Milledgeville’s Police Chief Dray Swicord acknowledges the traffic signal that has been in place on North Columbia Street in front of the mall for nearly a year has been a help. Nonetheless, he feels there are other issues that help create havoc on the busy roadway.
“The entrances on the east side of the mall, it certainly has curbed a lot of accidents,” Swicord said this past Tuesday afternoon. However, he added, other improvements would help.
“The Department of Transportation still hasn’t synchronized those lights,” he pointed out. “The light may be green turning left onto Columbia Street off Roberson Mill, and the light at the mall will be red.
“The unfortunate thing is, every time the electricity goes out or blinks, you have to come and put all those lights in sync. Obviously, that hasn’t been happening. But,” he added, “it definitely has solved a lot of wrecks coming out there at Longhorns, that failure to yield.”
State Senator Rick Williams, who was instrumental in securing the funding for the traffic signal, indicated Wednesday morning he was told the three-way intersection light has been effective.
“We met with the Georgia Department of Transportation a couple of weeks ago,” he said. “My question to them was accident count at the mall, and they told me that basically there has not been any (at that intersection). They said if there had been any, they would have a count.”
Williams added that the plan is to put in a traffic signal slightly to the north, creating a four-way intersection with the entrance to the Big Lots shopping center.
“They’re supposed to start on that next year, I believe.”
According to Swicord, that section of Columbia Street is not the only area with problems.
“Turning into Wendy’s, Applebee’s, all those restaurants there, we’re still having wrecks,” he said. “We probably have more wrecks in front of Wendy’s than we have anywhere. What you don’t realize,” he went on, “is people coming south are getting into the northbound turning lane.”
As another example of the problems, Swicord pointed to the area at the auto parts store adjacent to Kristy Kreme at the intersection of Columbia Street and Garrett Way.
“A lot of people think that’s the turning lane to turn into Krispy Kreme or the auto parts store, and actually it’s the southbound traffic lane. It’s pretty confusing if you’re not paying attention.
“The preparation of 441 has obviously been outgrown by all these stores in here side by side,” Swicord continued. “I don’t have an answer for it unless they get all these lights synchronized. You may sit through three cycles of the light if you’re on Roberson Mill Road trying to turn left onto Columbia.”
Williams believes he has the long-range answer.
“I’ve requested GDOT to start looking at extending the bypass on around Milledgeville. My thought is,” the senator shared, “can you imagine what it’s going to be like 20 years from now, that intersection of 441/Roberson Mill Road/North Columbia at the mall? It’s going to be crazy.
“They need to go ahead and start working on that, or we’re going to lose the opportunity to acquire land.”
Despite what he sees as other problems, Swicord does think the temporary traffic light is a plus for Milledgeville.
“It’s going in the right direction,” he concluded.