The Georgia Department of Transportation is asking local residents, motorists and property owners for their opinions on a $5.3 million project to add passing and turn lanes on U.S. Highway 80 between Brooklet and Statesboro.

A Georgia DOT public information open house will be held from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. Thursday at the W.W. Mann Retreat Center at 2171 Prather Road, Brooklet. The Prather Road and Leefield Road intersections with Highway 80, by which the Mann Center can be accessed, are two of eight intersections that will receive turn lanes.

The whole project extends along 3.4 miles of the highway. In addition to the turn lanes, a passing lane will be added on the eastbound side over one section and on the westbound side in another.

The open house will give the public an opportunity to see detailed plans, talk to engineers and project designers and register suggestions or comments.

“We want their input — if they don’t like it, if they like it, if they have issues with a certain road,” said Georgia DOT District Communications Officer Jill Nagel. “We just want them to see it and be able to tell us what they think about the project, because it is their community.”

Some additional right-of-way will need to be obtained, and that phase is scheduled for 2016. But actual construction is not slated to occur until 2018 and depends on federal and state funding.

This project, on Highway 80 where it is also Georgia Highway 26, will be 80 percent federally funded and 20 percent state funded, Nagel said.

All of the added lanes will be a standard 12-foot width.

Where the lanes are

The eastbound passing lane is proposed to begin about 1,000 feet east of Burkhalter Road and continue to Grimshaw Road. The westbound passing lane will begin at Old Leefield Road and end about 1,000 feet west of Bud Lee Lane.

Right-turn lanes only are proposed to be added to U.S. Highway 80 at Amanda Road, English Oaks Road and Plantation Drive. Both left-turn and right-turn lanes are proposed for the Youngblood Road, Cambridge Road, Cody Lane, Prather Road and Old Leefield Road intersections.

No presentation will be made at the open house. Officials simply will be available to answer questions and explain the plan.

The DOT is providing multiple ways for people to submit input. A comment box for written comments will be available at the open house, and a court reporter will be available to transcribe spoken comments, Nagel said.

Additionally, after the open house, a display of the project will be available from Friday through Jan. 7 at the Georgia Department of Transportation Statesboro Area Office on U.S. Highway 301 North in Statesboro.

The plan also will be available online at www.dot.ga.gov. On the home page, choose “Public Outreach” in the yellow tab on the right-hand side, then select “Bulloch County” to find the project from the list. To leave comments online, choose the “Comment” header and follow the instructions.

An information packet distributed at the open house also will include a comment card with the address of the Atlanta office at the bottom, Nagel said.

Not all that was hoped

The project now scheduled is not all that some people in the Brooklet area had hoped for, but it is a positive development, said Brooklet City Councilman Randy Newman.

“It is something that has really been needed for a long time, and I’m glad to see them finally doing this,” he said. “We had always hoped that they were going to four-lane it, but through the lack of funds, that’s not going to happen, so at least we’re getting a passing lane.”

The turn lanes should be a big help on a stretch of highway that is traveled by commercial trucks and farm tractors as well as by cars, he said.

When residents of subdivisions between Statesboro and Brooklet return home on their afternoon commute, the need to turn directly from a traffic lane also causes congestion on the highway. So the turn lanes should also offer relief, Newman said. In his day job, he is Bulloch County’s zoning administrator, and on Brooklet’s council, he is in charge of street projects.

“Well, I wish it would be sooner, but sometimes you have to take what you can get,” Newman said of the proposed 2018 construction start.

Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9454.