Road alert: Columbus widening project making lane shift that could delay motorists
Motorists traveling the north Veterans Parkway construction zone that has been part of a widening project launched in 2014 on the north side of Columbus face yet another twist and turn.
The Georgia Department of Transportation cautioned Tuesday that those frequenting the area between Old Moon Road and Hancock Road on Veterans Parkway, or U.S. Hwy. 27, on Wednesday should “expect delays, exercise caution, and reduce their speed while traveling through” the area.
Penny Brooks, communications officer with GDOT’s District 3, which oversees roadwork in the Columbus area, said via email that lane shifts from Old Moon Road north to Hancock Road will take place starting at 9 a.m. Wednesday, with the work expected to be completed sometime by the middle of the afternoon. The lanes are being “moved back into their original configuration,” she said.
The lanes were long ago shifted as part of a $14.2 million project to widen a heavily-trafficked area of Veterans Parkway north of the intersection of Williams and Moon roads. This spring, GDOT said the project would be completed by late summer after paving was completed.
Columbus-based McMath-Turner Construction is the general contractor for the project, which received notice from the transportation department to proceed in October 2014. The company also was the primary contractor on the widening of Whittlesey Road between Whitesville Road and Veterans Parkway, a project that began in 2012, but also shot past its original timeline, eventually being fully completed in early 2017.
The north Veterans Parkway construction zone includes three schools — Northside High, Veterans Memorial Middle and North Columbus Elementary — as well as an increasing amount of residential housing to include apartment complexes. Some residents of Harris County also travel along the parkway each day for work or shopping, with the entire mix of uses creating traffic congestion in the mornings and late afternoons.
Two other major projects in Columbus that are now moving toward the construction phase can be found on Buena Vista Road on the city’s south side. One would include building a bridge over railroad tracks and smoothing the flow of traffic in an area near where Buena Vista intersects with St. Marys Road. The other would construct a new interchange where Buena Vista Road connects with Interstate 185.
This story was originally published October 16, 2018 at 4:43 PM.