AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – It’s not just you – since Hurricane Helene, local stoplights have been out-of-wack.

After the storm, city engineers told us the system that all the traffic lights communicated on was taken offline.

The good news is, that should be over shortly.

If you’ve sat for what feels like forever at intersections around town, it may have something to do with some of the traffic lights being off.

After Hurricane Helene, only 34 of 275 traffic signals were working.

Three months later, John Ussery, the assistant traffic director, says all signals are working as they were before the storm except for a couple along Washington Road and Riverwatch Parkway.

That’s because the communications network to those signals was damaged by uprooted trees and they are currently being fixed.

Ussery also says the traffic patterns and volumes haven’t returned to normal, so that is why some signals seem to be busier than they were before.

It’s something Nick Bates says he’s noticed while driving around.

“It is more of a problem now than it was before the storm,” said Bates. “Traffic will back up and it will just stay red forever, and when it does turn green, it’s green for like two seconds. It’s not unheard of to sit through a light for four or five cycles. It depends on the time of day. Rush hour? You can sit there for nearly 10 minutes.”

Ussery says they are monitoring traffic and adjusting the timing.

“The fact that we, along with the Georgia Department of Transportation, were able to accomplish this task in just three months is unprecedented,” said Ussery.

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AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – The CSRA and especially downtown have been preparing for New Year’s Eve, hoping to see more people and business to start off the new year strong.

They are getting ready for the night ahead and even celebrating a little early.

“Oh it’s fun,” said Kathy Nave, Skateland of Augusta owner. “It’s a lot of fun having all the families here and their siblings.”

Skateland of Augusta has been busy preparing for a family-friendly New Year’s by having an event for the kids early in the day and one for everyone later at night.

“The younger children are falling asleep and they want to be involved in the adult stuff,” said Nave. “It’s midnight, it’s New Year’s, so we decided about three years ago, that we should have a balloon drop just for little kids.”

But Nave says the fun doesn’t stop there.

“We have a balloon drop at midnight,” she said. “We’ll countdown with the big ball dropping.”

They aren’t the only ones who have spent the day preparing for the new year.

“Blowing up balloons, getting confetti all set up ready for the big ball drop, having everything set up,” said Dustin Keyes, bar manager at Dirty Boots.

They are making sure they’re ready for anything.

“Any night that we work, we never hope to be slow,” said Keyes. “So we’re always prepared to be super busy and just as busy as we can be.”

Hoping it’s busy, and that it stays that way into the new year.

“It seems like ever since we’ve been down here, it’s definitely grown and blown up a little bit, especially with this bar,” said Keyes. “We have two others right now going on, so who knows what the future will hold.”

There are only a few hours left of 2024 and these businesses say to come celebrate with them.

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