Drivers traveling east down Highway 84 will notice a new stop along the way.

A traffic light in front of Bainbridge High School was installed this week. Currently set on “burn mode,” the light is flashing yellow and will continue to flash into next week. It will be fully operational Wednesday, July 29, at 11 a.m.

“That’s just an alert,” Georgia Department of Transportation District 4 engineer Chad Hartley said about the week of burn time, adding it’s mainly there as a test. “You don’t want to put a signal up that’s not fully functional.”

Bainbridge City Manager Chris Hobby, who worked with GDoT and the Decatur County School System to get the light up and running, said GDoT will monitor the light for two weeks after it becomes functional.

“It’s not just a matter of installing it and they vanish,” Hobby said.

In addition to the new light, the BHS campus itself is seeing renovations done to accommodate the change in traffic flow coming in and out of the school. A new lane has been added that will make leaving the campus easier.

DCCS Superintendent Fred Rayfield said the school system was working diligently to plan for the new traffic patterns.

“We really appreciate the cooperation with the DoT on working to make sure we made the right adjustments on the inside of our campus to accommodate the traffic flow and new patterns,” Rayfield said. “They were great to work with.”

Rayfield also said he, BHS principal Tommie Howell and chief resource officer Maurice Gaines were putting together information pieces for students and parents to understand how the new traffic flow will work. Everything from administration to buses to students will be using the main entrance and exit.

“There are lots of groups to work with, and we are trying to convey to them how we need to move that traffic through there,” Rayfield said. “Now that it’s installed, we are making sure everyone knows how to use it.”