Furys Ferry Road Is Down to Its Final Paving. Now the Weather Sets the Schedule.

Five years after the contract was signed, the Furys Ferry Road widening between Evans to Locks Road and the Savannah River is down to its final coat of asphalt. That last coat is the one part of the project that depends on temperature. Georgia's state paving rules set a minimum temperature for each asphalt layer. So as November cools down, the forecast will say more about when two-way traffic returns than any date on the county's schedule.

That's a change from how this project has worked until now. Earlier in the year the remaining work was curbs, sidewalks, driveways and lane shifts, and crews could do most of it in almost any weather. As of this fall, that list is close to done. What's left needs warm, dry pavement.

The Target Date Has Moved All Year

The contract for the widening was signed in April 2021, and the road had one lane in each direction, WFXG reported this summer. The same report said about 39,000 vehicles use the road's intersection with Evans to Locks every day. Here's how the expected finish has shifted in 2026:

1. February 23. Kyle Titus, Columbia County's director of engineering services, told WJBF the project was on target to be completely finished by mid-summer. The station also reported that Hurricane Helene and other weather delays had already pushed the date back by several months.
2. Late July. County officials told WFXG they tentatively expected the project to be done by the end of 2026. They said they had no definite date and that the work could run into 2027.
3. September 22. Engineering staff updated a county committee, according to a Citizen Portal summary of the meeting. Staff said the contractor had brought in senior-level crews and was finishing ancillary widening and punch-list items. They said it aimed to start final topping in about a month, that topping would likely take another month, and that traffic could be flowing on both sides in roughly two months, barring weather.

Counting forward from September 22 puts the start of topping around late October and the return of two-way traffic around Thanksgiving week, if that pace held. The same summary said lane closures could continue during the final work. So treat the four lanes opening and the last cone leaving as two separate events.

Paving Was Always the Bottleneck

The weather problem isn't new. It was already the main constraint back in February. On a cold week that held up shoulder paving between Hardy McManus Road and the state line, Titus explained the schedule to WJBF:

"The biggest challenge right now with the critical path is the paving. It has to be a certain temperature and rising for them to pave, and if it's not then they can't pave. So, what they're doing in the meantime is they're finishing curb and gutter work, finishing sidewalk work, and finishing driveways."

That week, WJBF reported, crews from contractor E.R. Snell couldn't start until Tuesday because of the cold. Titus also laid out how the work would proceed. Crews would pave the shoulders, top that section, shift traffic into the closed lane, and then move to where traffic had been running.

In February, crews could fill cold days with curb, gutter, sidewalk and driveway work. By September, county staff were describing that kind of work as punch-list items. Once most of it is done, a too-cold day has little else to fill it. It's just a lost day.

What Georgia's Paving Rule Says

The temperature limit Titus described comes from the Georgia Department of Transportation. Section 400 of GDOT's Standard Specifications covers hot mix asphalt. It bars paving when the existing surface is wet or frozen, and it sets minimum temperatures by the thickness of each layer, or "lift":

The thinner the layer, the warmer it has to be, because a thin layer of hot asphalt cools fastest. The thickest base courses can go down at freezing as long as the temperature is rising. A lift of an inch or less needs at least 55°F. Open-graded friction courses, a separate category of surface mix, need an air temperature of at least 60°F, or 55°F with a material transfer vehicle and the engineer's approval. GDOT's 2024 supplemental specifications repeat the same temperature table.

This is the general state standard. A specific road contract can include its own special provisions, so the table shows how the rule works, not the exact limits for this job. But the pattern explains why a few cold, wet stretches in November can push the end date out by more than the number of bad days. A rainy day takes out the paving itself, and a cold morning after it can take out the next day too.

What's Already Open

Not all of the corridor is waiting on asphalt. Two changes that drivers in Martinez and west Evans use every day are already working.

• The Furys Ferry and Hardy McManus roundabout. It opened in late March, replacing a stop-controlled intersection so traffic yields instead of stopping, WFXG reported. At the time, project manager Kelly McDaniel said shoulders, final paving and landscaping around it would be finished in the coming weeks.
• The signal at Furys Ferry and Blackstone Camp Road. It went to flash mode on July 29, according to WFXG, and went fully live on the morning of Wednesday, August 5, replacing a four-way stop. WRDW reported that it's meant to improve access to the subdivision on Colony Drive.

McDaniel told WRDW the signal fixed a long-running safety problem at that corner. "No longer do they have to start out there in the middle of the traffic," he said. "And we've had so many accidents at this point, at this stop here." He described the signal as an early look at "how good the final product will be."

Both changes fixed specific intersections. The widening between them is the part still waiting on paving weather.

How November Is Likely to Feel

The most recent closures followed a pattern worth knowing. The Augusta Press reported that E.R. Snell scheduled intermittent overnight lane closures from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., weather permitting. They ran October 18 through 23 between Hardy McManus Road and Evans to Locks Road, and October 19 through 22 between Hardy McManus Road and the Savannah River. On October 25, the same outlet said utility work and road construction would bring temporary lane closures to both Washington Road and Furys Ferry Road over the following two weeks. That window runs into the first week of November.

Overnight closures keep the work away from the morning and evening peaks, when Titus says the stretch from Evans to Locks to the state line is "heavily congested." Overnight hours are also the coldest part of a November day. Under the GDOT table, a cold snap is more likely to cancel a night's paving in late autumn than in early fall. When a planned closure doesn't happen, the work probably slid to another night rather than being dropped.

Daytime traffic still has its own pressures. A resident who commutes on Furys Ferry told WFXG this summer that he leaves at least 30 minutes early for work, and that once school is in session, missing the school buses means arriving later. Another neighbor said the project was originally described as about four years of work and had reached five and a half, and he asked the county for more communication. Columbia County's closure notices, as reported by The Augusta Press, are still the most dependable signal of what's coming. The October notice covered less than a week and said its schedule held "weather permitting."

Here's how to read what you see on the road over the next few weeks. Fresh black surface between Hardy McManus and Evans to Locks means topping is underway. Traffic moving into its final lanes means the September estimate is holding. A week of cold rain means the date moves again, for reasons the county has been explaining since February.

Furys Ferry is a main route for a lot of Martinez neighborhoods. If you're thinking about how the corridor's next chapter affects your plans, or you just want to talk about what's changing around your street, The Moss Group is glad to help. Request a complimentary home valuation or schedule a consultation with Lisa.