable to close-cropped strips.