Georgia DOT has approved a construction contract for a new roundabout on State Route 81 at New Morn Drive. The project is located in unincorporated Hampton. The state accepted construction bids for the project in August 2024.
SR 81 at New Morn Drive Roundabout
Georgia DOT converted SR 81 at New Morn Drive into a four-way stop about six years ago. Now, a second project will move forward to build a roundabout. The intersection is located along State Route 81 between McDonough and Hampton.
The state DOT accepted construction bids during its August 2024 letting. This ended on August 16, 2024. They received seven bids for the project.
CMES, Inc. of Norcross received the contract with a low bid of $3,181,528.20. The project’s contract completion date is August 31, 2026.
The state explained its decision to install a roundabout in the project concept report. They approved the concept report in May 2020. The decision was based on crash history at the intersection:
The state previously converted the location to an all-way stop in March 2018. The conversion happened following fifty-two crashes in a five-year period (2013–2017). The crashes included twenty-one injury crashes and thirty-one property damage only crashes.
After the installation of all-way stop control, the intersection continues to experience crashes. This includes two injury crashes and three property damage only crashes during 2019. The predominant crash type are angle crashes, caused by the off-angle approaches from New Morn Drive.
“New Details for State Route 81 at New Morn Drive Roundabout,” MHF News, June 12, 2020.
In addition, the roundabout offered the greatest safety benefit to cost ratio over other alternatives. Other options the state considered were an offset-T intersection or adding left-hand turn lanes.
Construction typically begins about two to three months after the contract award. The state’s project webpage is available here.
Featured image shows the concept layout for state route 81 at New Morn Drive. Georgia DOT photo.
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