The four-lane stretch next to the Kroger-anchored shopping center off Spout Springs Road in South Hall is now a road to somewhere.

As of Monday morning, Friendship Road/Ga. 347 motorists could use the strip of pavement to reach Spout Springs Road in Braselton, said Teri Pope, a Georgia Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

Previously, Friendship Road continued behind the Kroger and then connected with Spout Springs at Thompson Mill Road, a five-legged intersection known as Duncan Corners.

A developer built the four-lane road several years ago as part of the Kroger project with the idea that someday the DOT would use it as part of its realignment of Ga. 347. But until today, the road was only used so customers could get in and out of the shopping center.

The DOT project, which calls for a two-phase $127.3 million widening between McEver Road and Ga. 211/Old Winder Highway, is several years away.

The new lanes are part of an overall effort to improve traffic congestion in the growing area. Other plans call for new lanes and traffic lights at the Friendship Road-Spout Springs intersection and Duncan Corners.

The DOT had planned to put stop signs at all sides of the Friendship Road-Spout Springs intersection but decided against the idea after observing the flow of traffic, Pope said Monday.

Workers “saw that the movement on Spout Springs was going to be about triple about what ... it is on the new four-lane,” she said.