Here's what you need to know about Augusta traffic during Masters Week
John Ussery used to encourage Masters Week motorists to avoid using GPS and keep their eyes on Augusta's roads instead of checking their phones.
Now, there's an app for that.
"For years and years my mantra was 'turn off your GPS, turn off your GPS,' but now it's 'turn on your GPS' and get the QR code and download the app," said the assistant director of the city's Traffic Engineering Division.
Introduced last year, the QR code will direct users to available parking and provide not only which problem spots to avoid but also how to get around them.
Ussery shared details about that Wednesday and other changes to daily Augusta traffic during the one week of the year where the world's eyes turn to the Masters Tournament.
"This plan has been in place for quite a while now," Ussery said. "Every year our goal is to take what we've done, take what we've learned from the previous year and adjust it a little bit, hopefully just to improve final plans a little bit, improve the experience a little bit, and make sure the patrons have an easy experience getting to the parking area."
One idea that worked last year is coming back this year. Local motorists might already have noticed a temporary traffic signal where Washington Road meets River Ridge Drive, next to National Hills Baptist Church.
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Its location, in the former Electrolux building at National Hills Shopping Center, raises pedestrian traffic at a busy intersection with no crosswalk. The temporary signal solved the problem.
The roundabout that joins Berckmans Road and Ingleside Drive will be conditionally closed to allow morning motorists to turn left from Ingleside onto Berckmans to reach Wheeler Road.
Also, there will be a new rideshare lot at the corner of Washington and Berckmans roads. City workers call it the "TGI Friday's lot" because a restaurant location was on the 1.5-acre site. The Augusta National bought the land in 2015 for $2.5 million.
Overall, the traffic plan is "much the same as it was last year," Ussery said.
The Washington Road off-ramp from Interstate 20 will be closed each day from 7 a.m. to about 9 a.m. Traffic from Atlanta will be directed to Exit 200 to drive the short skip along River Watch Parkway to Alexander Drive.
Depending on traffic volume, Alexander Drive will be closed near its railroad crossing so patrons can take River Watch to downtown, then to the John C. Calhoun Expressway and up Washington Road to the tournament.
About 20 changeable message signs will help direct drivers to available parking areas.
The timing of traffic signals also changes during Masters Week because the mission of traffic control also changes. The goal above all is to move traffic safely and efficiently to and from Augusta National.
"So if you try to do something opposite of that, you're going to wait a while," Ussery said. "There's only so much we can do with signal timing."
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Masters Week traffic plan guides visitors how to drive, where to park
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