DOT proposes four-way stop until Thigpen Trail roundabout can be built
Published 4:12 pm Friday, August 4, 2023
MOULTRIE — The Georgia Department of Transportation plans a roundabout to improve an intersection where multiple serious wrecks have occurred.
The timing of the construction on Highway 37 at Thigpen Trail is uncertain, and the GDOT has proposed putting a four-way stop at the intersection to make it safer until the project can begin.
The proposal was presented at Tuesday’s meeting of the Colquitt County Board of Commissioners, and commissioners were generally united in their opposition.
Chairman Denver Braswell said Sheriff Rod Howell has indicated many of the accidents were caused by drivers on Thigpen Trail thinking the intersection is already a four-way stop. Braswell said they stop at the stop sign, look, then pull into the path of oncoming traffic that they incorrectly think is required to stop.
Howell was not at the meeting, and Commissioner Paul Nagy said he’d like to hear what the sheriff has to say before responding to the GDOT proposal.
Some at the meeting were unsure of the GDOT’s overall plan, not just the four-way stop.
“I can’t imagine that a loop is going to work out there,” County Attorney Lester Castellow said.
“A roundabout is their answer to everything,” Commissioner Marc DeMott replied.
As County Administrator Chas Cannon described the GDOT’s plan to commissioners, he said construction is expected to start in six to 12 months. The limited information about the project on the GDOT website indicated otherwise. It says preliminary engineering was done in 2022 and right-of-way authorization was expected Aug. 15, 2025, but it offered no dates for any other phase of the project.
Asked to explain the discrepancy, a spokeswoman for the GDOT replied by email: “The executive management is aware of the urgency to get this project under construction as soon as practical and that we will update them as the project moves forward through the process.”
The website did list a cost estimate for the project: $718,000 for preliminary engineering, $200,000 for right-of-way acquisition, $80,000 to move utilities and $1.35 million for actual construction.
