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.