By Travis Walters
Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police have a comprehensive plan in place to ensure motorists get out of downtown Savannah efficiently and safely on July 4. Beginning the evening of July 3 police will be stationed along Highway 80 to monitor traffic flow and manually operate traffic lights to keep westbound traffic moving from Tybee Island.
Police estimate 60,000 people will be in the downtown area for the fireworks on River Street. Parking lots will be closed at 3 a.m. Saturday morning and will remain closed until early Sunday. River Street will be closed to vehicular traffic Saturday at 5 p.m. and will reopen early Sunday.
Because the bulk of the traffic leaving the downtown area heads to Interstate 16 after the show, SCMPD will be forcing motorists to take alternate routes to alleviate congestion. SCMPD list the key components of the traffic plan as:
- Prohibiting southbound traffic on Martin Luther King Boulevard from Bay Street. Westbound vehicular traffic will be forced westbound. Alternative routes to I-16 will be through East Lathrop Street to Louisville Street, or into Garden City.
- Traffic on Whitaker Street will be forced Southbound. Alternate routes to Interstate I-16 are Gwinnett Street and 37th Street.
- Price Street will be open and can be used to get to 37th Street which will take you to I-16.
- Additional signage will be deployed to assist drivers in locating alternate routes to I-16. Those who are not familiar with the direction of the detour should be mindful of the signage.
- Traffic headed towards Tybee via President Street should flow as usual.
ON THE WEB
Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department
