Kate Wimberly is not quite sure how long it would take her to get to school, but she knows her mornings may be changing. If the Tucker Road bridge is closed, Kate would have to take a route to school that is different from usual. 

She says the bridge closing could “definitely affect [her] every morning.” Kate would have to take Zebulon Road to get to school every day and she “hate[s] using Zebulon in the morning because it gets so crowded.” She also says she’d have to wake up earlier than usual. 

Freshman  Langley Anne Faulkner, does not use the Tucker Road bridge on her morning commute to school and would not be affected.

“However, I am not looking forward to the extra traffic it will add to Zebulon,” she said.

She would actually be more upset if the construction is done over the summer, as it is the only time she regularly uses the bridge. 

The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) recently announced plans to replace two bridges on Tucker Road — the bridge that goes over I-475 and the bridge that runs over Rocky Creek. 

Many Stratford students and parents use Tucker Road to get to Stratford every morning, so the closing of either of these bridges would be a great inconvenience. 

Head of School Mr. Logan Bowlds and several faculty members attended a GDOT meeting and learned that the plan was to make this an 18-month project. For 15 months, motorists will be able to use the bridge over I-475, but for the final three months, the bridge over Rocky Creek will be closed. That could cause problems for people coming from North Macon to Stratford, and it would also increase traffic on Peake Road, which would be the detour route. 

The Georgia Department of Transportation has decided to consider what the Stratford community has to say. They encourage people to leave comments on what they think should happen in their comment section online. 

“If we can all go in there and leave a comment to have the three-month bridge closure be over our summer months, that would be ideal,” Head of School Mr. Logan Bowlds said.

Another potential problem is that the load-bearing bridge on Peake Road will eventually need to be replaced. It would be convenient if that bridge could be closed at the same time as those on Tucker, but that is probably not going to happen.

“The good news for a lot of our drivers right now is that this is mostly not going to start until January 2022 and the final three months won’t be until January 2023.”

Here is the website to leave a comment for GDOT:

http://www.dot.ga.gov/BuildSmart/Pages/ContactUs.aspx