Traffic on Windy Hill Road will change forever after this weekend

A look at Windy Hill Road and I-75 overpass bridge on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017 at 3 p.m. from a traffic camera

Credit: Cobb County Department of Transportation

Credit: Cobb County Department of Transportation

A look at Windy Hill Road and I-75 overpass bridge on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017 at 3 p.m. from a traffic camera

Lanes on the Windy Hill Road overpass at I-75 will indefinitely shift as crews continue the $48 million overhaul of this busy thoroughfare.

Construction starts this weekend but the change becomes permanent Monday morning, a Cobb transportation official said.

The Windy Hill bridge’s eastbound lanes will shift farther right along the south side of the bridge as crews barricade the center of the roadway for construction of walls and sidewalks.

Once in place, there will be two through lanes and one left turn lane onto I-75 north. That means the county will eliminate the existing left-turn signals for vehicles heading onto I-75 to avoid “crossing conflicts between vehicles,” the county said.

Word of the lane closure came about a year ago.

The five-part Windy Hill project spans the less than two-mile stretch from Cobb Parkway and Powers Ferry Road. Construction began in October 2014.

This aspect of the project is connected to the construction of a diverging diamond interchange, or DDI, to ease traffic as cheaply as possible, the county said.

These types of intersections shift traffic to the opposite side of the bridge making it easier to turn left onto an interstate.