Dunwoody drivers should prepare for a slower trek around the Perimeter for the next three weeks due to the ongoing I-285/Ga. 400 interchange improvements.
Starting Wednesday, the Georgia Department of Transportation will pace traffic on I-285 from the Perimeter Center Parkway overpass to Ashford Dunwoody Road and will stop traffic on Perimeter Center Parkway. Construction workers will be blasting rock to clear the way for an access point to Dunwoody’s surface streets.
On Monday, the Georgia Department of Transportation gave an update to the Dunwoody City Council about the long-term project, which is transforming one of the most congested areas for metro Atlanta commuters.
By 2028, the transportation agency expects express lanes to be operational from the North Springs MARTA Station, located on Ga. 400, to Henderson Road, which is off I-285. Two express lanes are planned for each direction, and will operate 24 hours a day.
The blasting will take place from 1:30 to 2 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for approximately three weeks, Dunwoody said in a Facebook post. It will allow contractors to begin work on a collector-distributor lane.
A few Dunwoody councilmembers questioned Georgia Department of Transportation representative Tim Matthews on the effects the eventual express lanes, which lack direct access to Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, will have on that street’s congestion.
Matthews said express lanes generally decrease traffic on local streets, citing Powers Ferry Road in Cobb County as an example after the I-75 express lanes opened in 2018.
“Express lanes themselves are offering a solution for folks instead of following Waze through side streets,” Matthews, a program manager, said. “We think it’ll be even better here, because this is in each direction, 24 hours a day.”
Express lanes are also planned for the upper west end of I-285, but those lanes aren’t expected to be completed until 2032.
“We offset those two projects to reduce in the impacts, because construction and orange barrels certainly have an affect on the traveling public,” Matthews said.
Credit: Georgia Department of Transportation
Credit: Georgia Department of Transportation
More information on the I-285 top end portion of the project is available at majormobilityga.com/projects/topend.
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