Drivers in the confusing and congested I-285/GA-400 corridors got a reprieve just ahead of what was to be an agonizing three-quarter-stretch in Dunwoody and Sandy Springs. GDOT officials announced this past week that the double-lane-closures on I-285 in both directions between Ashford Dunwoody Road (Exit 29) and Roswell Road (Exit 25) would be delayed until at least June of 2022.
The 40 percent reduction in I-285′s capacity had been hinted at for months and was tentatively set to begin on the weekend of September 11th and end next June. This massive pinch is needed to simultaneously rebuild the I-285 bridges over GA-400, Glenridge Drive, and Peachtree Dunwoody Road.
North Perimeter Contractors (NPC), the builders responsible for the massive Transform 285/400 project, have been plagued with delays on several fronts. Rain has stymied work, as has pandemic-related work and supply shortages. Running into unmarked utility lines has also added difficulties in this highly populated, tightly packed suburban residential and commercial zone. The state and NPC agreed late last year to add these bridge rebuilds, which allow for more bike and pedestrian paths.
GDOT decided to ask NPC to re-work these bridges since construction was already interrupting the area — to essentially kill two birds with one stone. That decision would add time to the project, but also was made with the assumption that many of the new ramps and collector-distributor lanes planned for Transform 285/400 would be in use before the bridge work. Those improvements would have added some capacity and efficiency to the area, offsetting some of the nightmarish jams that blocking two main through lanes each way on I-285 would cause.
Such a calamitous set of closures on arguably the busiest stretch of I-285 would seemingly garner a set time on the calendar. But the date for the start of these bridge builds had not been set — only teased as a fall start, maybe. As autumn loomed closer and delays mounted, the state pushed back the 9/11 start and set a wait-and-see for the end of the month.
When the potential Saturday, September 25th closures got postponed, recent rains were seemingly the culprit. Weather had also delayed the opening of the new I-285/eastbound ramp to Ashford Dunwoody by a week, but it opened to traffic at about 9:30 on the morning of the 25th.
With the dry and clear fall weather pattern well underway, Atlanta seemed on a crash-course for the potential closing for the weekend of October 2nd. But GDOT had been holding off making that start date official, as they negotiated a new project timeline with NPC that would postpone the major interruptions until the CD ramps had been built. The did not announce the postponement until that contract’s finalization on Thursday morning, September 30th.
Metro Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Dunwoody can notch down the stress level, for now. GDOT spokesperson Natalie Dale said their team’s estimates showed this stretch off I-285 would have been as miserable as many thought, if the closures had started this week.
“Our models showed that under perfect conditions in rush hour — without any problems blocking lanes — the closures would have added at least 18 minutes in one direction,” Dale told the AJC and 95.5 WSB.
Dale expounded upon that to AJC’s ace transportation beat writer David Wickert, who has chronicled the sinews of this grand project’s timeline. “Any accident, any fender bender, any person cutting you off very quickly grows,” Dale told Wickert. “That becomes really destructive to the commute on 285.”
Shoulders are already narrow on the north side of I-285, sometimes nonexistent. And the current five lanes move at what Ron White would call the speed of smell when they are all open and incident-free. The already infinitesimal margin for error would vanish in a work zone with 40 percent less room. An area can only handle so much trauma.
Some drivers were going to have to find ways to go back to or continue remotely working. Others would take I-75 and I-85 into town and vice-versa to do the “Buckhead Bounce” around that segment of I-285, creating far more delays on those routes.
I-285 felt this same traffic effect during 2017′s I-85 bridge fire and collapse south of GA-400, which Atlanta handled remarkably well. But that lasted less than a month-and-a-half. Losing four of I-285′s ten lanes on either side of GA-400 would have gone for nine months under the current scenario, emanating a stress that Metro Atlanta’s highways might never have seen before.
The messaging has been consistent from the beginning of Transform 285/400 almost five years ago: deal with the stress now and get gratification later. The entire project is now set to finish by the end of 2022, meaning the double-lane-closures could potentially last a shorter six or seven months. But as Transform 285/400 finishes, more necessary I-285 and GA-400 projects get separately underway. The first down markers move downfield again.
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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