Augusta reveals traffic plans for Masters Tournament
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - It’s t-minus 19 days until tournament week begins and the city of Augusta is kicking into high gear to make sure everything is in top shape for when guests arrive.
On Wednesday, the city unveiled the traffic plan for tournament week.
The big change this year is the rideshare lot moving to where the old TGI Fridays used to be on Washington Road.
Soon, you’ll notice the timing of the traffic lights changing around the course to keep the roads running smoothly.
From cleaning up the last of the debris to traffic preparations and everything else needed to make sure the city is ready to welcome thousands of visitors from across the world.
As we all know tournament week comes with some pretty bad traffic and on Wednesday, the city laid out its plan to help alleviate some of that pressure and keep your commute as painless as possible.
Hurricane Helene is what makes this year different.
On top of the every-year preps, the city is cleaning up debris, picking up illegal signs and making sure all traffic signals are back working.
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But the mayor says there is a lot of progress happening, and the city is almost ready to welcome the world to Augusta.
John Ussery with the city’s traffic engineering department says on a regular day Washington Road sees roughly 55,000 cars.
If you think that’s a lot, Ussery says that the number doubles during golf week.
So there’s still some prep work for the city, but the end goal for them is to make the experience as seamless as possible.
Thomasine Deer lives in Augusta and says he looks forward to golf week.
" It’s that excitement of the Masters being here in Augusta and all the out-of-town folks,” said Deer.
Preparations for traffic are already underway.
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“We’ve been working really hard these last couple of months to make sure everything is up and running normally,” said Ussery.
But this year, there’s more to clean up.
" We’re having people to cut fresh debris, green trees and put them in the right of way,” said Garnett Johnson, Augusta mayor. “We would’ve asked that they not do that, give us an opportunity to clean up the debris. That was a result of Hurricane Helene.”
Johnson says the city is tasking code enforcement with putting a stop to this.
“Perhaps make citations, I mean, it’s a very serious issue. If we can’t get reimbursed from FEMA, the remaining taxpayers have to cover the cost of that, and I think that’s unfair,” said Johnson.
And as final es for debris start, Steve Cassell with Infrastructure Systems Management says calling 311 is still an option.
" If you feel like you’ve legitimately been missed, you know, call 311 and we’ll look at it. But just bringing debris out at this point is no guarantee that it’s going to be picked up.”
Looking ahead to golf week –
“People are out of their homes because of damage,” said Deer. “So, you know, I try to think about what they’re going through, that maybe Masters this year isn’t the same for them. And I was very lucky my home wasn’t damaged.”
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