Monday, January 20, 2025–11:21 a.m.
-David Crowder, WRGA News-
The intersection of Riverside Parkway, Braves Boulevard and Veterans Memorial Highway is one of the busiest in Rome, with pretty heavy congestion during the morning and afternoon rush. However, relief is on the way.
According to DeWayne Comer, senior transportation project manager with EXP, who has been working on behalf of the city with the Georgia Department of Transportation on the project, the intersection will be widened with dual through lanes, which are expected to double the through movement across during one signal.
“This will have two lanes designed through lanes,” he said. “You’ll have a left turn lane and a right turn lane so that through volume will empty out and then you get your right turn lane and your left turn lane. It will be the same coming from the Armuchee Connector over to Riverside. That volume, as you know, backs up all the way around the curve on the connector past the coffee place there. So, it will let that volume get out. When that happens, your right-turners and left-turners are able to get up to make their turns because they are not stuck in that backup volume.”
EXP studied the intersection, came up with some options,and presented them to the City of Rome. The Georgia Department of Transportation and their engineers were also brought in. GDOT reviewed the plan and added some things they would like to see on Veterans Memorial.
“We are putting two left turns from the loop into Riverside, and two left turns from the loop into the Armuchee Connector,” Comer said. “People will get up there and be able to clear that movement, especially during those peak times, so it’s not getting out into the loop movement.”
The project was approved for $1.4 million in House Bill 170 because part of it is on the loop. HB 170 is the Transportation Funding Act of 2015 that changed the state’s motor fuel tax to provide more money for road projects.
“That helped offset the cost by a good bit,” Comer said. “That money is pretty much state money and not federal money, so the city and we got the project set up and moved forward from there.”
According to Comer, the construction is not expected to impact traffic until maybe toward the end.
“A lot of work at first, especially on the loop, will be onto one side and on the outside—we’re pushing it all to one side—so, it’s not going to impact the traffic during a majority of the work,” he said. “It will be just off to the side toward the shoulder and there will be barrels and cones there. It really won’t impact the traffic except for having people slow down through the construction zone. It will be the same on Riverside because all of the widening is to one side.”
The project is anticipated to go to bid this June.
