The Georgia State Patrol is hiring 75 new troopers who will be assigned to I-75 in Cobb County and I-85 in Gwinnett County this fall to clear accidents and stalled vehicles more quickly.
Those stretches of interstate north of I-285, also known as the Perimeter, are regularly the scenes of major backups during rush hour and massive tie-ups when accidents or broken-down vehicles are involved.
Col. Mark McDonough, commissioner of the state Department of Public Safety, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday that the new hires are part of a two-year agreement with the state Department of Transportation to improve traffic flow on the north metro Atlanta interstates.
The DOT will spend $9.1 million from existing funds to cover training, salaries, equipment, vehicles and fuel, McDonough said.
“It’s designed to be a coordinated effort between us, the Georgia Department of Transportation and the wrecker services to expeditiously move blockages to traffic out of the road,” said McDonough, whose agency oversees the Georgia State Patrol.
The commissioner said 35 troopers currently in training will be stationed along I-75 in Cobb beginning in December, and 35 more will be assigned to I-85 in Gwinnett after a second round of training that starts in November. An additional five troopers will make up a special collision reconstruction team that will respond to fatality accidents.
On I-75, the troopers will deal with incidents from the Cobb interchange at I-285, also known as the Cobb cloverleaf, to as far north as the Cherokee and Bartow county lines. On I-85, troopers will respond to incidents from Spaghetti Junction in Gwinnett north to Barrow County, and along I-985 in Gwinnett to Hall County.
McDonough said the two-year effort could be extended to several more years, depending on its success.
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