What’s the status of the Lewiston Road project in Grovetown?

GROVETOWN, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Crews are making progress on the Lewiston Road exit in Grovetown.

People living in the area say they’re frustrated with how long the project is taking.

Columbia County is hoping to wrap this up by the end of the year. Those who have to drive on Lewiston Road every day say they’re ready for this to wrap up as soon as possible.

“It’s getting old really fast. From what I can see of the construction, it doesn’t move very quickly,” said Shayne Baker.

Baker, like so many, moved into the area a year and a half ago. His route goes through the construction on Lewiston Road twice every day.

“I really try to go the back way on Wrightsboro Road to try to avoid this as much as possible unless it’s just kind of more convenient to go this way if I need gas or anything like that,” said Baker.

When he does go through safety with construction is a major concern. When we spoke to him pumping gas, he says he almost got hit on the way there.

“People drive a little faster than they need to around here. Obviously, they’re probably tired of the construction as well, so they’re just trying to get through it. But yeah, I actually just before I pulled into the gas station here, just had someone run in front of me and almost hit them because they didn’t take the light right,” he said.

And even more concerns with traffic backing up on the interstate.

“It does back up pretty bad all the way to the highway. You almost can’t get off the highway,” he said.

The end result will be a diverging diamond concept, which encourages more right turns and increases the flow of traffic.

Columbia County Director of Engineering Services says they’re 70 percent done with the project.

“I understand the frustrations. I understand the traffic delays. But we have to remember where we were before this. Before this, we were on a two-lane, Lewiston Road that was at capacity,” said Kyle Titus.

He also says inclement weather could delay the project. The other big question is how this construction will impact Masters week, and the county says construction will be stopped for that week in order to have traffic flow as much as possible.

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