Greene County getting new gas station
A groundbreaking ceremony occurred last Friday for a new RaceTrac gas station and convenience center at Oconee Towne Center alongside Hwy. 44, just south of I-20 between Chick-fil-A and the soon-to-be-open Longhorn Steakhouse.
According to RaceTrac Executive Director of Engineering Allen Bell, the new Greensboro station will feature RaceTrac’s largest building plan at 6,008 square feet constructed atop approximately two acres of pavement. It will be one of approximately 30 new fueling facilities built by the Atlanta-based company this year.
The new station will include a centralized kitchen featuring pizza and a selection of breakfast and sandwich-type meals. In addition to a roller grill, pastries, ice cream, packaged fruit snacks, and typical convenience-store packaged foods, a wide variety of beverages, including a coffee bar, will also be featured.
Bell described his role as being “kind of in between real estate and construction.” He said he oversees the civil engineering design for the location, the site, the grading, the utilities, and how the site will be laid out as it relates to function, circulation, and traffic, among other considerations.
The new station will have eight “multi-product dispensers,” better known as “gas pumps,” on the highway side of the facility presenting 16 fueling points, Bell said. He added the new Greensboro Race-Trac also will have certain features catering specifically to Lake Country.
“This location will have a separate canopy in the back that will offer ethanol-free gas and designed in such a way that with all the boat traffic out here, it’ll be easy for a boat on a trailer to come and be pulled through and filled up with gas on the way to the lake,” Bell said.
“It’ll be cheaper than gas sold at the lake, too,” he added. “And not just the boats, but because Home Depot’s right here and all the large residential and commercial landscaping we’ve got, contractors will be able to pull through with their trailers and get gas for their mowers, their small engines, and of course their trucks, too.”
A new traffic light also will be installed at the point of entry between Chick-fil-A and RaceTrac to the growing Oconee Towne Center complex, but the gas station will have no entry/exit points directly leading to or from Hwy. 44.
“That’s both a safety and a traffic-control measure,” Bell explained. “So, you’ll turn off the highway from a turning lane to a side road, and then turn into the RaceTrac lot. But there will be lots of room for maneuvering and parking.”
The new station is expected to be in operation within about three months.
“We’ve been looking at this area for a long time, so we’re just really glad to finally get things moving so we can be part of the community here,” Bell said.