"Due to limited funding and potential uncertainty of phasing and future funding, the Design Team was given the direction to limit options to those that could happen within the current ROW."
That sentence comes from Athens-Clarke County's TSPLOST 2023 project update. It shapes what's coming to the intersection where South Milledge Avenue, Milledge Circle and South Lumpkin Street meet. ROW means right-of-way, the land the county already controls. Staying inside it means the curbs stay roughly where they are. So the most promising change on the table works on time. It would add a phase where every vehicle stops and people on foot cross in any direction. Traffic engineers call this a pedestrian scramble.
A $1.47 Million Project, Measured Against Its Neighbors
The county lists the work as "27 - Five Points Intersection Safety Improvements Project." Keith Sanders of Transportation & Public Works is the project manager, and Chase Zech is the subproject manager. This is how the money stood in the report the county printed on July 10, 2026:
| Line item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Referendum budget | $1,500,000 |
| Program admin fee | -$30,000 |
| Total project budget | $1,470,000 |
| Expenses to date | $70,433 |
| Encumbered | $15,754 |
| Designated | $29,093 |
| Available balance | $1,354,720 |
On its own, $1.47 million sounds like plenty. Next to other Athens transportation work, it's modest. In a July 2026 roundup of county bike and pedestrian projects, Flagpole reported that the Commission put $3 million from TSPLOST 2023 toward a single walking and biking path along part of Atlanta Highway. North Avenue's redesign has a $25 million federal grant behind it. Five Points has about half the money of that one Atlanta Highway path, for an intersection with three streets coming together. That gap explains why the design team was told to stay inside the existing right-of-way.
Why the Roundabout Is Off the Table for Now
A roundabout came up early. The county's update says staff and the design team were working on concepts that "include intersection alternatives and potential for a future roundabout." Flagpole's July article put the odds plainly. The intersection could eventually become a roundabout, but the final design will more likely stay within the existing right-of-way. A roundabout needs room to curve traffic around a center island, and room is the one thing this budget can't pay for.
What the budget can pay for is listed in the county's project description. Depending on actual costs and funding, improvements may include:
- Sidewalks
- Crosswalks moved to new spots, with ADA accessibility
- Changes to signal timing and signal supports
- Rebuilt pedestrian refuges at the corners
- Pedestrian and street lighting
- Traffic signals and other general safety improvements
The same description says project funds may be used as matching money for grants, as far as the law allows. So the scope could grow if outside money turns up. Until then, nearly every item on the list fits within the current pavement and corners.
How a Scramble Rearranges the Light
Staff approved a proposal from the design team to study what the county called "a more near-term solution than the round about." It would rework the existing signals at South Lumpkin Street and South Milledge and add "an exclusive pedestrian phase at the intersection."
Today, people on foot cross alongside moving traffic. Cars turning across the crosswalk and people stepping off the curb share the same green light. A scramble splits the cycle differently:
- Traffic on one street gets its green while the other street waits.
- The streets swap.
- Every vehicle at the intersection stops at once.
- People on foot cross in any direction, including straight across the middle, while no car moves.
The cost of that fourth step is time. Every second given to walkers is a second when no lane moves. That's why the proposal came with a traffic study to "model the level of service impacts with the proposed pedestrian scramble phase." Level of service is the engineering measure of how long drivers wait. The study asks whether the intersection can give up those seconds and still keep moving.
The timing of the count matters too. The county says traffic data was collected the week of April 20, "before the end of classes." Five Points sits on South Lumpkin, a direct line to campus. Counting while UGA was in session captured the intersection on busy spring weekdays, with students still in town, and not during the quiet stretch after commencement.
The Walk It Would Change
The businesses along the strip show why a diagonal crossing matters. Flagpole's Athens guide lists a run of Five Points spots on South Lumpkin. They include BobaMania at 1557, Baddie's Burger House at 1591, Condor Chocolates at 1658, Bar Bruno at 1664, The Expat at 1680 and ADD Drug Store at 1695. Five & Ten is on the Milledge side at 1073 S. Milledge Ave. Condor was still serving its cold-treat menu this past July, according to the Athens Banner-Herald.
Walking from one leg of the intersection to the opposite corner now takes two crossings and two waits. With a scramble, it takes one. The difference adds up for anyone who parks on one side and runs errands on the other, or walks a dog through on a loop.
Athens has tried this before, just up the street. In 2017, Flagpole described the crossing at Baxter Street and South Lumpkin on the UGA campus as having a pedestrian-only cycle. People could walk in any direction while cars waited. The same piece noted that such cycles were rare elsewhere on campus and around town. If the county goes ahead at Five Points, South Lumpkin would have the idea at both ends of the stretch between campus and the neighborhood.
Where Things Stand Heading Into Winter
The county's July 2 update set "early Summer 2026" as the target for a revised concept based on the traffic study. The project was still in phase "02 - Planning" in that report. The update did not give a construction start date, and the scramble was still a concept under study. As of July, $70,433 had been spent. That's under 5 percent of the budget, which fits a project still in design.
Flagpole reported that a user group was working with the professional design team on the concepts. In the same article, Daniel Sizemore, the county's bike and pedestrian coordinator, gave the Athens in Motion Commission a general warning about project timelines. "Even if there is a date, it's not set in stone. That's kind of our best guess," he said.
For anyone following along, the TSPLOST 2023 monthly project update is where Project 27's phase, spending and written status show up. When the planning phase changes, or expenses jump past the low five figures, that's a sign a design has been picked. Whatever gets built, the current direction points to new signal timing, new crosswalk placement and better corners at Milledge and Lumpkin, all fitted inside the intersection Five Points already has.
Street changes like this one shape how a home's location feels day to day, and they're worth understanding before you plan your own next step. If you own in Five Points and want to talk through what makes your house stand out to buyers, from the walk to Lumpkin to the details inside, Ellen McLemore Real Estate would love to help. Schedule your free Revival Home consultation.
