News 12 This Morning, July 2, 2009

AUGUSTA, Ga.-- Driving in downtown Augusta will not be the same a year from now. That's because St. Sebastian Way will be one of the busiest streets in town.

"People will find it much easier to get around, with all the new mills that are being re-done, and all the hospitals as they grow and continue to add things. It will give better access and much easier access to and from the downtown area," GA DOT Area Engineer, Mike Keene said.

The St. Sebastian Extension project goes from Walton Way by University Hospital and MCG, over the canal, and crosses Broad, Jones, and Reynolds Streets. It also extends Greene Street and crosses over to Riverwatch Pkwy.

"Seven in the morning and seven in the evening, and then at noon time, the train comes and blocks the people off," Mary Kay Sykes said.

And you can say goodbye to waiting on a train. If you're on Riverwatch Pkwy driving downtown, you'll be able to take two new bridges to miss any trains. Not only is that good for commuters, it's good for emergency response.

"Anything that would help people get to the hospital quickly, may save their life," Sykes said.

The construction includes six new bridges, the two over Riverwatch, one on St. Sebastian that crosses the Augusta Canal, and crews are replacing the 15th Street bridge, and they're building two more bridges that are part of the Greene Street extension.

Keene says three of the new bridges will be covered with brick to match the look of the historic mills downtown.

And because Augusta keeps growing, DOT engineers say this will help with the extra traffic.

"We believe it will add extra capacity downtown, adding a four lane that passes through everything downtown, all the signal work, bypasses the train. We think it will be a big boom to downtown Augusta," Keene said.

The St. Sebastian Parkway project should be finished by July 2010.

Be sure to look out for some detours in the next few weeks. July 27th is when GA DOT plans to close part of Walton Way to build the new intersection where St. Sebastian will tie into it. This will take about 4 months.