Statesboro city officials plan to have a new connector road built between U.S. Highway 80 East and Brannen Street just east of Lowe’s. This could also provide a more direct route between Statesboro Fire Department Station 3, now nearing completion, and the highway.

City Council on Tuesday morning unanimously approved a $256,750 contract with Pape-Dawson Consulting Engineers LLC for engineering services on the connecting road project.

Currently, a sort of stub street exists as an entrance drive on the left end of the Lowe’s home improvement center frontage, beginning beside the Ole Times Country Buffet parking lot and extending between the Lowe’s parking lot and the Goodwill Retail & Donation Center. The city’s proposal is to build this road out as a two-way paved street past the end of Lowe’s to connect to Brannen Street.

From the area behind Lowe’s, the new fire station would then be on the opposite side of the proposed new street at its intersection with Brannen. Meanwhile, a cul-de-sac drive is being built behind the fire station as part of that project, and officials haven’t determined how, or even if, this drive would lead directly to new street.

Another aspect of the proposal would be to close the current Bernard Lane, at least as a public street leading from Northside Drive-Highway 80 to Brannen Street. Bernard Lane runs down the front-righthand side of the Lowe’s property and intersects Brannen Street very close to its intersection with Veteran’s Memorial Parkway, also known as the Statesboro U.S. 301 Bypass.

So, Bernard Lane is restricted to a one-way, right-turn-only exit onto Brannen Street, where it contributes to traffic backups approaching the busy bypass from outside the loop.

“We really would like to close that road,” City Manager Charles Penny told the mayor and council. “But what we’d like to do is build another road on the other side of Lowe’s, all the way through right there by the jewelry store and come back and tie Brannen to Highway 80 (Northside Drive).”

‘The beginning’

To possess all of the required right of way, the city still needs to negotiate with property owners, he acknowledged.

“But in order to be able to do that, we need to be able to show them what the project would look like,” Penny said. “So this is the beginning, to get the design so we can say, this is what we’d have. It’s going to improve public safety if we can close that (existing) road.”

He said he knew that Councilmember Shari Barr wants a stoplight added on Northside Drive at the new connector road. City staff members have reportedly been in contact with the Georgia Department of Transportation about this.

Stoplight on 80?

“So, the stoplight you mentioned, we’re still waiting,” Barr said. “We have to get D.O.T. on board to get any traffic improvements on Northside Drive.”

As part of U.S. 80, Northside Drive is subject to federal and state rules and funding decisions.

Assistant City Manager Jason Boyles commented that a study was done but that the GDOT has not given the city “anything definitive on the traffic signal.” He hopes the engineering firm’s work can help “leverage” decisions at the state level, he added.

The city staff had advertised for qualifications and proposals for design services on the project April 30, and received seven proposals June 4, according to Public Works and Engineering Director Brad Deal. Staff members scored the responses based on qualifications, experience, past performance and workload capacity and selected Pape Dawson’s response as highest-scoring, he reported in a memo to the council.

Tasks in the order include a topographic and parcel survey, locating underground utilities, subcontracted environmental and subsoil investigation, and the development of right of way documents and a stormwater management plan, as well as the actual road design.

The $256,750 for the engineering services contract will come from Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or T-SPLOST, from which $500,000 was budgeted for the project for fiscal year 2027.

More than 1 year

Construction of the connecting road is apparently more than one full year away.

“We estimate that the design and right of way acquisition will be complete by summer 2027. Construction would begin in the fall of 2027,” Deal said in an email reply to the Statesboro Herald. “This timeline depends on the right of way acquisition process proceeding smoothly. Challenges with the right of way acquisition could definitely affect that timeline.”

Also asked if there will be a direct tie-in with the fire station access drive, he said he isn’t sure.

“That will be explored during the design and right of way process,” Deal stated Wednesday.