Heads up, cross-county commuters – on Thursday, Jan. 9, the traffic pattern on Georgia 515 will be changing between Trackrock Gap Road in Union County and Old Union Church Road in Towns County to accommodate ongoing reconstruction of the highway.
That 1.3-mile stretch near the county line is currently three lanes: two lanes of travel and a center turn lane. By the end of the project, that area will be expanded to four travel lanes, but starting this week, one of the three lanes will be closed to make it a strictly two-lane section of road.
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Additionally, the speed limit there will likely be dropping from 55 mph to 45 mph. These changes will impact driving times, but hopefully not by much since the affected area is a relatively short distance of the highway.
Two of the three phases for the Georgia 515/US 76 widening and relocation project in Union and Towns counties are well underway, with a total project completion estimate of 2028, according to the Georgia Department of Transportation.
The project has been on the books since 1999, initially consisting of a single construction phase to straighten and widen to four lanes roughly 8.5 miles of the highway between Blairsville and Young Harris city limits.
After bids came back too high in 2023, GDOT divided the project into three phases to bid out separately, with the same ultimate goal for the roadway, that is, to future-proof the corridor by reducing both traffic congestion and crash frequency.
Phase I consists of a two-lane rural bypass that is 1.25 miles in length running around the west side of Downtown Young Harris, beginning with a roundabout at Brasstown Creek Road and ending with a second roundabout at Timberline Drive.
This phase received its construction notice to proceed on Oct. 26, 2023, and while the bypass remains under construction at 46.35% complete, a trout stream restoration project attached to this phase has been finished.
GDOT has estimated the bypass should be done by September 2026, however, the project was put on hold last summer due to Native American petroglyphs being disturbed during construction after an apparent miscommunication about the presence of the ancient stone carvings.
The state has been waiting to hear back from the appropriate tribal authorities on how to resolve the issue of the disturbed petroglyphs before bypass construction can resume.
Also in this phase last summer, the state’s subcontractor, C.W. Matthews Contracting Co., damaged two water lines belonging to Young Harris, Mayor Andrea Gibby said, and the city is still waiting for GDOT to pay $2,493 in costs associated with repairs and water loss.
Gibby said the state has claimed that “the insured is not the proximate cause of this accident or loss” – a contention disputed by the city.
Listed by GDOT as 6.16% complete, Phase II of the project encompasses the 3.2 miles of Georgia 515 between Earl Shelton Road in Union County and Sampson Road in Young Harris.
Phase II received a green light for construction by Vertical Earth Inc. last May but had to wait until the fall to begin roadside clearing because of federal regulations around protected bat species that could possibly roost in the trees.
This phase contains the traffic pattern change that is scheduled to occur this week.
Estimated to be done by August 2027, Phase II will feature straightening and widening of 515 to a four-lane divided highway with a 32-foot depressed median and 10-foot shoulder, to include a 6-foot paved shoulder to accommodate bikes from both directions.
A new bridge is being built across Brasstown Creek at the county line, parallel to the existing bridge. Traffic will eventually be diverted onto the new bridge, at which point the old bridge will be demolished and replaced with another new bridge to form twin bridges over the creek.
As Phase II gets further along, GDOT will implement eight detours to tie sideroads back into the highway.
Phase III has been deferred until early this year, to ultimately consist of widening along 4 miles of Georgia 515 from just inside Blairsville city limits to Earl Shelton Road, all in Union County. This leg of construction is expected to take three years to complete.
The three phases of the project add up to quite the price tag: the original bid for Phase I was $26,916.958, awarded to C.W. Matthews; the Phase II original bid was $64,085,296, awarded to Vertical Earth Inc.; and Phase III is expected to be over $100 million, according to GDOT.
As stated by GDOT in the past, the overall project timeline remains “very fluid.”
