Possible changes coming to Georgia Avenue in North Augusta
NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) - If you’re one of the many people feeling frustrated driving down Georgia Avenue, you might be happy to hear about a plan to make the road in North Augusta safer.
Changes like the proposed roundabout that would be happening.
The next step is voting on the engineering portion, which will happen in the coming weeks.
We spoke with one business that says the project is definitely needed.
The owner says other businesses downtown have welcomed the project as well.
Georgia Avenue averages nearly 50 crashes a year.
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”Right now, traffic is pretty fast, and it’s hard to walk across Georgia Ave. We have a lot more businesses and pedestrians walking and bikers,” said Jennifer Elliot, owner of Carolina Hills Sandwich Shop.
Now, with a new plan to improve safety and promote businesses like Carolina Hills Sandwich and Sweet Shoppe, “I definitely think that the traffic calming will encourage people to come downtown more. I think it will make them feel safer. They’ll be able to park and walk and and I think those things are good for businesses, and I think that’s good for our community,” said Elliot.
The project also has a proposed roundabout at the intersection of Georgia, Carolina and Jackson Avenue.
”I heard, mainly from the constituents, that people don’t want the roundabout,” said Dennis Briatico, North Augusta Councilman.
But Briatico says there’s a lot that goes into the project before they get there.
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”It looks like we’re about to vote on the engineering proportion of it for the first phase of the project, which is not going to be the roundabout, that looks like we’re going to be voting on that within the next couple of weeks. And that’s just the engineering, that’s not the actual construction. It looks like it’s going to be about four years til we probably get to the actual roundabout,” said Briatico.
Along with updated crosswalks, parking downtown will change, too.
From slanted spaces to parallel, ”I know people are afraid to parallel park. That was what a lot of people kept saying. But the reality is we all have to learn to parallel park when we get our license,” said Elliot.
Briatico says at the end of the day, what matters most is hearing from you.
”We should probably try to listen to the taxpayers first before we push this whole thing through,” said Briatico.
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