JEKYLL ISLAND — One of the main transportation arteries in the Coastal Empire is scheduled to be unclogged within a few years.
During the 2019 Community Retreat at the Jekyll Island Club on Friday, Georgia Department of Transportation District Engineer Robert McCall said construction on the 16@95 Improvement Projects will start in December or January 2020. Completion of the projects is expected in the second quarter of 2022 at a total of $260,520,016.
Nineteen miles of lanes will be added within the 9.5 mile length of the projects on I-16 and I-95. In addition, 13 bridges will be replaced or rehabilitated.
The main enhancement will be the restructuring of the I-16/I-95 interchange. The loop ramps on the west side of I-95 (I-95 South to I-16 East and I-16 West to I-95 South) will be replaced with turbine configured ramps. Also, the existing I-95 North to I-16 West loop ramp will be improved to accommodate the proposed barrier-separated I-95 northbound collector-distributor lane to support the entering and exiting traffic from I-16.
The I-16 corridor widening will modify the existing median-divided, four-lane mainline section to a six-lane, barrier-separated section (approximately one mile west of I-95 to east of I-516) and require the replacement and structural modifications of multiple bridges, upgrade of various roadway appurtenances, construction of noise barriers and the installation of Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) infrastructure along I-16 and I-95.
ITS advances transportation safety and mobility, and enhances productivity by integrating advanced communications technologies into transportation infrastructure and into vehicles. It encompasses a broad range of wireless and traditional communications-based information and electronic technologies.
McCall also addressed the Effingham Parkway, a project he described as “a game changer.”
“I haven’t heard anyone comment about four-laning it but going ahead and starting to plan for it wouldn’t be a bad idea,” he said.
Effingham Parkway will be a north-south roadway designed to ease congestion on Ga. Hwy 21, the only four-lane north-south classified arterial of Effingham County that provides direct access to I-95. The need for such a route was identified in the Comprehensive Growth Management Plan for Effingham County (1998).
The General Assembly appropriated $44 million for the county-sponsored project, set to be let in January 2021. The final design, environmental work and right-of-way purchases are ongoing.
McCall said environmental work and the final design are underway for the Ga, Hwy 119 bridge replacement at the Ogeechee River. It is expected to cost $13 million and take about four years to finish.
The intersection of Ga. Hwy 17 and Blue Jay Road will get a new roundabout in 2021, McCall said. The estimated cost is $2 million.
“Y’all know we put a temporary roundabout there in July 2018 because there were such issues there. I think it has worked fine but it is kind of tight,” McCall said. “We had to build it on a postage stamp because we couldn’t get right of way.”
McCall asked the audience what it thought about the Rincon-Stillwell Road roundabout that opened May 23. He got a positive response.
“That’s always good to hear,” he said.
Roundabouts have demonstrated substantial safety and operational benefits compared to other forms of intersection control, with reductions in fatal and injury crashes.
McCall issued an update on the GDOT project on Old River Road. In 2018, the Georgia General Assembly approved about $8 million for 0.8 miles of widening and reconstruction for additional lanes near I-16.
“We are hoping this will be completed in 2020,” he said.
Additionally, funding for this project includes construction of a bridge and approaches over I‐16/Ga. Hwy 404.
McCall noted that Ga. Hwy 21 was recently resurfaced from Ga. Hwy 30 to Long St. in Rincon at a cost of $3.7 million.
Resurfacing is also planned in 2020 on Ga. Hwy 275 from Hwy 21 to a dead end and on Hwy 21 from the Jacks Creek Bridge in Springfield to Shawnee. The cost of each project is expected to top $3 million.
