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Road to recovery: Rebuilding I-85 bridge a complex process

April 25, 2017 Atlanta: Construction crews have been working around the clock repairing a collapsed section of I-85. Officials say they hope to have the stretch of interstate reopened by June 15. JOHN SPINK/JSPINK@AJC.COM
April 25, 2017 Atlanta: Construction crews have been working around the clock repairing a collapsed section of I-85. Officials say they hope to have the stretch of interstate reopened by June 15. JOHN SPINK/JSPINK@AJC.COM
By and
May 1, 2017

Rebuilding a bridge isn’t as simple as snapping together pieces like an oversized Lego set. Building one fast is even more complicated.

As The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, the Georgia Department of Transportation engineers began designing fixes for 700-feet of the I-85 bridge the night a fire caused a portion of it to collapse and badly damaged other sections. What's followed has been a 24-hour-a-day scramble to rebuild a vital highway into the heart of an economic capitol of the South.

Marietta contractor C.W. Matthews Co. could earn up to $16.5 million to complete the project. The budget includes $3 million for concrete beams; $2.4 million for grading; $1.7 million for fast-curing superstructure concrete; and $1.5 million for traffic control, which includes barricades, signs, fencing and police officers.

Read more about how the new I-85 bridge is coming together – step by step.

About the Authors

Dan Klepal is editor of the local government team, supervising nine reporters covering county and municipal governments and metro Atlanta. Klepal came to the AJC in 2012, after a long career covering city halls in Cincinnati and Louisville, Ky. He has covered Gwinnett and Cobb counties before spending three years on the investigative team.

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David Wickert writes about the state budget, finance and voting issues. Previously, he covered local government and politics in Gwinnett and Fulton counties. Before moving to Atlanta, he worked at newspapers in Illinois, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington.

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