The 290/292/Railroad Tracks Modifications

Exciting news for local residents is that there are now two projects in process that will improve traffic flow through the 290/292/railroad intersection.

The first will be that the three way stop at Gap Creek Road is going to be replaced with a traffic light sometime early in 2024. The DOT (department of transportation) traffic engineers believe this will be a major improvement to traffic flow. Another scheduled change is to add a right turn lane onto Gap Creek Road from Highway 290 coming from Downtown Duncan. Anyone who has been stuck in it knows that traffic often backs up well into downtown during rush hour. This is the first bottleneck that will be improved.

The planned modifications to the 290/292/railroad tracks intersection are shown in the drawing further below are in process as well. This will be a major improvement traffic flow. Unfortunately the tentative schedule is that it will take five years from late 2023 to complete to The highlights of the modifications are as follow:

• A turn lane will be added to 290. When the train comes by traffic on 290 coming into Duncan from Greer will stop but people who know the area will be able to use the turn lane to turn onto 292 to go around the train. Currently when one or two cars stop for the train then all traffic on 290 stops since drivers that want to turn onto 292 are blocked by just one or two cars. With the turn lane it will take a much larger back-up to stop all traffic flow.
• Highway 290 will now have the right of way. Traffic on 292 will have to yield to 290.
• A turn lane will be added to 292. When the train comes by traffic on 292 out of Duncan will be able to turn onto 290 and keep flowing until the turn lane fills up.
• The short connector between 290 and 292 will be closed off and the pavement torn up. Highway 292 will come in at a sharper angle to 290 as shown in the drawing.