Jeff Whitten, Correspondent

Bryan County Commissioners on Tuesday night approved spending $227,600 on making the busy Harris Trail and Timber Trail intersection safer for motorists. And this traffic fix may not include a roundabout, but instead an old fashioned traffic light.

“It seems there’s a wreck there just about once a week, so this is a good thing, a very good thing,” District 5 Commissioner Dr. Gene Wallace said, after asking County Manager Ben Taylor whether the county was any closer to getting a roundabout at the intersection.

Taylor responded that a traffic signal there “would probably be more appropriate for the amount of growth we’re seeing on that road, to more efficiently serve that projected growth,” he said.

A county document shows the scope of the project approved Tuesday includes using the engineering firm of Thomas and Hutton to handle the survey, design and overseeing construction of the improvements, which will consist of a “turn lane extension on Timber Trail Road and a stop and go traffic signal installed at the intersection.”

Taylor told commissioners it could be placed on the next budget cycle’s capital improvement plan. When started, the project could take up to six months to complete, according to the contract between the county and Thomas and Hutton.

Last week, Bryan County sent out invitations to bid on the roundabout at Highway 280 and Wilma Edward Road near the Bryan County Board of Education Central Office in Black Creek. The county first began planning for the roundabout in 2021, contracting with Thomas and Hutton for $193,000 in engineering and design services.

The proposed roundabout at Wilma Edwards Highway 280 was on the county and Georgia Department of Transportation radar as far back as 2018, as residential growth in the area began making the intersection increasingly dangerous.