Augusta Tries To Ease Detour Troubles

Augusta, GA—It is the way around Walton Way, but here is how disgusted drivers are responding to the detour.

“It’s a pain in the A##”, said one driver.

“I usually go the other way kind but took my habitual left turn onto Walton and I got here great I said oh you’re kidding me,” added another driver.

To get around Walton Way construction, drivers have to go up New Bailie Street to Harper Street in the heavily congested Medical College of Georgia area.

New Bailie Street has a stop sign, but traffic on Harper Street doesn’t stop. This leaves drivers waiting, watching, and worrying and it’s a test of patience.

“Around MCG, it’s so packed, it’s terrible,” said one driver.

“It definitely makes it dangerous yeah it’s tough,” added another driver.

Augusta traffic engineers have been monitoring the detour all week, and determined the bottleneck at Harper Street and New Bailie Street was a bad situation, feeding driver frustration. It’s what Augusta’s Traffic Engineer does not want to see.

“Especially in a heavy pedestrian area like this you definitely want people paying attention to the road being patient not blowing the horns,” said Steve Cassell, as a cacophony of car horns sounded behind him at the intersection.

So, to ease congestion and frustration, a stop sign has been put up on Harper Street, turning the intersection with New Bailie Street into a three-way stop. That should stop some of the bad words and horn honking.

“We’re trying to make things a little better a little safer it’s not going to reduce anybody’s commute time but safety is the issue right here,” says Cassell.

Walton Way is scheduled to be closed for four months, but with a break in the weather, the work could be finished a little sooner…getting 25,000-30,000 cars a day back to where they belong, on Walton Way.