Lawrenceville will start upgrading a traffic-heavy intersection later this year, which will give drivers a smoother commute through a central part of town currently plagued by bottleneck traffic.
At a March 22 meeting, city officials gave the greenlight for an estimated $1.7 million upgrade to the intersection at Scenic Highway (Ga. 124) and Jackson Street/New Hope Road. The Gwinnett city will construct two additional lanes and a larger turning lane to New Hope Road and an additional lane to Jackson Street, said Chuck Warbington, city manager of Lawrenceville.
“That intersection right now is the worst bottleneck we have in the city,” Warbington said. “(The) additional lanes at the intersection will push more cars through (it), both in the mornings coming out of the New Hope Road area and going back home into that area.”
Jackson Street currently has five lanes at the intersection, while New Hope Road only has four. The additional lanes on both roadways will help keep traffic flowing and lower buildup, Warbington said.
Besides traffic-buildup, the current intersection also sees a high number of rear-end accidents, Warbington said. The Lawrenceville Police Department reported 48 accidents at the intersection in 2020 and has reported 13 so far in 2021, said Lt. Jake Parker.
The city expects to start construction either late summer or fall of this year, Warbington said, hoping to wrap up construction by 2022. Drivers may experience “short-term pain for long-term gain” with traffic delays or diversions throughout the construction period, he said.
Lawrenceville will front most of the bill, picking up the project in response to a windfall in special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) collections. The city expects Gwinnett County to fund about $770,000 of the project, and the county will officially decide whether to sign off on the agreement in April, Warbington said.
“Because this was not a programmed project, a lot of folks don’t know that it’s coming,” Warbington said.
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