MACON, Ga. — When he's driving down Bass Road, high school sophomore Aaron Perkel says it's either 10 minutes of smooth sailing or 30 minutes of standstill traffic.
“It was 4:15 p.m. and sat for 10 minutes trying to take a left turn right there, and I just decided to turn right because it was backed up,” said Perkel.
With all of the new construction shops and stores, the problem is only getting worse.
Ryan Johnson and his son Wyatt support a proposed expansion of a one-mile stretch of Bass Road from New Forsyth Road to Providence Boulevard.
“I think it's a good idea. I think we should expand, especially over in this new area with all of these businesses popping up,” said Johnson
The project would expand the road from two lanes to four.
The state Department of Transportation reports that traffic has nearly doubled on the road since 2010 when they counted 6,670 vehicles in a 48-hour period and then 11,622 vehicles in the same amount of time in 2018.
The expansion project would cost nearly $35 million -- more than $5 million would come from Bibb County's SPLOST fund.
Penny Brooks spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Transportation says that first, their engineers, the county's engineers, and the Bibb County Planning and Zoning Board need to draw up the plans on what that expansion would look like. The county also needs to get in touch with the owners of right of ways like this one and figure out how much they want to sell their property for.
Brooks says if everything goes right, crews will begin construction in 2026.
That means people like Johnson and Perkel will have to get to the North Macon Plaza on a two-lane road for several years to come.
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