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Roundabout at 144, Belfast River set for July
Roundabout FHWA
A sample of a roundabout like the one slated for Highway 144 and Belfast River Road.

A roundabout on Highway 144 where it intersects with Belfast River road is set to be completed by July, Bryan County Administrator Ben Taylor told county commissioners Tuesday night.

“I can’t reiterate the fact enough, this is a small miracle as far as (the Georgia Department of Transportation) is concerned, moving this fast on a project,” Taylor said.

The roundabout was rumored for months to be in the works, and a DOT spokesperson earlier confirmed it was being discussed, but there was no confirmation until Tuesday night’s county commission meeting in Pembroke.

The intersection where the roundabout will be constructed is in a congested area of 144 that includes both the South Bryan County Administrative Complex, Henderson Park and the growing Buckhead East neighborhood. Adding to the traffic will be McAllister Elementary, which is being built on land between the park and Buckhead East.

Belfast River Road, meanwhile, includes traffic from a number of nearby subdivisions and Richmond Hill Middle School. The roundabout will “help relieve traffic congestion (at the intersection”,” Taylor said.

“And it will “take a deputy off the road, or two,” Commissioner Steve Myers said.

“And it will slow down traffic,” commissioner Carter Infinger noted.

No cost for the project was available Tuesday, but the roundabout is apparently part of the overall widening of Highway 144 that has been estimated at $18 million. That project is now set to begin in either 2018 or 2019, Taylor told commissioners, and the roundabout will be in phases, with the first being replaced by a larger one.

Roundabouts are apparently gaining in popularity in Georgia because they reportedly allow traffic to keep moving without the need for traffic lights. But they can be confusing to drivers not used to them.

“As somebody said to me, ‘Are you going to put something in the middle of it to keep people from driving straight through it?’” County Commission Chairman Jimmy Burnsed said. “I hope they put up reflectors, a sign, something.”

Burnsed credited retired DOT engineer Glenn Durrence for helping make the roundabout a reality. 

“This wouldn’t have happened without his help,” Burnsed said. “I’m going to write him a letter thanking him.”

Ultimately, 144 is set to be widened from Timber Trail Road to Belfast River Road. That project has been in the works for more than a decade, and in 2006 the DOT estimated work on the widening would start in 2010.

 

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Later yall, its been fun
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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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