Amazon won't impact traffic near East Garner Middle School

Leaders from the Town of Garner say the congestion has nothing to do with Amazon. It's East Garner Middle School, which has a poor design for carpool, that's the issue.

As a result, backups build, sometime affecting traffic at several intersections.

On the first day of school, many frustrated parents said they were parked on Jones Sausage Road headed southbound toward the school. Some had to drop off their kids and let them walk because the backups were so bad.

WRAL spoke with a few parents in the area, who said although they're excited about plans for the 2.6 million square foot Amazon center and they know road improvements are part of that deal, they wonder if it'll be enough.

Amazon to open new distribution center in Garner

"It's heavy and it's dangerous when we turn out onto Jones Sausage," said Rodney Batts, a parent of a student at East Garner. "I can only imagine when they finish with the plant that it's going to be a lot of traffic too."

"Traffic is always a hassle in this area coming up from Angier on I-40, and rush hour is a dead stop," said commuter Wayne Malone. "They're going to address that, but they should've done that a decade ago."

Garner leaders say, for Amazon, they plan on adding some turn lanes on Jones Sausage Road at Garner Street. They will also expand parts of the road near the property to four lanes.

However, they continue to say that won't really impact East Garner Middle School or the design issues the school has.

The NCDOT told WRAL their traffic engineer has been in contact with Wake County about the problems with the layout at the school. However, the problems usually go away after the first few weeks of school, and the county doesn't have any immediate plans to make changes.