City, GCSU, DOT weigh options for Village intersection

Officials are looking into two ways to rework the intersection joining The Village at West Campus and the Magnolia Park apartment complex.

GCSU, the City of Milledgeville and the Department of Transportation are considering the possibilities of a roundabout or a traffic light to improve the intersection.

Tony Collins a district engineer for DOT is working to record traffic counts at the intersection in the next two to three weeks. If the results lend the DOT to believe a change needs to be made, the first option to consider is a roundabout, something that would be new to Milldegeville.

“You have to consider the idea of a roundabout before the traffic light,” Collins said.

Dr. Bruce Harshbarger, vice president of Student Affairs, has been working with the city and DOT on pushing the project forward.

“The number of fatalities is smaller with a roundabout,” Harshbarger said.

Students involved with intramural sports and West Campus, as well as Magnolia Park residents, encounter the intersection regularly.

These organizations have looked into installing a traffic signal at the intersections before, but it with the cuts in the budget, nothing has happened.

“The bottom fell out of transportation’s budget,” Harshbarger said. “Magnolia Park was going to help fund a light, but then occupancy dropped and they can’t afford it.”

Simone Jameson, senior mass communication major, made her housing decision partially based the intersection.

“I was considering living at Magnolia Park,” Jameson said. “But my parents came down and saw it and didn’t want me to live there based on that intersection.”

West Campus resident Jamie Ekstom doesn’t think the intersection needs any changes, usually.

“People who come from the Baldwin High School in the afternoon sometimes cut through (West Campus) which can be frustrating and create a problem getting out.”

SGA has a group that serves as a liaison between the city and GCSU and Sydney McCree, the head of the committee, hopes they will change the intersection soon.

“That intersections gets worse every year,” McCree said.

Posted by Claire Dykes on Apr 9 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry