New Interchange at 316 and Hwy. 20 Might Just Help ... or Will It?
Most everyone that lives in Barrow County or Dacula has traveled Hwy. 316 during peak traffic hours. And if you have, you know this can frustrating to say the least. Heck, I've been known to cut a few people off and throw around the ol' middle finger a few times myself. (that was pre-medication of course).
So you've probably noticed the construction that's been going on since November around the area of Hwy. 20 and Collins Hill Road in Lawrenceville.
GDOT has been touting the new interchange for years and I'm hoping it relieves most of the backup in that area. I was wondering over the weekend as I'm driving through that stretch how they will reconfigure the roads. Will Hwy. 20 pass over or under 316 and how will Collins Hill be routed? Does it really matter as long as they remove the lights? No, no it doesn't!!
I found this information on the GDOT website and thought it might be good to pass along. Although there's no drawing or rendering, it does explain how the roads will be reconfigured. It seems like they will combine the two interchanges into one. Personally I can't see how this will work but I'm not an engineer either.
Check out this link for the explanation Hwy 316 interchange
Here's the first paragraph: On November 15, 2011 Georgia DOT began a 2.2 mile project to extend limited access along SR 316 in Gwinnett County. Crews will reconstruct the first two signalized intersections (Collins Hill Road and State Route 20) into one interchange serving both roads.
As a Realtor and someone that lives on the 316 side of Dacula, I'm hoping this will open up this side of town to more prospective buyers. It might also help property values as well because I've been told more than once by a potential buyer they want to stay away from Hwy 316. If the traffic backup is a non-issue, this will benefit values in the long term.
If you're considering buying or selling in Barrow County or Dacula, please CALL ME TODAY!
www.SteveSellsGwinnett.com Steve Rider, CDPE Realtor with Keller Williams Lanier Partners in Braselton Georgia. Covering Barrow, Jackson, Gwinnett and Hall Counties in Northeast Georgia. If you're looking for real estate in Gwinnett County please contact me at 404 663 7063 or steverider1@gmail.com.
Scott
12:54 pm on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Steve, hold on to your hat! This construction isn't going to be complete until December 2014! So, we'll have the "pleasure" of dealing with the construction and traffic for 2 more UGA football seasons plus several hundred daily rush hour grinds. Will it work? Look at Hwy 78 in Stone Mountain. The DOT put a bridge over West Park Place and the first light became East Park Place (about 1500-2000 FT (yes, FEET) further down the road). Traffic still backs up beyond the park near Hugh Howell at peak times.
How will this help Dacula? It won't (IMO)! It will help Lawrenceville greatly, but Dacula will still have lights starting at High Hope. While there is a lot of traffic turning at GA20 (especially during G-Brave's game days) there is still a large volume of traffic heading to Dacula, Auburn, Winder, and Metro Athens. So we'll still have loads of traffic starting about 2 miles further down.
Ever get that feeling of everything rolling down hill and Dacula is at the bottom of that hill?
If you want to see a map of what the road should look like then go by Lube 3000 at 316/GA20 and Mike (the owner) has a great map hanging on his desk in the customer area.
It appears that 316 elevation will be lowered to go below both Collins Hill and GA20. There will be access road/feeder lanes so traffic doesn't actually get on 316 until different areas. It looks like a great project, but I expect we will still have heavy volume...just different areas.
Mitch
1:16 pm on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
I agree Scott, this will be great for those getting off SR316 at Collins Hill or SR20 and great for general traffic in that area, but for those traveling further East there will simply be a new back-up point at the next traffic lights (hi-hope and cedars rd). Hopefully not as bad as it is now, but we will see.
I posted a pdf of the current plan from the GDOT website but I do not see it posted here yet. It's full of survey stuff, but you can kind of make out how it will look, and yes SR316 will go under the bridges at each intersection.
Overall a great idea, just 10 years too late. Maybe 10 years from now the limited access will extend to the new Sugarloaf interchange?
Steve Rider
1:03 pm on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
I agree with a lot of what you're saying. I just had that discussion Sunday night with my stepfather about traffic just backing up further down the road at Cedars and Hwy 8. But I think what they're hoping, and I'm sure they've done enough studies on this, is that enough traffic is leaving 316 at collins hill, and hwy 20 that it won't be as bad. I used to get my oil changed at Lube 3000 but haven't been in there in a while so I'll stop by and check out the map.
I'm also kind of curious to see how much more traffic the new Sugarloaf ramps will dump onto both directions of 316. Seems to me if that increases in the slightest bit it's going to be a nightmare. I like to be an optimist but then again, I'm not an engineer!
Scott
12:31 pm on Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Thankful not to be an engineer and not a traffic professional other than driving in Atlanta daily. Oddly enough having driven the new sections of Sugarloaf Parkway at different times over the last 60 days I'm actually a little surprised at how much volume that road handles. It will be a nice "cut through" from Dacula to Grayson/Lawrenceville, but not much beyond that. The section from GA 20 to beyond I-85 has so many lights and so much volume that it will be easier to stay on 316 and get off when Sugarloaf crosses again. (IMO)
It will certainly be an interesting task to see how UGA traffic is on the east side of Dacula once all the construction is complete. (Sugarloaf should be done by the end of this year according to the Gwinnett County site.)
Mitch
2:15 pm on Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Here is a link to the pdf:
http://mydocs.dot.ga.gov/info/designplans01/DesignPlansLibrary/0004086_0000001_CST.PDF
Wayne
11:36 pm on Friday, June 15, 2012
I heard that construction on 316 was flagged due to a lawsuit because right of way
Problems. Would like to know if this is true.