MACON — The construction-gnarled nexus of two interstates that link Atlanta and Savannah has been a perilous, yearslong jumble of snaking lane shifts and traffic chutes that travelers and locals alike in this Middle Georgia city can’t wait to see disappear in their rearview mirrors.
Unfortunately, that’ll be a while.
The complex remaking of the Peach State’s crossroads junction at I-75 and I-16 and the 3-plus miles of road work surrounding it began in 2017.
The brunt of the $500 million project — a stretch from roughly the Ocmulgee River bridge southeasterly beyond the Macon Coliseum — is expected to be finished in 2027.
However, a 1-mile-or-so-long final phase to more smoothly transition I-75’s north and southbound lanes into and out of the I-16 interchange, just above the split that routes traffic toward and away from Georgia’s coast, is not expected to be finished until 2030.
Though the work is largely on schedule, the upgrades to the half-century-old interchange, which include dedicated exit ramps and more seamless paths into, out of and past downtown Macon, remain an enduring headache for motorists.
Gina L. Snider, a spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Transportation, said in an email that the project has touched 43 bridges and 51 retaining walls, seen added lanes and upgrades to 11 bridges and “will deliver safer and improved mobility.”
“It is,” she added, “a massive undertaking.”
Anyone driving through can see that. It is a landscape of rebar, cranes, elevated lanes, river crossings, at-times-abrupt exits and concrete barriers, all funneling 60-mph traffic.
Although the traffic typically, outside of peak commuting hours, has kept moving during construction, it can be a disorienting, white-knuckle and even dangerous experience.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
In the five years prior to the project, from the beginning of 2013 through the end of 2017, there were two fatal wrecks in construction zones in the interchange, DOT statistics show. During that span there were a total of 736 construction work-zone crashes. The majority of the wrecks resulted in minor or no injuries.
In the seven years that followed, from 2018 through 2024 while the interchange project was underway, those same stretches of freeway saw 2,151 construction work-zone crashes, 10 of them fatal. Most of the wrecks were minor and did not involve injuries.
In a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, GDOT said crashes spiked between 2017 and 2019 but have continued to drop since then. While the decline is “encouraging,” it said the “data on causes of crashes is still troubling.” GDOT said the “overwhelming majority” of crashes were “directly related to driver behavior,” citing dangerous speeds, following too closely, distracted driving and improper lane changes as the most common factors.
At the wheel of his patrol car on a recent morning, Bibb County sheriff’s Capt. Scott Davis navigated the work zone, the most treacherous of which stretches for a few miles along the Ocmulgee River.
“There is nothing that’s constant on this route,” Davis said.
As he eased through a tight spot on I-16 beside the Macon Coliseum, Davis scanned the shifting lanes amid a patchwork of gray concrete, where an off-ramp sometimes backs traffic into the eastbound freeway toward Savannah.
“It gets dicey in there,” he said.
Macon enjoying downtown revival — out of sight
Atlanta-area motorists bound for Florida, or those traveling from there, typically bypass the I-16 interchange on I-75. They slip past Macon on the I-475 bypass, a route that is about 6 miles shorter than venturing into the middle of Macon on I-75.
Discussions to rework the I-16 interchange began in the 1990s. Traffic volumes had already begun outgrowing the two-lane freeways and the exits required expansion and rerouting. Well into the 2010s, the exit from I-75 toward Savannah seemed almost an afterthought, often requiring travelers unfamiliar with the route to veer off to the east at the last moment to reach I-16.
The project has been complicated by the river crossing and a cluster of nearby on- and off-ramps that fan out from four exits within a mile and a half of the interchange.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
For now, while workers untangle the hodgepodge of makeshift freeway, some of Macon’s most impressive antebellum architecture, on a prominent hillside overlooking downtown, goes largely unseen from the highway.
Despite the snarls of construction, just across the Ocmulgee, Middle Georgia’s anchor city has experienced a downtown revival. Thriving restaurants, music venues and an infusion of loft apartments and other housing have turned the city’s walkable center into a focal point.
Gary Wheat, the CEO of Visit Macon, the local tourism arm, can only wonder how much more out-of-towner travel there would be were it not for the interstate obstacles, which he described as “a challenge.”
“From a standpoint of safety and construction, (the construction) was deemed necessary and needed, and we totally understand that,” he said. “And obviously when it’s finished it will be something that will move people around a lot more easily and make (the city) more accessible.”
The road work’s completion will likely open fresh vistas across the Ocmulgee of a downtown still on the come. Mercer University will soon build its new medical school along the riverside and there are plans for a convention center and hotel nearby.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
‘It’s gonna be beautiful’
As Davis, the Bibb sheriff’s captain, cruised back westbound on I-16 on lanes tightly hemmed by concrete barriers, his advice to anyone riding through was simple: Go slow and give big trucks wide berths.
“If you’re following Google Maps or Waze or whatever, it may indicate that you’re going into construction,” he said. “But does it paint the true picture of what you’re dealing with when you get in it? No. … Give yourself and your skill set time to respond to whatever the conditions are in front of you.”
Credit: Joe Kovac Jr.
Credit: Joe Kovac Jr.
Davis wheeled up a flume of an on-ramp next to the Coliseum that ends at a yield sign and no merge lane to speak of. The ramp is used mostly by commuters who live and work near downtown. Traversing it is akin to taking off from an aircraft carrier. There is limited runway. At the yield sign, he stopped, craned his neck to check for oncoming traffic and gunned it into the fast lane.
“This is a doozy,” he said, after safely accelerating to 60 mph. “It’s a weird intersection. You have to make sure you can see.”
Cameron Burns, who runs a midstate tree-cutting service, has a fleet of work trucks that rumble through the construction most every day. He considers the road upgrades “necessary” even if they’re a long time coming.
“Try to make sure you’re not trying to go into those turns with another vehicle beside you,” he said. “If you’re going 80 miles an hour through there, you’re gonna have a hard time making those adjustments.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Outside a Quiktrip gas mart the other day, customer Ernest James gazed at I-16 just across the road and described it as “shifty.”
Then James, a retired mechanic, said, “It’s gonna be beautiful when they get through with it.”
Up the road, a man named Trooper Teipel has an auto-body repair shop. The place sits on an east Macon hillside overlooking the freeway.
He hasn’t noticed any uptick business from fender benders on the interstate, but said driving that stretch can be tricky.
“Everybody wants to go too fast through there. And then you’ve got some people who are poking (along) because they ain’t sure,’' Teipel said. “You’ve gotta have your head on a swivel.”
— Staff reporter Sara Gregory contributed to this report.
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