This week the Bulloch County commissioners were set to discuss the county engineer's recommendation to make Langston Chapel Road at Lanier Drive at least temporarily an "all-way," or in that case three-way, stop.

Commissioners were also to consider sending the Georgia Department of Transportation a letter supporting its recommendation — purportedly from a traffic study completed seven years ago — to put a four-way stop at the Georgia Highway 46-Nevils-Denmark Road intersection.

The Lanier Drive intersection, already busy, is near where Georgia Southern University is completing construction of its Jack and Ruth Ann Hill Convocation Center. The more rural Nevils-Denmark crossing serves an area where county planners are trying to refocus residential development related to new industries.

Additionally, besides the Langston Chapel-Lanier Drive intersection update under "old business," and the Highway 46-Denmark Road intersection letter under "new business," the agenda for the commissioners' 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20, meeting included a presentation about the Goodwyn Mills Cawood consulting firm's work on the joint Statesboro-Bulloch Long Range Transportation Plan.

A fourth road-related item for Tuesday's meeting was a $16,750 contract for the engineering firm Keck & Wood to perform an updated traffic study of the road network near the site of the proposed new Southeast Bulloch High School. This was one of 11 items that could be approved together on the "consent agenda." The county government is to pay half the study cost from the transportation-purposes sales tax, or T-SPLOST, with the Board of Education expected to pay the other half.

For the intersection of Langston Chapel Road at Lanier Drive, the commissioners previously requested that the county staff perform a traffic study. What they received in their agenda packets for Tuesday is an update and recommendation from County Engineer Brad Deal based on his review of two studies performed by the Maldino & Wilburn traffic engineering firm in the past two to four years.

"Lanier Drive currently experiences long traffic queues from the intersection with Langston Chapel Road during some time periods," states the cover memo summarizing Deal's report. "During the afternoon peak hour, Lanier Drive currently has a level of service of E at the intersection, and is close to level of service F."

Almost an 'F'

Just as with school grades, "A" is best and "F" is worst, but for traffic study levels of service, an "E," meaning next-to-worst, is also used. According to online sources, "E" represents "unstable flow, operating at capacity," while "F" is "breakdown flow."

Because Lanier Drive ends at Langston Chapel Road, the intersection is a T-intersection with only three approaches. Currently, only Lanier Drive has a stop sign.

"Converting the intersection to a three-way stop would improve conditions of Lanier Drive, but would increase delay on Langston Chapel Road," Deal wrote. "The intersection would be an overall level of service of C as a three-way stop, and each leg would also be a level of service C."

But "converting the intersection to a three-way stop would also provide some safety benefits," he stated.

Convocation Center area

Maldino & Wilburn completed a study dated March 23, 2021, for Georgia Southern for its construction of the Convocation Center and further development of the Statesboro South Campus. Then the same company also completed a study of the intersection itself, dated June 10, 2022, for Bulloch County, Deal noted.

That study counted average daily traffic of about 8,400 trips on Langston Chapel Road east of Lanier, about 8,000 trips west of Lanier and about 7,800 trips on Lanier Drive itself.

The 2022 study also showed that in the 12 months from March 9, 2019, to March 9, 2020, four "angle" crashes had occurred at the intersection, and that seven such crashes had occurred in 36 months. These numbers met the threshold of four crashes in a 12-month period and exceeded the threshold of five crashes in 36 months needed for one of the five "warrants" or reasons for installing an all-way intersection, Deal observed.

Additionally, the intersection was already in the county's capital improvement program with plans for a roundabout or traffic signal, and so this serves as a warrant for using a three-way stop as an interim measure, he noted. The "warrant" of traffic volume was met only in part, but "a very slight increase in traffic volume" will also fulfill that reason, he wrote.

So Deal recommends converting the intersection to an all-way stop "until the intersection is converted into a roundabout." Traffic control features to be installed for the three-way stop would include stop signs, stop bars, rumble strips, stop-ahead signs, street lighting and temporary usage of message boards, he wrote.

Nevils-Denmark Road

The state recommendation for a four-way stop at the intersection of Nevils-Denmark Road and State Route 46 is reportedly based on a much older Georgia DOT traffic study, completed in early 2017. In the report of this study, the conclusion page and recommendation page appear somewhat contradictory.

"The warrants for an all way stop were not met at this location," is one statement from the "conclusion" of the report as included in this week's county commission meeting packets. The same paragraph states that, as of the 2017 study, the service level for the intersection was "A" for all approaches and that an all-way stop would reduce all approaches to "B" level of service.

But also noting the number of accidents in the previous 12 months, the conclusion page appears to support installation of a roundabout. "With six right angle collisions in the past year, a roundabout would improve the safety at this intersection by decreasing right angle collisions, as well as reducing the speed at which potential collisions occur," is the last sentence on the page.

However, that page is followed by a "recommendations" page, signed by a Georgia DOT district traffic manager and dated March 30, 2017, with the central sentence, "It is recommended that the current Two-Way Stop Operation be converted to an All-Way Stop Operation."

That would be done by GDOT District 5 personnel, and solar-powered flashing red beacons would be installed on the stop signs, other recommendations stated.

The commissioners' packet contained a letter prepared for Chairman Roy Thompson's signature and dated Feb. 20, 2024, stating that the county has received the April 14, 2017, study and supports converting the intersection to an all-way stop.