The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is considering a route just south of the city limits of Watkinsville as the recommended alternative for a truck bypass linking SR 15 with U.S. 441 to reduce traffic along Main Street inside the city.
Consultants for GDOT have considered and rejected a route inside the limits.
They also have considered a previously unidentified alternative route along Astondale Road that would link with a U.S. 441 bypass of Bishop and have found it to be the least appealing of the four routes under consideration.
The consultants also said that considering a U.S. 441 bypass of Bishop was out of the scope of their assignment, which is to find a route for SR 15 “to reduce congestion and truck traffic through downtown” Watkinsville.
By their current estimates, the likely recommended route would reduce the daily traffic count moving along Main Street in downtown Watkinsville from a projected 14,900 Annual Average Daily Traffic count in 2050 with a No-Build alternative to 1,800, including a reduction of trucks from 1,265 to 20.
That truck count is dependent on the city or county taking full responsibility for, including maintenance of, the section of SR 15 from the bypass just south of the city to its intersection with U.S. 441 north of the city and prohibiting through truck traffic.
The proposed bypass would be two lanes wide and would not be limited access, meaning it would be possible to build homes or businesses along the route, with GDOT’s permission.
These were some of the main revelations from an hour-long virtual meeting with state Rep. Eric Gisler, members of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners, and members of the Watkinsville City Council on Thursday (9/20/2026).
Citizens were allowed to attend virtually, but they could not ask questions. GDOT, in response to questioning from Gisler, agreed to make available to the public a video recording of the session.
Meeting Structure
Rick Strickland, who identified himself as the “consultant project manager for the Watkinsville truck bypass project and a consultant for the Georgia Department of Transportation,” ran the meeting, which began at 2:30 p.m., presumably from a GDOT office. The meeting was livestreamed on Microsoft Teams.
 |
| Four Routes |
Strickland said he was joined by Ashley Willoughby, District 2 Project Manager, whose email lists her address at the GDOT office at 600 West Peachtree Street NW, in Atlanta, as well as at least five other GDOT staff members.
No roster of participants was given, but Gisler, Board of Commission members Chuck Horton and Amrey Harden, Watkinsville Mayor Brian Brodrick, and Watkinsville Council Members Jeff Campbell, Brett Thomas, and Chuck Garrett asked questions at the meeting.
The meeting, initially scheduled to be closed to the public, was open for public viewing when Oconee County Commission Chair John Daniell indicated it would be a called meeting of the Commission, requiring public access.
Willoughby had said in an email message prior to the meeting that it would not be recorded, though she did provide in advance the presentation used in the meeting.
Gisler, who was the first to speak when Strickland ended his 20-minute overview, which included that presentation slides, said “I had asked whether we'd be able to record this meeting for constituents who weren't able to make it, and I was told, no, but I do see that it is being recorded.”
“Is that going to be posted to the to the website?” Gisler asked.
“I was under the impression that it wasn't going to be recorded either,” Bruce Anderson, GDOT District 2 Program Manager said, “But yes, it was recorded. So yes, we can provide it.”
“I know a lot of folks will be very appreciative of that,” Gisler said. “So thank you.”
Project Overview
Strickland began his comments by saying “We are here to discuss the challenges and opportunities that this project brings to the community surrounding Watkinsville.”
“Currently, the volume of traffic, particularly the volume of trucks, is negatively impacting the city. We are looking to establish a shared vision between GDOT, Oconee County, and the city of Watkinsville.”
The slide show included the heading “Let’s Find The Best Solution For Watkinsville” five times.
“We are acutely aware that this project has some negative impacts that need to be weighed against the benefits of improving the downtown traffic,” Strickland said.
“We will present the current alternatives for the project, establish and discuss the selection criteria, and present to you the current proposed alignment,” Strickland said.
“We will answer questions from the public officials at the end of the presentation,” he said. “We will be providing another Public Information Open House (PIOH) to provide updated information for the general public later in the project development process.”
Strickland said that approximately 300 people attended the PIOH on March 16 and the public provided “almost 600 comments during and after the event.”
The comment period has been reopened,” he said, “so that we can gather feedback from today's meeting. Comments will be accepted through Aug. 27th.”
Review Of Alternatives
Strickland gave a overview of each of the three alternatives presented only in map form at the April PIOH, as well as of the fourth alternative that follows Astondale Road.
 |
| Traffic Data |
Alternative 1 runs just outside the southern limits of Watkinsville, requiring the filling of a lake at the route’s eastern end, runs just north of Bell Lake after crossing Colham Ferry Road, runs very close to a house on Old Bishop Road, crosses the inactive rail line at grade, and connects with U.S. 441 at the current intersection of Macon Highway.
