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

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.