Work will shut HOV lanes

HOV lanes on I-75 around Northside Drive will close this weekend so the state Department of Transportation can make more changes to the HOV exit where a bus crash killed seven people in 2007.

The DOT already has painted some new lines and symbols on the lanes at the Northside Drive exit.

The work this weekend is a prelude to the biggest change: overhead signs. Those signs won’t be hung for several weeks, said DOT spokesman Mark McKinnon.

From 9 tonight to Monday morning at 5, crews will pour cement for the concrete footings for the new signs and leave them to dry. They should take weeks to completely “cure,” McKinnon said.

After that, the poles and signs will be installed. In recent weeks footings have been poured at other exit locations, too, he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the driver of the bus, confused by Georgia’s faulty HOV exit signs, mistook the left-hand exit for the continuing HOV through lane. The bus sped up the exit ramp, crashed into a barrier wall ahead and fell back onto the interstate below.

Three weeks ago a two-bus convoy made the same mistake, but stopped in time. The leading bus driver said the ramp was “very deceiving.”