Alternative 2 would begin on its eastern starting point at Flat Rock Road, possibly require the taking of three homes, require the taking of farmland protected by the county’s Farmland Protection Program before crossing Colham Ferry Road, cross Old Bishop Road and the rail line before intersecting with U.S. 441.
Alternative 3also would begin at Flat Rock Road, run through the middle of farmland protected by the county’s Farmland Protection Program before crossing Colham Ferry Road, cross Old Bishop Road and the rail line before intersecting with U.S. 441.
The County Commission has passed a resolution opposing any route that adversely affects land it has protected through its Farmland Protection Program.
Alternative 4 would follow Astondale Road from SR 15 in the east to a nonexistent bypass of U.S. 441 on the east side of Bishop.
Alternative 1 would cost $22.3 million. Alternative 2 would cost $29.8 million. Alternative 3 would cost $29.7 million. Alternative 4 would cost $45.7 million.
Alternative 1 would reduce the AADT to 1,800, including 20 trucks, followed by Alternatives 2 and 3, with reductions to 2,000 AADTs and 30 trucks, and Alternative 4, with reduction to 6,800 AADTs and 65 trucks.
Alternative 1 has the greatest impact on congestion, the lowest impact on community resources, the lowest level of critical issues, and is the least costly, according to Strickland.
“Currently, the Department is considering Alternative Number 1 as the recommended alternative, Strickland said. “This will be carried forward through more study and development.”
Open For Questions
When Strickland asked for questions, Gisler turned to Alternative 4.
 |
| Cost Estimates |
“It seems that if we don't do that as part of this solution, it's going to have to be done at some point the future,” Gisler said of the Bishop bypass. “It's obviously the one with the highest price tag, but there might be a good reason to go ahead and do it.”
“And the only other question I had right now was is there a deeper analysis you can share for the impact of the the traffic estimates, just to understand how those numbers were arrived at?”
“For this project,” Strickland said, “the need and purpose statement is addressing traffic in downtown Watkinsville. And so adding the Bishop bypass to the project wouldn't necessarily be a part of this project. I wouldn't make the argument that the Bishop bypass wouldn't be needed. But when you start combining projects, you won't necessarily get the most efficient solution by combining two different projects and trying to deal with it as one like that.”
The GDOT planning policy department used existing traffic counts, future traffic projections, statewide freight plans, and specialty studies to come up with its traffic estimates, the lead traffic engineer told Gisler..
“All of that goes put into a pot, stir it up,” he said. “What we output are the expected traffic volumes at the various locations.”
Commissioner Horton said he was concerned that the study was “touching one road, but you still got all these other corridors that they're coming right into downtown Watkinsville” that are not included in the analysis.
“When we're talking about the reduction of traffic, we're really talking about the reduction of traffic coming to and from (SR) 15 into the downtown area,” the engineer said. “And the numbers that we're showing there are at a specific point.”
“And you're right, it isn't going to make much of a difference for Barnett Shoals Road, for example,” he added. “I mean that's not that's not really a path that is being considered here. There is some traffic that comes up (SR) 15 and goes Barnett Shoals, and vice versa, but it's a small number.”
Wire Park, which includes the Oconee County Library and many businesses and residences, is on Barnett Shoals Road, as is LAD Trucking.
Questions On Main Street
“Has anything been done to look at what could be done on Main Street itself to maybe not slow up the traffic so much?” Horton asked. “That's just a question I have because we got crosswalks--two of them in downtown--and if there's any traffic moving that's going to slow it up.”
“And one of the things I've noticed is cars trying to get on Barnett Shoals Road off of Main Street, the queuing line may jut out into the southbound straight line. So nobody gets to move.”
Strickland said of Watkinsville Council that “within their strategic plan they are looking to make that section of State Route 15 more pedestrian friendly. And so typically when you do that, you want to slow vehicles down even more.”
“What they're looking to do might not,” he said, “match up with the goal of making those spot improvements to get traffic moving through downtown more efficiently.”
“I appreciate Commissioner Horton's comments,” Watkinsville Mayor Brian Brodrick said. “I think that at the end of the day, pulling this amount of traffic out of downtown would free up a lot of these arterial roads tremendously to flow better, to have the opportunity to make right turns for our traffic lights, and our infrastructure to actually work at the level that it was designed to work at.”
“We're route agnostic in Watkinsville and and I expect we'll stay that way,” he added.
