The Georgia Department of Transportation will hold an open house event on Thursday, January 16th from 5 pm until 7 pm at the Rome Civic Center. The purpose of the event is to share proposed plans to replace the Turner McCall Boulevard bridge over the Etowah River and Norfolk Southern Railroad, as is stated in a GDOT media release.
The replacement bridge will include four lanes of traffic plus additional width for turn lanes.
Engineers discovered in a routine inspection that the current bridge built back in 1956 needs to be replaced. The decision has since been made to extend the turn lanes across the bridge to facilitate staged construction, as well as to help reduce congestion.
GDOT District Six Engineer Grant Waldrop states, “When the determination was made to replace the bridge, we looked at how we could also improve the traffic at the same time. The additional bridge width allows for the turn lanes to be extended, which will help move traffic across Turner McCall.”
The project is expected to cost $28.5 million. Construction is slated to begin in summer 2022 and take two years.
Those who attend next Thursday’s open house event may review this project, ask questions and express any concerns about the proposed improvements.