Walton Way closure set for Monday

In the past few days, Steve Black has been handing out detour maps to patients at the Georgia Radiation Therapy Center on St. Sebastian Way.

Dr. Black, the administrative director for the MCGHealth Oncology Center of Excellence, is hoping for the best Monday as workers close part of Walton Way for nearly four months.

"It's going to affect the patients because when they get radiation therapy, they come every day for approximately six to seven weeks," he said. "Any disruption in the normal route they take to the center can be a little stressful."

The estimated 25,000 vehicles that drive daily through this portion of Walton Way will now be detoured along several routes, taking motorists through downtown Augusta on some other roads that are also under construction.

St. Sebastian Way Extension, planned as a fusion of existing downtown thoroughfares and new flyover ramps, will move traffic from River Watch Parkway to the city's medical centers -- while avoiding downtown railroad tracks and stop lights. As part of the $21 million project, work crews must realign the intersection of Walton Way and St. Sebastian Way to meet with the new roadway and install utility lines.

All of this was scheduled to take place just before the July 2010 project completion deadline, but plans were changed after the officials missed a crucial deadline for the construction of the new St. Sebastian bridge over the Augusta Canal, said Mike Keene, the area engineer for the Georgia Department of Transportation.

The team had to redesign the structure to meet federal regulatory standards and in doing so, they pushed the bridge construction date into the summer. But construction in the summer is out of the question because Georgia Power will not allow the relocation of several power lines in the area -- necessary in order to lay the massive steel beams for the bridge -- during the peak power usage of the summer months.

"They can't be without those lines due to the volume of electricity they have to run," Mr. Keene said. "So what we had to do is kind of swap up the staging so we build some of the last part now."

This means a planned closure of 15th Street from Greene to Broad streets -- which was to happen earlier -- is likely to occur this year or early next year, he said.

Meanwhile, Steve Cassell, the traffic engineer for Richmond County, said his office has been scrambling to map out a detour plan that accommodates the nearby residents of Peabody Apartments, bus riders and medical complex workers.

"We'll just give it a few days to shake out the kinks and we'll go from there," he said.

Reach Adam Folk at (706) 823-3339 or adam.folk@augustachronicle.com.