POOLER, Ga. (WSAV)—The city of Pooler held a public hearing on Thursday to detail the Pine Barren/Pooler Parkway intersection improvement project.
News 3 spoke with Rhodes Hunt, the lead design engineer of the project.
“The improvements consist of signal timing upgrades as well as additional capacity improvements,” Hunt said. “So, we'll be building several turn lanes, primarily on Pine Barren [Road], to help with some of the traffic needs that are here today and coming. We're also building a bike path.”
During the hearing, neighbors said Pine Barren Road could see heavy bumper-to-bumper traffic, especially during peak times. Hunt said this $4M construction project aims to enhance traffic flow and safety.
“It's a two-lane roadway today,” he said. “So essentially, it's just one lane in each direction. So, if you're trying to turn left, you are turning the same way as folks who are trying to get through.”
He added that the city is looking to eventually expand Pine Barren to five lanes: two left turn lanes, two through lanes and a right turn lane. However, as an interim improvement, the road will initially have three lanes: one for left turns, one for through traffic and one for right turns.
“We're building the pavement, the curb, gutter and the drainage out to that five-lane section,” said Hunt. “But in the interim, we’re striping it to only be three lanes, because the key is we don't want to build more than is needed in the short term to help improve operations along Pooler Parkway, specifically with left turn lanes, one turn lane versus two. It requires a little bit different signal timing that takes away some of the capacity on Pooler Parkway. So, we're trying to hold off as long as we can before we do that.”
We’re told Pooler residents could start to see shovels in the ground as early as next summer and possibly have a completion date of 2026.
“There's a lot more intentionality and I would say consideration being made for traffic needs than really ever before in the city's history, which is really cool and also really exciting,” Hunt explained. “The bike and pedestrian facilities on this project really will connect this new development all the way to the school system eventually, which will be really cool and I’m excited for that.”