With the end of this year fast approaching and the widening of the Panama Canal’s expected completion, Liberty County officials have plans under way to handle anticipated increased truck traffic through their county.

County Administrator Joey Brown, along with Assistant County Administrator Bob Sprinkel, explained efforts to help alleviate expected much heavier truck traffic along the Highway 84 corridor and Interstate 95.

“Truckers are already finding routes around busy 84,” Brown said during a “State of the County” presentation Tuesday before members of the Goldenheirs at Hinesville’s First Baptist Church.

Brown told the audience of 40 gathered for their monthly first-Tuesday potluck luncheon that the widening of Airport Road to four lanes is already known as the “119-Freight Corridor.”

He also noted that additional traffic planning elsewhere in the county is underway to help facilitate trucking through the county, which has already increased markedly.

“If you go out early any morning, you will see how heavy truck traffic has become on Highway 84,” he said, stressing that the canal’s Panamax-ship traffic will see the number of trucks passing through Liberty County “doubling” along Highway 84 and elsewhere.