Statesboro city and Bulloch County officials recently selected an engineering firm, pending price negotiations, to design some jointly-funded traffic improvements for the Burkhalter Road corridor.

So this effort is moving forward while the area of Burkhalter Road near the often congested Georgia Highway 67 intersection receives new attention as the proposed site for a data center.

City Council in a morning meeting and the county Board of Commissioners in an evening meeting, both Aug. 4, authorized staff negotiations with Kimley-Horn & Associates after the firm was selected for the by a joint city-county staff committee. The project to be designed will include widening Burkhalter Road from Herman Rushing Road to the Highway 67 intersection, plus improvements on Burkhalter at both the Cawana Road and Highway 67 intersections.

“When you look out across the city, the one road that probably needs a lot of attention is that area, because of all of the growth and, if everybody remembers, if you’re on Burkhalter and you want to turn right and come up 67, you may have to wait several times (traffic light changes) because of the traffic … stacking,” Statesboro City Manager Charles Penny told the mayor and council.

The selection of a design firm follows through on an intergovernmental agreement, approved by the same elected boards Feb. 17, that assigns city and county responsibilities for Harville Road, Burkhalter Road and Cawana Road sets out cost sharing guidelines for any improvements.

The February agreement named the city government as “lead agency for the project, including procurement of design and construction services,” but with guidance from a jointly established project management team. So the city in April and May advertised a request for qualifications for engineering design services.

After initial responses were received from 11 firms, a committee of county and city staff members followed Georgia Department of Transportation policies to review and score the submittals, city Public Works and Engineering Director Brad Deal reported in a memo. After four firms were selected for the “short list” and asked to submit “technical approach proposals,” the committee chose Kimley-Horn based on scoring, qualifications, experience and workload capacity, Deal reported.

Kimley-Horn is the Savannah-based engineering consulting firm that designed the new bridge for G.W. Oliver Road, now proceeding to construction, as well as the previously completed storm damage restoration projects on Brannen Pond Road and Nevils-Denmark Road, all under contracts with the county.

The actual fees for the design and engineering work had not been determined as of Aug. 4.

“Today we’re asking for authorization for negotiation, and we’ll come back to you when we get all of the negotiations done,” Penny told the council. “But the other good thing is that the county will share the cost for this design work, 50 percent of the cost.”

Funding and cost

With their shares of T-SPLOST, or Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, identified as the major funding source for both the city and the county, the February agreement earmarked a $1 million budget for design and engineering but stated that the budgets for right of way acquisition and other project costs remained “to be determined.”

It also divides some other potential costs between the city and county in different ways.

Corridor-wide projects

The city-county agreement assigns continuing responsibility and divisions of other costs associated with improvements along Cawana, Burkhalter and Harville roads, in an area where Statesboro’s city limits have been expanded by some annexations in the last three years.

A list attached to that agreement also suggests project elements, particularly on Cawana Road, that may be beyond the scope of work suggested in the description of the currently pending design order.

In February, this was “Exhibit A” attached to the agreement, subtitled “Project Description” but listing multiple improvement sites:

“The Project includes, but may not necessarily be limited to, the following improvements to Burkhalter Road, Harville Road and Cawana Road:

1. A new turn lane on Burkhalter Road at Herman Rushing Road.
2. A new roundabout at the intersection of Cawana Road and Burkhalter Road.
3. A new roundabout at the intersection of Cawana Road and S&S Railroad Bed Road.
4. A new roundabout at the intersection of Cawana Road and Brannen Street.
5. Improvements along Burkhalter Road and Harville Road, including at their intersection with Highway 67.”

Overall cost-sharing

Since February, the framework agreement has provided that the city will be responsible for 100% of any right of way and easement acquisition costs on Cawana Road while the county will be responsible for 100% of the right of way and easement acquisition costs on Harville Road. The city and county agreed to split the costs 50/50 for right of way and easements for Burkhalter Road.

Also under the agreement, the city would cover 100% of remaining project costs for Cawana Road.

But the city and county will split the remaining costs, including roadway construction costs, 50/50 on both Burkhalter Road and Harville Road.

After the improvements are built, the city is to assume responsibility for maintaining Cawana Road and the stretch of Burkhalter Road from Herman Rushing Road to Georgia Highway 67, with the county to file quitclaim deeds relinquishing its rights of way to the city.

City and county officials had been talking about the need for improvements on the roads in this heavily trafficked area of rapid residential development for several years, but previously were stymied over how to divide the costs.

When officials discussed the need for the road improvements back in June 2025, the city’s Planning and Development Office estimated that 1,342 housing units might be built over the next five years in the sprawling area from S&S Railroad Bed Road around to Georgia Highway 67, with Burkhalter and Cawana Roads being the highly trafficked core.

Data center site

However, some developers have recently expressed an interest in replacing some of the planned housing with other uses. In particular, the owners of 4AM Development LLC purchased an almost 27-acre parcel on Burkhalter Road previously zoned for up to 285 housing units and propose building instead a two-story, 115,000-square-feet per floor data center. It would purportedly involve capital investments valued at up to $1.2 billion over 10 years but employ only about 12 people.

A hearing on the developers’ requested zoning change is scheduled for Tuesday’s 5:30 p.m. City Council meeting.