THE GREAT WALL OF SOUTH ANDREWS STREET

$20 MILLION SOUTHSIDE BRIDGE REPLACEMENT WRAPPING UP

  • THE GREAT WALL OF SOUTH ANDREWS STREET
    THE GREAT WALL OF SOUTH ANDREWS STREET
  • THE GREAT WALL OF SOUTH ANDREWS STREET
    THE GREAT WALL OF SOUTH ANDREWS STREET

    Traffic finally is beginning to open back up around the Wayne Street/Andrews Street intersection, just south of the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Harry G. Bone Bridge replacement.

    However, the old intersection looks a lot different these days, as a series of concrete walls, roughly four feet high, now line much of the area. The walls run the length of the old Shaw Floors property, as well as Wayne Street heading into the Town & Country Shopping Center. S&R Package Store, known in southside parlance as “The Purple Store,” now basically sits in small valley, with concrete walls lining its property edge with both Wayne Street and Andrews Street.

    The new concrete walls are all part of grading and slope changes around the bridge project, according to Will Volk, a communications officer with the DOT.

    “The new bridge is about 10 feet taller than the previous bridge, which means the road needed to be raised. These walls help support the taller road,” Volk said. “South Wayne Street is higher now at the intersection with Andrews Street, which meant they also had to bring Andrews Street up, approaching the intersection.”

    “Two months out” is the timeline that Volk offered, in terms of the bridge being completed and traffic reopening on Wayne Street across Fishing Creek.

    The original price tag for the 76-year-old bridge replacement was $14 million, but it’s since expanded to $20 million.

    Wayne Street is still technically a state route, which is why the DOT is overseeing the project. If bridge replacements on nearby Jefferson Street and Elbert Street ever occur, that would be on the Milledgeville city government to finance and oversee.

    Prior to the opening of the bypass in 1989, that stretch of Wayne Street actually was a United States Highway – US 441.

    is roughly 10 feet taller than its predecessor. With this in mind, the Georgia Department of Transportation also decided to raise the height of nearby Andrews Street and construct a series of concrete walls for structural reinforcement.

    The new-look Harry G. Bone Bridge