Motorists may get some relief from traffic-clogged Woodruff Road from some unusual sources — Piedmont Natural Gas and Verdae Development.

Piedmont Natural Gas, which has a facility behind Target, is in negotiations with Verdae Boulevard to build a road from Woodruff Industrial Lane to Verdae Boulevard to provide an alternate way for the utility to get trucks out of its facility without having to get on Woodruff Road, said Adam Spry, manager of land management and acquisition for Piedmont Natural Gas.

Potentially, the public could use the road, Spry said.

That byproduct excites city leaders as they have been searching for ways to address congestion and flow on traffic-choked Woodruff Road.

Dwayne Cooper, Greenville’s engineering services manager, said it could cost the city about $400,000 to connect the private road with Green Heron Road and Ketron Court, something that would give traffic going to and from the Magnolia Park development another option.

If the connector were made into a public road, the city would take over ownership and maintenance, Cooper said, and the city would seek C-funds from the Greenville-Pickens Area Transportation Study for the project.

“I don’t think you’ll find anybody who has traveled Woodruff Road who wouldn’t say this is a good thing,” Cooper said. “This has great potential to help in the short- and long-term.”The new connector would not take the place of a Woodruff Road connector that the city and state transportation officials have been talking about for years. That road could run from Miller Road to Verdae and perhaps extend to Salters Road, Cooper said. But its route hasn’t been determined and the project won’t get funding for easements until 2018, Cooper said. The Woodruff Road connector isn’t scheduled to get any construction money until 2021, and it could take two or three years to fund the entire project, Cooper said.

“If we connected with Green Heron Road and Ketron Court, it’s creating a grid, and that’s what you want to have,” Mayor Knox White said.

The connector could be similar to the Market Pointe connector the city is building on Woodruff on the other side of Interstate 85 near Whole Foods. Paving of that plain, two-lane road with no sidewalks or lighting is expected to start this week, Cooper said.

Rick Sumerel, president and CEO of Verdae Development, told City Council members on Monday that Verdae has plans to develop the swath of land it owns on the potential PNG connector.