Lewiston Road project bringing more changes in coming days

GROVETOWN, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Contractors continue construction activities related to the roadway-widening project for Lewiston Road in Columbia County, and business owners are frustrated.

Back in 2017, the Lewiston Road construction project widened both lanes coming off of I-20 to ease traffic problems, and now engineers say it’s almost over.

Last week, we updated you about the roadwork, now we’ve talked to engineers and local business owners about the updates.

Columbia County engineers say they’re 70% done with the project. Yet business owners in the area say it needs to be done faster than that.

It’s been a lot of frustration over the years when it’s come to this project, cars hit Lewiston Road, traffic backs up and it doesn’t help construction.

Businesses next to the road say the construction stops people from coming in.

Juan Galvan, manager of La Cocina Del Rey, says, “People don’t want to stop. So there are certain times. As I said three to five is, unfortunately, our slow time because we know a lot of traffic and nobody wants to stop by.

Galvan is one of the managers for the locally owned Mexican restaurant in Grovetown, they’ve been at this location for four years, and traffic has been getting worse due to construction since they opened.

Galvan says, “There was always traffic in this area because of the entryways from the freeway. But it wasn’t this bad at this point.”

The entire plaza usually has a main entrance, to allow cars to come in but now only one is open.

“This plaza itself has two entrances, but our main entrance is blocked off because they can’t use it. So we just had this small entrance so people had to go go all the way through the lights all around to come in through here, so I know a lot of people just decide I’m not gonna do it,” Galvan says.

Leaving the restaurant to have to adapt to something out of their control.

“Take-out orders have skyrocketed because of traffic. So people still want to eat us they just don’t want to deal with traffic,” Galvan says.

And are overall optimistic about this finished product.

“The street itself is once they get done. It’ll be good. It’s just taken. It’s just taken a while. I think they started when we opened up and they’re still going. So hopefully it’ll be done soon,” he says.

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