New roundabout at Pope High open but still under construction

Crews working on day three of classes to finish the roundabout outside Pope High School, which opened the day before classes started, the transportation agency said.

Credit: Cobb DOT Facebook

Credit: Cobb DOT Facebook

Crews working on day three of classes to finish the roundabout outside Pope High School, which opened the day before classes started, the transportation agency said.

The new roundabout at Pope High School is open but still under construction, a spokeswoman with the Cobb County Department of Transportation confirmed Wednesday.

Torie Anderson said the roundabout opened Sunday — the day before Cobb classes started. The agency hadn't released a date that it would be finished, only saying that it would be open for classes.

It is the school’s only entrance and exit.

A screenshot from a video posted to the Cobb County Department of Transportation Facebook page explaining the Pope High School roundabout

Credit: Cobb Department of Transportation Facebook

icon to expand image

Credit: Cobb Department of Transportation Facebook

She said crews are still working on the islands and are paving Hembree Road.

“With any traffic change of this magnitude, there is an adjustment period for those who travel in the area,” Anderson said. “As the project continues to move toward completion, we will be monitoring the roundabout’s traffic flow.”

The project replaces the traffic signal at Hembree and Meadow Drive began in summer 2016, according to a Cobb County Department of Transportation fact sheet.

“Volume was heavy for the first day of school,” she said, but the school didn’t report backups Tuesday nor Wednesday morning.

The agency posted pictures on its Facebook page of crews at work Wednesday morning.

Mike Jacobs, a resident in the area who has had a front row seat of the construction, told Channel 2 Action News last week that the construction has been a pain.

“With the road being closed, that’s been a huge inconvenience,” he said Thursday.

Cobb DOT posted a nine-minute video explaining the Pope roundabout on its Facebook page.

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