President Street Project

Utility work on President Street and General McIntosh Boulevard is mostly complete.  Paving crews have moved to East Broad to mill asphalt and relay a new top layer asphalt.  The top of the hill on President Street and the area between Truman Parkway and the rail road tracks will be completed next making the surrounding areas blend with the new pavement on President Street and General McIntosh Boulevard.  Expect temporary lane closures as crews are finishing up milling, paving and painting lanes.  Substantial completion of the project should wrap up in May 2018.

General McIntosh Boulevard is now open to traffic in both directions. New traffic signals poles are currently operational as well as pedestrian signals.  

The left turn lane onto Truman Parkway (south bound) will also open before the St. Patrick’s Day weekend. There will be some additional sidewalk and paving work on the west bound side of the President Street Bridge. West bound traffic will shift closer to the median so this work can be performed while maintaining two lanes of traffic in both directions along President Street.  Intermittent lane closures may be expected while crews are working in the area. Additional milling and repaving of some areas around the project will follow as the weather warms a bit and after St. Patrick’s Day traffic calms. 

The temporary median that was constructed along East Broad Street, at the east end of Broughton Street, will be removed this week when the left turn lane along President Street onto Truman Parkway (south bound) reopens.

General McIntosh Blvd

All four lanes on General McIntosh Boulevard are now open to traffic.  New traffic signals are currently in operation at the intersection of President Street and General McIntosh Blvd as well as General McIntosh and Randolph Street.   

President Street

Progress on the new bridge (near the railroad crossing along President Street) was temporarily on hold based on evaluation of the currently installed concrete wearing surface and inability to pave asphalt due to cold temperatures.  The new bridge deck “wearing surface” is a non-structural 4” layer of concrete that sits atop of the bridge beams.  The purpose of this wearing surface is to provide a riding surface for traffic while protecting the bridge beams.  The bridge deck has a typical design life, and can be replaced without replacing the entire bridge.  In this case, cracks were observed in the concrete wearing surface following installation.  Upon further evaluation, it was determined the cracks could lead to long-term maintenance issues for the City.  It was further determined that the replacement could be performed now, while a future traffic shift is possible.  Deck repairs are now planned to be made at no cost to the City of Savannah.  

Crews should begin removing the current bridge deck wearing surface next week.   Additional final improvements will be seen along President Street to complete median work, curb and gutter, sidewalk, final asphalt surfacing, striping, signage, etc. during the next couple weeks.  Completion of work and all lanes of traffic on President Street will be in their final designed configuration in April of this year.  At that time the left turn onto Truman Parkway, southbound, will also be reopened.

Although some additional time has been awarded to the contractor to complete additional tasks along the project, the project remains and plans to be completed under budget.