SOUTH FORSYTH – Persistent rain has delayed a major traffic shift planned for a busy south Forsyth crossing. Crews with C.W. Matthews had been slated to begin moving lanes on Hwy. 9 overnight Saturday at Bethelview Road and Hwy. 9. But according to Bayne Smith, a district engineer with the state Department of Transportation, that wasn’t possible. “We need two solid nights of work to shift traffic on State Route 9 to its final location and open up both lanes in each direction,” he said in a statement. “It will take one night to finish the paving needed and a second night to change over the striping and signage, then move the traffic. “The question is when will we get two nights of dry weather to work, with all the rain that is forecast for this week?” The National Weather Service is calling for a 40 percent or greater chance of rain through Wednesday. Smith said crews would be out at night in an attempt to work. “We are waiting on the weather,” he said. The $5 million project is reworking the busy crossing west of Ga. 400 at Exit 13 to create two through lanes, two left turning lanes and a right turning lane for each leg. The effort will also upgrade the traffic signal equipment and will add sidewalks. A second $4.8-million project will widen Bethelview to Castleberry Road. Work on a new concrete median along Bethelview is still scheduled to begin this week. The widening of Bethelview is slated to be complete by Sept. 6, while the intersection improvements at Hwy. 9 are scheduled to finish by month’s end.
SOUTH FORSYTH – Persistent rain has delayed a major traffic shift planned for a busy south Forsyth crossing. Crews with C.W. Matthews had been slated to begin moving lanes on Hwy. 9 overnight Saturday at Bethelview Road and Hwy. 9. But according to Bayne Smith, a district engineer with the state Department of Transportation, that wasn’t possible. “We need two solid nights of work to shift traffic on State Route 9 to its final location and open up both lanes in each direction,” he said in a statement. “It will take one night to finish the paving needed and a second night to change over the striping and signage, then move the traffic. “The question is when will we get two nights of dry weather to work, with all the rain that is forecast for this week?” The National Weather Service is calling for a 40 percent or greater chance of rain through Wednesday. Smith said crews would be out at night in an attempt to work. “We are waiting on the weather,” he said. The $5 million project is reworking the busy crossing west of Ga. 400 at Exit 13 to create two through lanes, two left turning lanes and a right turning lane for each leg. The effort will also upgrade the traffic signal equipment and will add sidewalks. A second $4.8-million project will widen Bethelview to Castleberry Road. Work on a new concrete median along Bethelview is still scheduled to begin this week. The widening of Bethelview is slated to be complete by Sept. 6, while the intersection improvements at Hwy. 9 are scheduled to finish by month’s end.