Sarah Emory, Campus Carrier staff writer
The Georgia Department of Transportation’s (GDOT) road widening project for Second Avenue in downtown Rome began in Summer 2024 and remains a traffic obstacle for Rome citizens.
The project, which will add two right-turning lanes at the intersection of Shorter Avenue and Second Avenue, will cost $26 million and is projected to be completed in Summer 2027.
According to Joel Dillingham, the new GDOT area manager for District 6 Area 4, the project intends to include improvements. With an original projected end date of early October 2026, the project has been delayed due to the Oostanaula River blocking the path of installment for the road.
Dillingham gave a new projected end date of June 2027, which will make for almost 4 years of construction on Second Avenue once completed.
Additionally, in an interview with the Rome News-Tribune in March of this year, GDOT District 6 Civic Engineer Grant Waldrop described how the new intersection will be set up and other challenges they have faced during the project’s completion.
“Instead of the Y intersection, you’ll have a standard signalized intersection,” Waldrop said. According to him, the Y intersection was challenging, which is why it needed to be removed.
Y-intersections are roads that begin with a stem and branch off into two separate roads. Drivers on the branches have to yield to drivers on the stem of the road, causing traffic.
A signalized intersection is a two-way road with a four way stop, signalized with traffic lights. These intersections allow for a gap, control the flow of traffic and lets pedestrians cross when they otherwise would not have a right of way.
Regarding the Oostanaula river levee impeding construction, in his interview with the Rome News Tribune, he said he and his team are putting drainpipes under the road. Waldrop also said the density of infrastructure under the road and utility lines in the area makes this task difficult.
Because the project changes the traffic pattern for the roads, it poses challenges for Rome citizens and members of the Berry community in their daily travel.
“I try to take the backroads because if I don’t, it makes me late,” Lizvel Espino, a freshman commuter student, said. “The backroads are longer, so I don’t like taking them. Sometimes I think I can beat traffic and go the shorter way through Second Avenue, but it never works.”
Sarah Allred, associate professor of sociology and a long-distance commuter, described how the construction has negatively affected her commute.
“It’s just a mess. I don’t go straight anymore if I leave during rush hour,” Allred said. “The GPS isn’t updated, so sometimes it takes me through that intersection.”
Second Avenue has a history of crashes, showing the necessity of the project. The most recent accidents before construction include a chain-reaction crash with three school buses at the intersection of Second Avenue and Martha Berry Highway and a pedestrian accident on the bridge of Second Avenue in January 2023. A five-car collision took place at the Second Avenue intersection in January 2015.
There has been one reported accident off Broad Street at that intersection in July after construction started.
The general improvement project aims to reduce accidents and improve the safety and ease of use for the Second Avenue intersection.
The project has had observable environmental impacts. In 2022, workers removed trees near Rome High School’s Barron Stadium in preparation for the project. Sediment runoff due to the work on the Oostanaula riverbank, as well as stormwater management and water contamination constitutes as a land-disturbing activity. State law defines land-disturbing activity as any activity that will have an impact on soil.
There is no available public statement from GDOT regarding this specific project and how they are handling environmental risks. The City of Rome website describes its policies for minimizing environmental damage with construction projects. Construction companies require a stormwater management plan for sites larger than four-tenths of an acre to obtain a building permit.
“Before obtaining a building permit, an erosion and sediment control plan must be submitted to the Building Inspection Department. A sketch of the construction site along with proposed BMPs [may also be required],” Rome’s website said.
The Second Avenue road-widening project is still a significant undertaking, encountering ongoing delays and is backing up traffic as it works towards its projected completion date of Summer 2027.
Jeff Covington, a citizen of Rome, posted a public comment on a page titled “What’s Happening in Rome, Georgia,” complaining how stores have been built and renovated before the intersection’s construction finished.
“Can someone please explain to me how I have watched two liquor stores built, three [convenience] stores completed, along with the total makeover for Academy sports, and yet [there is] no one on site or working on the screwed-up garbage between east second avenue bridge and Floyd Medical?”
Despite students best efforts, the construction continues to impede their commute to and from Berry.
“I’m always late because of the construction,” Espino said. “I try to do my best, but it sucks.”