The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has decided to create four more roundabouts when it widens Highway 44 (Lake Oconee Parkway) in Putnam and Greene counties. The four would be in addition to the previously announced roundabout at Linger Longer Road near Publix.
All five would be in a 4.5-mile stretch of the road from Carey Station Road in Greene County to Harmony/Old Phoenix Road in Putnam County.
Roundabouts replace traffic lights and force drivers at intersections to continue driving counterclockwise in a circle until they exit to the right in whatever direction they are heading.
The decision appears to be a concession to the group SaveMy44 which urged GDOT to use more roundabouts, saying they “greatly improve safety, minimize delays and alleviate congestion.” The group also pushed for three lanes, with a center turn lane, instead of widening to four lanes.
“Through continued public communications and outreach with public officials,” reads a statement on the GDOT webpage for the Highway 44 widening project, “the Department reevaluated four additional intersections … As a result, roundabouts are currently being designed and will be added to the layouts on the project website for the following SR 44 intersections: Harmony Plaza (Putnam County), Scott Road (Putnam County), Merchant Street (Greene County), Carey Station (Greene County).”
Renderings for each of the roundabouts appear on the DOT website.
The Harmony roundabout location may be a surprise to some observers. Instead of being located at the intersection of Harmony/ Phoenix Roads, it will be built about a quarter mile north at the current entrance to the Harmony Crossing shopping area, giving that development and the planned construction of a new grocery store across Highway 44 easy access from either direction, unlike many businesses that complain new medians constructed for widening will make their establishments harder to reach.
State Rep. Trey Rhodes (R-Dist. 124), whose district includes Greene and Putnam counties, said he spent a lot of time pushing for the roundabouts and for GDOT to respond more to citizen and business input. But he does not agree with the SaveMy44 group’s wish to have three lanes instead of four lanes.
“That is a good six-to-eight-year fix,” Rhodes told The Eatonton Messenger, “But we’re already north of $150 million (project cost), and we’re not going to spend that kind of money for a short-term fix. We’re going to fix it for 25 to 30 years.”
So, the current plan retains the four-lane concept. Rhodes said some of the concrete medians will have grass or shrubbery that the counties have agreed to maintain.
The full Highway 44 widening project runs 10.5 miles and has now been broken into three pieces. Phase 1 has a construction start date of 2025 and will begin just north of I-20 and run to near King Drive. Phase 2 is scheduled to start in 2026 and run from King Drive to Carey Station Road. Phase 3 has all the roundabouts and runs from Carey Station Road to Harmony/Old Phoenix Roads with a current start date of 2027.
The plan to widen Highway 44 is decades old and has changed many times. The GDOT website frequently uses the words “conceptual,” “anticipated” and “proposed,” but one line on the website says it all: “The planning for the SR 44 project corridor has evolved over the past 20 years and will continue throughout the project life cycle.”