Set to open Tuesday, drivers received a surprise Friday afternoon when the Georgia DOT opened the new roundabout at the intersection of Harville Road and Langston Chapel Road about 3 p.m.

The $3.75 million, Georgia Department of Transportation designed and directed, federally funded project had been delayed from its original Oct. 6 opening date by the effects of Hurricane Helene that went through Bulloch County Set. 26.

Although construction of the roundabout began in early July 2024 with J.A. Long Concrete Paving of Fortson, Georgia, as contractor, the planning and rationale behind the project go back more than a decade.

Before the roundabout’s construction, traffic controls at the intersection consisted of stop signs on Langston Chapel Road and on previously unpaved Bethel Church Road, which now also joins the roundabout. Harville Road previously passed through unimpeded, curving sharply where it met Langston Chapel Road.  

Planning for the roundabout as such “originated from the need to address a total of 25 crashes that were reported between 2012 and 2016,” the Georgia DOT stated in a 2021 report. Seven of those crashes resulted in at least one person being injured, but no deaths were reported from crashes at the intersection during the four-year period analyzed.