The Road To Nottely Dam Is Finally Getting Its Hearing. The Bulldozers Are Still Years Out.

Say you're touring a house this fall on a side road near Pat Colwell Road. How will you get onto Murphy Highway and turn left toward Blairsville once the road is rebuilt?

GDOT has already published an answer. Its Preferred Alternative puts a restricted crossing U-turn, called an RCUT, at Pat Colwell Road in place of the roundabout it showed earlier. At an RCUT, drivers coming off the side road turn right and then use a U-turn farther down the highway to go left or straight across. Drivers on the highway can still make every movement. No one can say when that intersection will be built. Its shape, though, is already on paper.

That gap is the most useful thing to understand about the State Route 11/US 19/US 129 widening between Blairsville and Lake Nottely. The plan is detailed enough to check a specific property against it. The schedule isn't settled enough to plan your life around it.

The Hearing Happened This Month. Comments Close October 23.

GDOT held its public hearing open house on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM at the Union County Sports Center, 519 Industrial Boulevard. The hearing covered three linked projects: PI 122200-, PI 0018219 and PI 0018220. Together they cover about 8.7 miles, from Blue Ridge Street in Blairsville north to SR 325/Nottely Dam Road/Ivylog Road. The GDOT project hub takes comments through October 23, 2026. GDOT says it will post a response about 30 days after comments close.

GDOT names safety as the main reason for the project. The project overview counts 777 crashes on the corridor from 2019 through 2023. Of those, 180, or 23%, involved injuries or deaths. The Environmental Assessment approved June 17, 2026 puts the 2019–2023 average crash rate at 462.98 per 100 million vehicle miles. That's above the statewide average for rural principal arterials.

Mile By Mile, From The Square To The Dam

Today the road is a mix of two- and three-lane sections, with posted speeds of 45 to 55 mph. The current design changes it in very different ways from one stretch to the next. That's why a buyer has to look at a specific address.

A few smaller items in the boards matter to people who live along the road. Sidewalks are planned inside Blairsville city limits. The quad box culvert at Butternut Creek would be replaced with a clear-span bridge. GDOT doesn't plan any detours on SR 11 itself. Side roads may be detoured while intersections are realigned, and the 2026 boards say GDOT cut back on those detours after public feedback.

The median is where the everyday effect shows up. GDOT added median openings for left turns where it could. It didn't add left-turn lanes on low-volume side roads where widening would hurt neighboring properties and environmental resources. It also changed the median at S. Mauney Road to allow left turns there. For any house that reaches Murphy Highway by a side road, the question is whether that road ends up with a median opening, a U-turn route, or something else. The answer is in the plans now, years before construction starts.

Twenty-Eight Years Of Almost

The project's history explains why the dates deserve some skepticism. According to the Environmental Assessment:

1. GDOT's District One office recommended the project, and it went into the Construction Work Program in 1998.
2. It showed up in the FY 2013–2016 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, with right-of-way money available in fiscal year 2016.
3. At an in-person open house on February 21, 2017, GDOT showed four lanes the whole way.
4. A 2019 value-engineering study recommended a smaller road, which led to the narrower, context-sensitive sections in today's plan.
5. A second open house followed on October 20, 2022, with online comments taken from September 27 to November 4, 2022. FetchYourNews covered that round at the time.
6. On June 17, 2026, the Environmental Assessment was approved to move to the public hearing stage.

So land acquisition was once funded for 2016, and ten years later the project is still taking public comment. The design has been cut down along the way. The plan has changed in response to comments more than once, and the dates have slipped more than once.

GDOT's Own Documents Don't Agree On When

Three sets of GDOT documents published or updated in 2026 give three different sets of dates.

The roundabout's status report also notes that its planned 2028 engineering start "is shifting out." The newest documents push the dates later. Cost tells the same story of a long horizon. The hub lists estimates of $126,011,674.66 for PI 122200-, $10,474,022.75 for the roundabout and $42,638,000 for the northern section, about $179 million in all. GDOT notes that these are estimates and change as the projects move forward.

Based on the latest hub table, right-of-way work for the stretch closest to Blairsville wouldn't start before fiscal 2031. The northern stretch toward Nottely Dam Road would come after that. None of these documents gives a firm start date.

Who Gives Up Ground, And What Stays Put

The Environmental Assessment expects the Preferred Alternative to need about 200 acres of new right-of-way. About 139 acres of that is developed land, about 39 acres is forest, and about 22 acres is pasture and fields. Right-of-way would be acquired from 67 businesses. The EA expects 14 business relocations and 20 residential displacements, and state and federal relocation assistance is available. By project, PI 122200- accounts for nine residential and 11 non-residential properties, and PI 0018220 accounts for 11 residential structures and three businesses. The Blue Ridge Street roundabout displaces no one.

The lake access along the corridor stays mostly as it is. The EA says no right-of-way or easement is expected from Nottely Marina, which is privately owned and sits next to the highway, and access to its boat ramp would remain open. The Canal Lake public boat ramp is inside the study area but doesn't front the corridor, so nothing would be taken from it either. About 1.91 acres of TVA-owned land would be needed. That land is non-recreational, and the plan doesn't change how TVA manages its other land around Nottely Lake.

For traffic, GDOT forecasts design-year volumes of 13,900 to 22,250 vehicles a day if the project is built, compared with 12,150 to 22,250 if it isn't. Both forecasts top out at 22,250 vehicles a day. The build scenario only raises the low end of the range.

A Slower Fall Market Leaves Room To Check

Timing helps buyers here. The Georgia MLS Union County snapshot for September 2026 shows 265 active residential listings, up 28.0% from September 2025, and 63 new listings, up 46.5%. Only 18 homes went under contract, down 33.3% from 27 a year earlier. The September 2026 median sale price was $472,000, up 1.2% from $466,500. These figures cover the whole county, not just lakefront homes. They describe a market with more homes to choose from and slower contract activity. In that market, a buyer has time to pull a project map and look up an address before writing an offer.

If you're comparing homes along the Murphy Highway corridor, these are the public sources to check:

• The project layout on the GDOT hub, to see whether the frontage or the side road falls in the proposed right-of-way
• The intersection type nearest the driveway, which could be a roundabout, an RCUT, a signal, or a median opening
• Whether the property is between SR 515 and Pat Colwell Road, where the road goes to four lanes, or north of Conley Creek, where it goes back to two
• GDOT's response to comments, expected about 30 days after October 23, 2026, which could change details on the map

Quick Answers On The Murphy Highway Plan

Is construction starting soon? No GDOT document lists construction before fiscal 2028, and the latest hub table puts it in FY 2033 and FY 2035.

Does the plan touch the Nottely Marina ramp? The Environmental Assessment expects no right-of-way or easement from the marina and says access will stay open.

Can the design still change? Yes. GDOT calls the project preliminary design and says it may revise the plans after reviewing comments.

If a home on or near Murphy Highway is on your list, Karyn Woody can go over the GDOT layout with you for that specific address and help you understand how the corridor plan fits into your purchase or sale. Request a free home valuation or schedule a consultation to talk it through before October 23.