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Big road projects on the list for Bryan County
GDOTseal
Jeff Whitte
Bryan County News
Updated: Aug 20, 2014, 9:00 AM
Published: Aug 20, 2014, 1:35 AM

A draft of the state’s upcoming road projects, including several in Bryan County, is now online and available for public review.
The Georgia Department of Transportation’s Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, or STIP, list is for the 2015 through 2018 fiscal years.
It includes more than $31.8 million in projects in Bryan County — including the much anticipated $12 million interchange at I-95 and Belfast Siding.
Work on the new interchange could start as early as the 2017 calendar, Richmond Hill Mayor Harold Fowler said Tuesday.
The new interchange near the Belfast Commerce Center will make Richmond Hill the only city in Georgia with three interchanges on I-95, Fowler said, noting the interchange will bring in more industry and commercial development while also easing congestion and making it easier for residents in South Bryan to get to I-95 in case an evacuation is necessary.
Georgia hasn’t had a mandatory evacuation since 1999 when Hurricane Floyd threatened the coast before turning north.
But the biggest impact will be economic, proponents have long said, and that includes a boost in sales taxes. Fowler estimated that currently, the two truck stops on I-95 within the city limits generate about $1 million annually in sales taxes.
“It’s substantial,” he said.
About $6.9 million of the interchange’s funding is federal, with another $1.7 million coming from the state. Another $3.3 million is coming from private sources and local governments.
The interchange may be the most high profile project on the draft STIP list, but it’s far from the only one.
Also on the list is the widening of Highway 144 from two to four lanes for a distance of about 5 miles from Timber Trail to the Bryan County Administrative Building at Belfast River Road. Right of way is set to be acquired in 2015, with work slated to begin in fiscal year 2017. The project is expected to cost about $27.4 million, according to DOT.
- Improving the off ramps at the 144 exit off I-95 South is projected to cost about $500,000. No start date was given for the project.
-Work to install rip rap to repair slopes at the Highway 144 Spur and the Ogeechee River is expected to cost about $5.6 million. Work on that project could begin in fiscal year 2017.
- DOT will spend about $415,000 to improve the I-95 interchange at Highway 17. No start date is listed, though all work on the list is slated to begin between the DOT’s fiscal 2015-2018 calendar.
-Various new or improved traffic signals and maintenance is set for 17 in Bryan County and on down to 204 in Chatham County. The cost is about $1 million. No start date has been given for the work.
- Some $700,000 will be spent to rehabilitate the I-95 bridge that crosses the CSX rail line. No start date is given.
- Another $2.2 million is set to resurface Highway 144 on Fort Stewart from Bryan County to Trinity Road in Liberty County, a distance of about 11.6 miles. No start date has been given for that project.
- Resurfacing 144 from I-95 east to 17, a distance of about 3.4 miles. The cost is $1.2 million. No start date given.
- Resurfacing 12.4 miles on Highway 144 from Richmond Hill city limits to Brown Road, at a cost of about $2.4 million. No start date given.

Pembroke’s also got projects on the STIP list.
Among them is the resurfacing of about .69 of a mile from North Poplar Street to Warnell Street at a projected cost of more than $238,000.
Resurfacing some 6.6 miles of Highway 119 from I-16 to Payne Drive is also set to begin at some point between fiscal year 2015 and fiscal year 2018 at a cost projected to be around $1.5 million.
Repairs to the bridges on both sides of I-16 over Black Creek are also scheduled to begin at some point prior to 2018. The cost is an estimated $825,000.

The Georgia DOT District 5 office in Jesup is sponsoring two open house meetings where the public can view the STIP list, see maps, discuss projects with the GDOT and comment.
The first meeting is from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Mall at Waycross, 2215 Memorial Drive.
The second meeting is from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 9 at the Statesboro Regional Library, 124 South Main Street.
The Draft FY 15-18 STIP will also be available on the internet at www.dot.ga.gov/stip . 

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Later yall, its been fun
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Ted O'Neil
Updated: May 23, 2018, 6:03 PM
Published: May 23, 2018, 6:05 PM

This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

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