If construction starts sometime in 2027 as predicted, the Georgia Department of Transportation’s widening of Interstate 16 to six lanes for the 32.5 miles between the “Statesboro” exit on Georgia Highway 67 and the I-95 interchange could be complete sometime in 2030, according to a possibly optimistic GDOT projection.

That estimate was shared by Kyle Collins, GDOT communications manager for the “P3”, or public-private partnerships program, during an open-house event about  the project held Wednesday afternoon, June 11, in the Bulloch County Center for Agriculture building on Langston Chapel Road. The drop-in event for public information and comment lasted two hours, 4-6 p.m., and afterward he reported there had been 31 “public attendees.”

At times in the first hour, GDOT staff members and consultants from the design firm Arcadis and project management consulting firm HNTB outnumbered local people dropping by.  Also, nearly as many residents of Effingham County as Bulloch County came to ask questions and look at the long strips of aerial maps outlining the project.

As previously reported, a GDOT webpage about this “design-build” project showed a construction cost estimate of $511.8 million. Collins cites $511 million as the “authorized program amount for this corridor’s reconstruction.”

That means it is programmed by the department.  Two state Transportation Board members who attended – Daniel Snipes of Statesboro and Ann Purcell of Savannah – said the specific funding is not guaranteed but subject to the Legislature and governor’s annual budget approval. However, they noted that this project enjoys wide legislative support, and State Sen. Billy Hickman, R-Statesboro, also at the open house, said he believes the GDOT will get what it requests.

“If GDOT says it’s the right thing to do, we’ll find a way to fund it, and we know from the growth here that we’ve got to fund it. …,” he said. “I’m excited about it.”

The plans, reportedly about 30% complete at this phase, call for the interstate highway to be widened by adding a third 12-foot travel lane in each direction. Existing lanes “will be realigned towards the median” and the additional lanes built “in the median area.” The list of planned improvements also includes replacing “existing substandard pavement,” and widening or replacing 20 bridges, meaning bridges in both directions  at 10 locations.

The Georgia DOT’s previously published timeline for the project shows that the environmental study process began in 2024 and that the environmental study process should conclude – at least sufficiently for more detailed planned to begin – in May 2026. According to the timeline, GDOT officials expect to select a “project developer” in second-quarter 2026, for construction to start sometime in 2027.

So, a question at the open house was, after construction begins, how long will it take?

“Ballpark, I think it’s safe to say four years,” Collins answered, and was asked if that means sometime in 2030.

“Tentatively, that’s kind of what we’re projecting, but again, this is something that we’ll stay in touch with, as we get down the line, get the team on board, it will reveal itself more of what that realistic schedule would be. Right now we’re going to anticipate that three to four years, but you never know what could happen with weather and different things,” Collins said.

For a design-build approach, a design team will be selected to complete the design to 100%. Then the designers and engineers will continue to work with the construction contractors to look for “efficiencies” in cost and timeline, he said.

I-85 project comparison

After the Statesboro Herald asked a couple of weeks ago about the expected time needed for construction, Collins had suggested looking at a roughly 30-mile six-laning project on I-85 around Commerce in northeastern Georgia for a possible comparison.  Construction started there in 2018, and the third and final phase was substantially complete by the end of 2024. So that took six to seven years, and if the I-16 project takes that long, work on it could last through 2033.

“From what the project staff is telling me, we’re thinking this one could be expedited maybe a little bit faster than that one, but I just thought that was a good representation of going from two to three lanes in both directions; there are some bridge replacements,” Collins said at the I-16 project open house. “There are some similar type – if you want to call them – struggles, but in a good way with economic development and freight  traffic just booming exponentially in that corridor.”

Of course, on this segment of I-16, a major source  of recent growth in freight traffic is Hyundai Motor Group’s massive Metaplant America for electric and hybrid vehicle production, on the Mega Site, which also includes some parts suppliers and a battery manufacturing joint venture, just southeast of the U.S. Highway 280 interchange in Bryan County. Improvements along U.S. 280 from the Meta Plant’s access roads include the installation of five roundabouts, two of which connect directly to the ramps of I-16.

Another related, partially planned project would install an intersection with I-16 at the eastern end of the Hyundai plant’s frontage or service road, which currently starts at Highway 280 and extends eastward about two miles, paralleling the interstate’s eastbound lanes. Lines sketched on the maps showed this proposed intersection with on- and off-ramps on both sides of the interstate.

Two of the Effingham County residents attending the Statesboro open house event were Rincon City Councilmember Ben Blackwell and his wife Caren. Besides seeing traffic from the main plant, they have a Hyundai supplier in their neighborhood, aluminum parts maker Sewon America, which started production last year and is expected to employ 740 people.

Ben Blackwell said he was encouraged to find out about the plan for the new intersection at the eastern end  of the Hyundai service road.

“When I was coming up here, I was concerned about the 280 interchange, and they’re not doing too much more that what they’re already doing now, as you can see, the roundabouts,” he said. “But that new interchange should help with their trucks and all that, and of course, maybe employees at the same time.”

To be decided

He also thought it was good news that the bridges to be modified will mainly be those along I-16 that cross streams. Overpasses of other roadways crossing the interstate will for the most part not be affected.

Exactly how much work needs to be done on the bridges remains to be determined by the engineering and design team, and this is a factor than can affect the timeline, according to Collins.

“It’s still to be determined whether we’re going full replacement on all of them or if some will receive only deck rehab” (and the addition of the third lane, he said.

As elsewhere on the route, the work on bridges will require some lane shifts or temporary lane-closures, but not detours away from the interstate.

“The goal is to maintain traffic throughout,” Collins said. “Obviously there will be some intermittent closures, and it would be staged work. So basically we would put some barriers in, we’d work over here, get that completed, move traffic back here, and then we’d finish the other side.”

GDOT planners have also talked about the possibility of restricting some of the work to nighttime, when traffic is lightest.

From I-95 first?

Some consultants and officials said the construction is expected to start near the I-95 interchange, whose reconstruction to a “partial turbine” design with flyover lanes is nearing completion, and proceed westward. The first phase could be from I-95 to Old River Road.

Collins called that “more than likely,” but “not set in stone.” This also remains to be decided by the design team, he said.

By building the additional lanes toward the median, GDOT planners hope to avoid acquiring additional right of way, which helps speed the  project to construction and lessens impacts on wetlands, which are extensive along this stretch of the highway.

Where the median is narrow, a solid barrier, or low wall, will separate the directions of travel. In the narrowest sections, the median will be entirely replaced by a hard surface under the wall.

Bulloch County concern

Chairman David Bennett of the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners asked the GDOT people, “Can you start before 2027?”  but indicated that he has concerns about side effects on traffic while work is underway.

“I do have some concerns about congestion on Highway 80 and 119, as they start doing all this,” he said. “There’s already a lot of tractor-trailer traffic that will get off of the interstate at Highway 80 in Bloomingdale and … dodge the weigh station, and I’m a little concerned that we’ll see more people, as they start all that construction, use Highway 80 as an alternate route.”

Vehicles that continue that way toward Statesboro would of course pass through Brooklet and an area that has “so much traffic now,” including tractors and other farm machinery moving from field to field, he observes.

“I’m curious to see what they’re going to do to mitigate some of that,” Bennett said. “But I think it’s needed. There’s a lot of accidents out there already, and I know people get frustrated because when you have an accident, they’ll shut down the whole interstate in one direction and the traffic backs up.”

The Georgia DOT will continue accepting public comments on the project now through June 26, and also has an online survey available.

All of the printed materials from the open houses are available on the project website, https://i16-widening-0020168-gdot.hub.arcgis.com.