2023 is going to be a busy year for the Georgia Department of Transportation with a number of projects planned and in the works across North Georgia.
District Engineer Kelvin Mullins, who oversees the 21 Northeast Georgia counties that make up GDOT District 1, said those include widening on I-85 in Jackson and Banks counties, safety improvements including a new overpass on Highway 365 at Lanier Tech and several R-cut intersection safety upgrades, and installation of a median along Highway 441 through Banks Crossing.
Additionally, two roundabouts are planned in Habersham County, and another could be coming to the intersection of Long Branch Road and Highway 52 in Lumpkin County, but that’s not certain yet.
Mullins says work on Interstate 85 in Jackson and Banks counties tops the list of projects in both scope and price, but also should yield the largest travel improvements.
“There's two of the biggest projects in our district right now,” Mullins said. “And they're both on 85 back to back there. And they're both in construction right now. The first project has been started a while back. It's on 85 from State Route 53. And it goes up to State Route 11 / U.S. 129. So, both of these projects are going to be adding an additional travel lane each direction widening towards the median. Both the projects involve some bridge replacements and bridge widening and that kind of thing, but that project is $112 million. So, it's a big project. It should be completed next summer. And then the next project picks up right where that one left off with a different contractor. It starts at State Route 11 and goes up to State Route 15 / U.S. 441. That's a $165-million project with the same kind of thing: bridges, widening, widening to the median, but it's going to be great getting that extra travel lane in each direction on I-85.”
I-85 has seen increased traffic and accidents in recent years as it is a major connector from Atlanta to states to Georgia’s north.
Eventually, GDOT wants to see the additional lanes stretch beyond U.S. 441 all the way to the South Carolina line.
“There are plans, yes, to go up all the way to widen,” Mullins said. “We're discussing that. It’s really a funding issue and a timing issue. I think it's definitely going to be a priority, but I don't really have a timeline on that yet. There's a lot of traffic, a lot of truck traffic, especially with our growing port down in Savannah and getting traffic and trucks through our state into the northern states. 85 is definitely a major corridor to get goods and services through our state.”
One of the biggest changes coming to the Highway 365 corridor will occur between Jesse Jewell Parkway and the planned inland port, at the intersection that serves Lanier Technical College and the J.A. Walters Family YMCA, and includes a planned overpass.
“It is another very busy corridor,” Mullins said. “We have the inland port coming up there, right in that area between 985 and 365. One of the projects we're doing up there is right at the YMCA and Lanier Tech is to get rid of that signal. That'll be the first signal as you pass 985 and will be really close to the inland port. So, we have that project that we're in design now to remove that signal and kind of bridge that location so that there's not a signal there. That's a couple years down the road, but we're working on that one.”
Highway 365 already has a lot of traffic, with that likely to increase once the planned inland port south of Lula begins operations.
“On up 365 is a very busy corridor,” Mullins said. “There's a lot of traffic signals, there's a lot of non-signalized intersections, and we have looked at a lot of those intersections going up 365 all the way to Habersham. We actually have a couple that are under contract now that should get started after the first of the year. 365 and Mud Creek, that's in Hall County, and then 365 and Crane Mill are under contract. Those are to do what we call an R-cut, so basically a restricted crossing. If you're familiar with Jaemor Farms, you know that used to have an open median. It's very difficult in a high-speed corridor to make that left turn. You’ve got all the traffic coming to you, kind of looking both ways and people turning every direction and it's very difficult to make that maneuver. What an R-cut does – and it's not an expensive project – is comes in and puts an almost an S-shaped concrete island in the median there. It allows you still to make a left into where Jaemor is, but you just can't turn left out, so you're forced to make a right turn, go down and make a U-turn if you want to go left.”
Some people want every intersection along the busy corridor to have a traffic signal or a full interchange with ramps and a bridge, but not every intersection along Highway 365 meets the warrants for a traffic signal, nor is that a practical solution for moving traffic efficiently.
For that reason, engineers are looking at other ways to make the busy corridor safer, such as the planned R-cuts that restrict intersections and force right turns.
“That's a much safer maneuver,” Mullins said. “It's not real popular at first, because people think it's going to take a lot more time, but actually we found that it speeds it up because you don't have to sit and wait for somebody that's trying to turn left. Everybody can get out, turn right pretty quickly, so we're going to do that at Mud Creek and Crane Mill. Those are in the works.”
Additional R-cuts may be coming between the Hall County line and Baldwin in the next year as well.
“We've done some safety studies at Mount Zion, Yonah-Post Road and Alto-Mud Creek Road also and they've recommended the same thing at those locations,” Mullins said. Now on those we do want to coordinate with the locals with Habersham County, make sure that's something that everybody is in agreement on before we move forward. We’ve got to go through that process. But once we do, I think this is something we could probably get those three designed and in construction next year also and it'd be a big safety benefit for the corridor.”
Mullins said the cost of an R-cut is almost microscopic compared to an interchange that can cost up to 100 times more and the intersection modifications are proven to produce safer travel by forcing vehicles to turn right and U-turn later.
“Interchanges can be upwards of $15 to $20 million – depending on what you're trying to do, $30 to $40 million," he said. "These R-cuts are really just some striping and a little concrete. We do these under $200,000 typically. So, we'll do that and then we'll also build a U-turn movement that is big enough for trucks to make a U-turn and buses and things like that. And there definitely is a huge safety benefit and that’s under $200,000 also.”
In Banks Crossing, where U.S. 441 and I-85 meet, increasing traffic and wrecks are resulting in planned changes for the 441 corridor from Faulkner Road on the north down past Walmart on the south. Those changes will come in the form of a median that will require drivers to make right turns except at specific locations and also will include the realignment of Steven B. Tanger Boulevard to come out at the current Faulkner Road farther north.
“We're expecting probably construction will start after the first of the year,” Mullins said. “It's a median project. It’s basically like the R-cuts we were just talking about, so it prevents all of those left turns that are going on with all that traffic. It controls those turns. It'll be a big safety improvement for the area and help traffic flow better through the area.”
Mullins said he understands many people do not like medians and the like, but said they are important as the area grows.
“It's not popular up front, but it's something that as you grow and you get into busier locations, we have those all over the district – especially in Gainesville and Hall and Forsyth,” Mullins said. “As an area grows like that, that's one way of controlling the traffic so you don't have so many left turns and it's a big safety improvement for the area. We’re going to be realigning Steven B. Tanger to come out with Faulkner Road. There’s a lot of work in that project.”
GDOT also is working on some final right-of-way purchases for the U.S. 441 widening in Rabun County
“That one’s coming too, late next year,” Mullins said. “It’s been around for a long time. We’re making a lot of progress. We’re getting really close. We’ll be ready to go to construction hopefully toward the end of next year.”
Additionally, two projects for the widening of Highway 515 around Young Harris in Towns and Union counties will be let in 2023.
Mullins said the bottom line is traffic is increasing everywhere across the district.
“There’s a lot of traffic everywhere,” Mullins said. “It seems like the traffic is moving even farther north as you get up the 400 corridor. As you get into Dawson [County], the growth is incredible going up to Lumpkin and White and over to Habersham.”
