City unveils traffic plan for Masters Week

The traffic plan for the Masters Tournament will have a few changes from last year

John Ussery, Augusta’s assistant director of traffic engineering, said it will be in place a day earlier on Saturday April 6 for the final round of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur being held at the club on Washington Road. The traffic plan typically goes into place the Sunday before the tournament.

“They’ve warned us to expect almost a full-day’s worth of traffic, so we are going to treat it just like a normal Masters Tournament day and we’ll have everything in place, including the off-ramp closures,” Ussery said. Everything else that we would normally do will be in place on that day and it will function just like any other Masters Day.”

Another change is not allowing motorists to access Washington Road from Azalea and Magnolia drives in the afternoon Ussery said a detour will take drivers to a different street before they can get on Washington Road to allow better traffic flow between Alexander and Woodbine roads.

Drivers will also cope with a new roundabout at Wheeler and Aumond roads. Ussery said out-of-town drivers might not be aware of the roundabout because it likely won't show up on a GPS.

The rest of the traffic plan will remain the same as last year. Ussery said Exit 199 on Interstate 20 onto Washington Road will be closed from 7 a.m. to around 10 a.m. daily. Drivers will be able to continue on Riverwatch Parkway onto Calhoun Expressway and westbound on Washington Road to the club. In the afternoon, both lanes of Berckmans Road will again be converted to a one-way southbound route to help empty the club's parking areas.

Motorists coming from Atlanta are encouraged to take Exit 195 onto Wheeler Road and take Berckmans Road or Exit 200 onto Riverwatch Parkway, where traffic will be routed to Alexander Drive to the golf club. Ussery said travelers coming from South Carolina are encouraged to take the Washington Road exit to go to the club.

Ussery said visitors are discouraged from using GPS because it could end up confusing them and recommends motorists follow the signs in place throughout the area.

“Do not use your GPS because often, what we will do, is that it will look like we are diverting you away from where you want to go. It's not the most direct route to the tournament, but it will be the quickest way to get there, so follow our signs,” Ussery said.

One advantage the city’s engineering department will have this year is the new Traffic Management Center, which opened last week. Ussery said the center will allow them to better manage traffic during the week.

“Now that we have the traffic management center, we have many more monitors to be able to watch the various cameras and we also have more cameras around Augusta National and the roads leading to Augusta National than we used to, so I think it will really enhance our ability to move the traffic and get them all there as quickly as we can,” Ussery said.

Washington Road typically averages about 35,000 vehicles per day, but Ussery expects that number to double during Masters Week, depending on the day. Ussery feels confident that they will be able to move people in a fast and efficient way.

“We feel ready. We have been doing this for years. This is a big team event, there are a lot of moving pieces,” Ussery said. “We all just play our part and a lot of us have been in place for several years, so I think we are ready and we will do a pretty good job."