“We have significant citizen feedback indicating, over the past four or five years, as long as we've been surveying, that their biggest concern is the frustration with downtown traffic congestion,” Brodrick continued.
“Their desire very clearly is not just for their vehicle to move smoothly through town, but to be able to also walk safely on the sidewalks and to be able to cross the street and move through our downtown,” he added.
More On Bishop Bypass
“In the city of Watkinsville,” Watkinsville Council Member Brett Thomas said, “obviously we want to fix our problem, but we don't want to put an additional burden on the city of Bishop as well.”
 |
| Alternatives Compared |
“So maybe getting this done simultaneously--though they're two separate projects--would be beneficial to both cities that are within only a few miles of one another and not creating a burden for the other small city right next to us,” he said, referring to Alternative 4.
“That stretch between the Oconee County border in the south through Bishop at some point is going to have to be expanded anyway,” Gisler added.
“We've done the least amount of study on Alternative Number 4,” Strickland said. “It was brought in as a part of the public feedback that we received you know during the PIOH meeting.”
“The need and purpose statement is to remove volume of traffic and trucks from downtown Watkinsville,” he said of the current project. “Providing a benefit for the need and purpose statement for Watkinsville and Bishop are two separate independent utilities. And so that is that is how projects are developed.”
Alternative 4 “provides more impacts to the rest of the community. It has the highest cost and does the least benefit for traffic” in Watkinsville,” he said, and so it--of the four alternatives that we are talking today--would be the least preferred.”
“I would like to see more study, I guess, done on Alternative 4,” Gisler said, “because it occurs to me that if if you had that bypass around Bishop, then (U.S.) 441 just kind of becomes the regional truck route and we would naturally just see less traffic on (SR) 15 coming through Walkinsville.”
“So, I if you haven't studied that yet, I think that's worth an analysis for sure.”
Funding for the scoping study of the SR 15 truck bypass of Watkinsville resulted from the initiative of Gisler’s predecessor, Rep. Marcus Wiedower, at the request of Brodrick and the Watkinsville Council.
More On Watkinsville Study
Commissioner Harden said the Board of Commissioners had asked for a “small area study” of traffic flow in Watkinsville “before you go spending so much money.”
 |
| Alternative 1 Selection |
“We are hired by the Department to do very specific things,” Strickland said. “And so the very specific thing was to study these alternatives to reduce traffic through downtownWatkinsville.”
“If we wanted to do that, is that okay with the DOT?” Harden asked. “I mean are you all going to keep barreling down the road here, or are we going to have time to do any more studying?”
“There is not a defined schedule on this project currently,” Strickland responded, ‘But we will move forward.”
I would just say, Commissioner Harden” Mayor Brodrick said, “I think we can make incremental improvements inside the city, but you know, removing traffic of this volume with what we could do and even with the county's resources, I think we need to look at that and should look at that.”
“But I think it's a yes and if we really want to solve this problem, not a either or,” Brodrick said.
“Well, Mr. Mayor, in all due respect,” Harden said, “I mean, we need to make sure that we've looked at all options. You know, some of these roads are coming in from other communities like Clarke County and Bogart and different areas, and they're bringing people through Watkinsville.”
“And they're going to keep coming through the middle of downtown Watkinsville,” he continued. “So I just want to make sure that we do our due diligence before we go through farmland in South Oconee County.”
Inside The City
“I know you know everybody local on the call has heard this as well,” Rep. Gisler said, “but there's a lot of discussion about a potential, I guess, fifth route that would go up to the former pipe plant that’s for sale up there.”
 |
| Route Through Pipe Plant |
“That would actually be I think within the city limits,” Gisler said. “I’m just curious if there was any reason why that was excluded. I'm sure people submitted feedback for that.”
“We've taken a look at it,” Strickland said, calling up a map that was not part of his presentation. “We did get the feedback.”
“So, geometrically it works. Little impacts,” he said. “For the best traffic benefit, we want to be close to the city of Watkinsville, but unfortunately, this pushes it so into Watkinsville that it would not actually do much if anything.”
In response to a question from Watkinsville Council Member Chuck Garrett, Strickland said that the proposed truck alternatives would all be only two lanes wide.
“I think some people have gotten that mistaken,” Garrett said.
Strickland told Commissioner Harden that the proposed rounds would not be limited access and GDOT could grant permits for driveways along the routes.
Video
The video below is on the GDOT YouTube channel.
Strickland ended his overview of the project at 21:21 in the video.
Questioning began immediately following the overview.
No comments:
Post a Comment