Drivers can breathe a sigh of relief this weekend.
Crews plan to reopen the westbound Washington Road ramp to Interstate 20 westbound Saturday, alleviating a confusing road closure that has frustrated motorists and sheriff's deputies alike.
For the past two years, drivers such as Glenne Simpson have had three choices for getting on Interstate 20 if they were leaving town on Washington Road. They could take the mile-long detour to River Watch Parkway. They could turn around in the parking lot of the nearby Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks to use the other ramp. Or, like many drivers, they could make a quick, illegal U-turn onto eastbound Washington Road to the I-20 ramp.
Ms. Simpson admits she would often do the latter.
"I'm ecstatic," said Ms. Simpson, who lives on East Vineland Road off of Washington Road. "I'm ready for it to open."
The ramp was closed as crews began work on the expansion of I-20 in fall 2007, said Mike Keene, area engineer for the Georgia Department of Transportation. The expansion of the bridge over Washington Road and the closure of a lane below made it impossible to keep the on-ramp open, he said.
"We had to build columns for the bridge, so we had to scrunch everything down to do the work, and that didn't leave us any way to get on and off of that ramp," Mr. Keene said.
When it reopens, Mr. Keene said, driver's won't notice much difference from 2007.
"It will be exactly the same," he said. "It was a fairly new ramp, so we just redid the bridge up top."
But drivers weren't the only ones glad to see the closure go. Lt. Scott Gay of the Richmond County Sheriff's Office said deputies are relieved the crews are moving on. The Sheriff's Office began ticketing drivers making the left turns once the ramp closed.
"We feel extremely excited that it's reopening because not only will it relieve some of the construction, but out-of-town folks will have easier access to I-20," Lt. Gay said.
Mr. Keene said they hope to have traffic on I-20 shifted into its final configuration within the next month, depending on the weather. Work on I-20 is on schedule to be completed Oct. 31.
Reach Adam Folk at (706) 823-3338 or adam.folk@augustachronicle.com.
Comments
Thank you Lord. Will miss driving bye and seeing 15 employees standing around watching 2 guys do some work every now and then while at the same time having lanes closed during peak hours with absolutely no one doing anything. Our tax dollars at work - lol.
It is about time. It took them long enough to do shoddy, confusing work where none was needed and none was wanted. Do we really need to look like Atlanta?
Another example of Gubment work.
My favorite traffic project is the downtown boondoggle..express road to the medical complex from Rivertrash Parkway. Was supposed to expedite traffic and overpass RR tracks. Just saw the brand new RR crossing with shiny new crossing arms to stop the traffic. Plus the traffic crosses all the major roads in the downtown area with stops there, too. Wow what a planning job this was!!
This town is big enough to have competent traffic engineering.
Good to see nobody's bitter this morning.
I just love all the gorgeous BLACK painted lines DOT placed on the new surfaces. They look marvelous and really help me know what lane to be in! (F-ING IDIOTS!)
Great job DOT all good things take time.
The Empire State Building was constructed in 14 months.
We do not have real traffic engineers, that is obvious. In most of the CSRA the lights are set up so that if you hit one red light you hit them all. Then they keep doing these crazy road projects all at once to tie up traffic.
That ramp was open tonight.
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