Changing lanes: Motorists face traffic shifts as work picks up on U.S. 441 widening project

Motorists on U.S. 441 South should prepare for a new – and possibly slower – traffic pattern as work to widen the highway speeds up.

Traffic on the highway was reduced from four lanes to two, starting Wednesday.

The Georgia Department of Transportation and its construction contractors have scheduled multiple new closures and traffic pattern changes to be implemented in the coming weeks in east-central Georgia. In Laurens County, the traffic pattern changed on U.S 441, just south of Dublin and Interstate 16, between Pinehill Road and Scotland Road as part of a project to widen the route to a four-lane divided highway, the DOT said.

The contractor plans to reduce the existing four-lane roadway to two lanes. They will begin by closing the left lanes in the northbound and southbound directions. This will allow crews to remove existing pavement markings and apply new striping to redirect north and southbound undivided traffic to the current southbound lanes. 

Additionally, traffic will be shifted onto a new curve being constructed south of Scotland Road and Springhaven Road. This new traffic pattern will allow construction activities to proceed in the area currently occupied by the northbound lanes.

The state plans to spend $29.5 million of $1.5 billion in surplus transportation funds on widening more of U.S. 441 South in Laurens County. The local funding will pay for the widening of U.S. 441 from Ga. 117 to Ga. 46 near Cedar Grove, where the state plans to install a roundabout.

The local project is part of long-planned effort to widen U.S. 441 from Athens to the Florida. Work should begin soon on continuing to widen the highway south of Interstate 16.