Commuters who use Bolton Road in northwest Atlanta will have to endure another day of detours Friday.
The city's public works department has yet to deem the stretch of road where a truck slammed into a rail overpass is safe enough for traffic to resume.
Reese McCranie, a spokesman for Mayor Kasim Reed's office, said the popular road is expected to reopen sometime Friday, but he provided no specific time and cautioned plans could change.
"The bottom line is the city is not going to open any stretch of roadway that is deemed unsafe," McCranie said. "Our main concern is public safety."
The spokesman said the city must make sure there is no loose debris falling from the CSX overpass, and crews need to post clearance signs on and near the 13.5 foot-high overpass to warn other trucks passing underneath.
The road has been closed since Tuesday when a portion of the CSX bridge came crashing down on a truck driver who collided with the structure.
The truck driver, identified by police as Thomas Sealock, remained at Grady Memorial Hospital on Thursday with injuries to his lower extremities.
A woman in a car behind the truck, identified as Elaine Bomar, also was transported to Grady with minor injuries.
One eyewitness told a 911 dispatcher that the back lift on Sealock's Community Waste Services truck was up and struck the bridge. The truck is about 30 feet long with a hydraulic ramp on the back. Authorities said they found the lift raised after the accident.
Sealock was charged with carrying an unsecured load, failure to obey traffic control device and collision with an object adjacent to the street.
A CSX spokesman said damage to the bridge was cosmetic and did not affect load-bearing parts of the span. Trains could be seen traveling over the bridge Thursday.
Many commuters use the road as a cut-through to Cobb County in the afternoon or as a shortcut into the city from Cobb in the morning.
Motorists' frustration was evident Thursday.
Four orange road blocks prevented the steady stream of cars and trucks from proceeding in both directions on Bolton Road near the CSX bridge. Some drivers did U-turns to avoid the detour while others grudgingly proceeded.
A MARTA bus driver yelled out of his window while turning off on a detour, "When are they going to open? Next week?"
Willie Kimble, who works in the area for Norfolk Southern, says he's had to travel five miles out of the way to get around the meandering detour.
"It's been a big inconvenience," Kimble said while stopping at the intersection of Bolton Road and Marietta Road. "I'm surprised after a couple of days it's still closed."
To avoid the blocked-off section of Bolton Road, eastbound traffic on Bolton Road was being directed to turn right onto James Jackson Parkway, left onto Peyton Road, right onto Hollywood Road, left onto Perry Boulevard, left onto Marietta Road and right onto Bolton Road.
Westbound traffic on Bolton Road should turn left onto Marietta Road, right onto Perry Boulevard, right onto Hollywood Road, left onto Peyton Road, right onto James Jackson Parkway and left onto Bolton Road.
McCranie said that while the city anticipates reopening the stretch Friday, that could change "at some point."
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