Accepted wisdom is that progress must be paid for. Southwest Georgians can start preparing to pay a steep price in inconvenience when work begins in the next few weeks on the Jefferson Street interchange at the U.S. 19 Bypass.

The $12.5 million project, funded through state and federal Department of Transportation dollars, is expected to slow traffic on the bypass to a crawl for the estimated two and a half to three years of the project, forcing heavy morning and afternoon commuter traffic to use time-consuming detours that will divert many drivers onto two-lane roads.

“We’re going to have to be some really good neighbors to the folks driving out this way once we get this project started,” project superviser Doug Cooper of Albany-based Oxford Construction said. “We’re going to be widening (nearby) Philema (Road); we’re going to have to shut down the (on- and off-) ramps (onto the U.S. 19/Jefferson Street exchange), and traffic coming off the bypass will be diverted to a single lane.

“The work involves only nine-tenths of a mile of highway, but you also have four different (retaining) walls and two bridges involved. We’re talking about a lot of work.”