Atlanta traffic has enough problems on its own. Traffic during most dayparts has returned to near pre-pandemic levels, meaning there once again are more cars than there is space. Distracted and reckless driving lead to wrecks, especially as fast traffic starts coming to a halt and certain drivers get the “slow down” message late. Necessary and planned road work has to happen at some point and lane closures and pacing inevitably cause delays.
So the last thing metro Atlanta needs is systemic or planned recklessness to make commutes even more challenging.
But this failure is exactly what transpired on Tuesday afternoon in Buford. Crews had a left lane blocked on Ga. 20 eastbound/southbound just southeast of I-85. The closure has to do with the building of the huge development across the road, containing an Andretti Indoor Karting, Topgolf and Rooms to Go. These mixed-use developments are popular for developers, but one criticism of them is the sheer amount of traffic they attract. And Highway 20 is one busy corridor.
The Mall of Georgia and its vast satellite shopping centers, restaurants and car dealerships attract plenty of commerce. Thus, there is plenty of traffic. Highway 20, otherwise known there as Buford Drive, is stacked with an array of offerings from west of I-985, past I-85, down to the Coolray Field, where the Gwinnett Stripers have just resumed play. Traffic is rough in this area at any peak driving time or during busy shopping periods without any lane closures.
But Tuesday afternoon saw that lane blocked just below I-85 and traffic was already snarled back toward I-985 in the 3 p.m. hour. Most scheduled, non-emergency road work wraps up by 4 p.m. in busy rush hour zones. But this nagging Highway 20 lane closure ran way past its stop sign.
We saw delays on the Triple Team Traffic Alerts App continue to build through the 4 p.m. hour and talked about it repeatedly on 95.5 WSB. The GDOT and Gwinnett DOT cams in the area did not work very well, but crews presumably remained at work. I rode in the WSB Skycopter to that scene around 5 p.m. and saw the left lane still blocked leaving I-85. What a mess.
After 5 p.m Highway 20 eastbound started jamming back at Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in Sugar Hill. It was skunked. And the delays on the big corridor started spilling into smaller ones. Driveways of businesses backed up trying to turn that direction on Highway 20. Roads like Satellite Boulevard, Mall of Georgia Boulevard and Gravel Springs Road started backing up at their Highway 20 intersections. And I-985 southbound, in particular, started seeing its right lanes slow before the Highway 20 exit because of the construction jam. Not good.
As the lane closure pushed well past the deadline, the WSB Traffic Team and I starting asking some questions. I emailed an official with Gwinnett DOT, who said that the state would be handling lane closures there and that the developer was the likely holder of the permission to close the lane. Alex Williams and Mike Shields in the WSB 24-Hour Traffic Center asked around at GDOT’s Traffic Management Center: The operators there were unaware of the lane closure or why it was still in place.
The delays continued to boil over between Sugar Hill and I-85 and the reason for the closure really wasn’t apparent. The road wasn’t dug up. A crew wasn’t paving in the lane. The left lane just sat closed. At around 5:30 p.m., the lane appeared to open and traffic still needed another half-hour to really shake out and return to its sluggish normal.
This should not have happened. The road crew should not have left a lane closed past the designated time, especially since we are no longer in a COVID-19 traffic hangover. The dispatchers at GDOT’s 511 Traffic Management Center should have known about the closure and been in touch with the road crew about this. If the permit-holder didn’t call in the road closure, then GDOT needs to enforce both that misstep and the decision to leave the lane blocked that long. These are some easy steps to take in light of that rush hour debacle.
Road crews have schedules to block lanes all over town. Developers gain permission often to build and need road space to do this sometimes. Take a drive down Spring Street in Midtown to see this repeatedly firsthand. But for all of this to work with the growing traffic volume around town, crews need to obey the rules and the government needs to enforce them. We need to keep the bar high, because we all know that traffic finds enough ways to shoot itself in the foot without a systemic assist.
Doug Turnbull, the PM drive Skycopter anchor for Triple Team Traffic on 95.5 WSB, is the Gridlock Guy. He also hosts a traffic podcast with Smilin’ Mark McKay on wsbradio.com. Contact him at Doug.Turnbull@cmg.com.
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