Gates at I-16 exit ramps installed to aid hurricane evacuations

Posted 8:12AM on Friday 5th July 2002 ( 22 years ago )

SAVANNAH - The orange and white striped gates, resembling a pair of football goal posts standing 20-feet high, look like they were made to stop traffic at a railroad crossing. But there aren't any train tracks to cross at the 26 exits along Interstate 16 where the control gates have cropped up since May. The gates are there to control traffic during a hurricane evacuation. The state Department of Transportation calls them ``drop-gate barricades'' and has installed the gates at most I-16 exits along the 115-mile stretch west from Savannah to Dublin. The gates are part of Georgia's latest attempt to iron out the kinks in its evacuation plan since Hurricane Floyd threatened the coast in 1999 and I-16 became a one-way escape route. ``The biggest thing this does is free up state troopers and law enforcement officers who had to stand at the top of these ramps and keep people from getting on,'' said DOT spokesman Brent Brantley. Floyd prompted the largest peacetime evacuation in the nation's history, and I-16 bore the brunt of 2.5 million people fleeing the coast from Georgia, Florida and South Carolina. Officials turned I-16 into a one-way road, essentially doubling its capacity by allowing evacuees to flee west using the eastbound lanes. Still, the interstate became a giant traffic jam, requiring 600 law enforcement officers to keep cars moving in the right direction while blocking the eastbound entrance ramps. Rural sheriff's departments sent deputies to help watch interstate ramps blocked with barrels and bulldozers, leaving them with less manpower to control gridlock that spilled over into their cities and towns. The small city of Swainsboro found itself overwhelmed with evacuees who were seeking shelter or seeking an alternate route to the interstate gridlock. On Highway 80, cars backed up 11 miles to the town of Twin City. ``It was so bad the mayor himself got out and started directing traffic,'' said Chief Deputy Henry Curl of the Emanuel County Sheriff's Department. ``I've been with the sheriff's department 18 years and never seen so many people in our town.'' State officials have made other changes to the evacuation plan since 1999. Additional highways have been designated as evacuation routes to lessen the burden on I-16, more shelters are planned and radio updates will be available in rural areas that were out of range three years ago, said Gary McConnell, director of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. ``Hopefully we'll have better traffic flow and faster and more accessible information to the public,'' McConnell said. ``Any evacuation is going to be nerve-racking. It's going to be time-consuming and it's not a family vacation.'' No major hurricane has made landfall along Georgia's 100 miles of coast since 1898, and Floyd's emergence three years ago was the state's last close call. But the nation is only one month into the 2002 hurricane season, which runs through November. The new control gates are not controlled electronically, meaning DOT workers would have to open and close them with a hand crank. McConnell said there were no major problems in 1999 with motorists trying to head east on I-16 when all lanes were routed westbound, though Curl in Emmanuel County said several drivers there tried to bypass the eastbound barricades. ``To be honest, some folks are going to try it with those crossing gates down. I'm afraid some people are gonna try to use the emergency lanes and truck on down,'' Curl said. ``But I think these crossing arms are really going to make a difference,'' he said. ``It's basically just going to say: you get on at you're own risk.''

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/7/192791