Traffic study needed to find solution for I-95, Pooler Parkway backup

CHATHAM COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - For everyone who drives near Interstate 95 and Pooler Parkway/Airways Avenue during rush hour, you know traffic can back up quickly.

Local leaders recognize that too and are looking for a solution.

“A lot of the bottleneck kind of happens at the highway. Working at Gulfstream, the bridge is the main bottleneck. You end up sitting at a traffic light for a while,” commuter Kyle Driscoll said.

ounty leaders, however, want to get you out of that series of traffic lights, and on your way. They’re still looking for the best way to do that though.

“The study will determine all of that. Because one of the things we have to do is stop the traffic from backing up on I-95, and it’s backing up on I-95 going north and going south. We’ve had some major collisions there. So, it dictates us, we must do something and it can’t take forever to do it,” Core MPO Chairman and Chatham County Commission Chairman Chester Ellis said.

That sense of urgency is there, Ellis says, is because of the rapid growth in Chatham County which will only increase in the future because of the new Hyundai plant.

“The traffic is just going to get heavier. That whole corridor on that side, Bloomingdale, Pooler, Port Wentworth, Garden City, unincorporated Chatham, all have to get ready,” Ellis said.

There’s no word yet on what work might be done to relieve traffic in the area, whether that would be adding more lanes, putting in a diverging diamond, or something else.

There’s also no timeline set for the study, but Ellis made it clear that they want to get things done sooner rather than later.

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