Georgia Department of Transportation Closes Lanes on I-285
Truckers traveling through Georgia, including if they are hauling relief supplies related to Hurricane Ian, might want to plan their route further ahead, as the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) is closing lanes on the I-285 within the greater Atlanta area for numerous months.
Details
Maintaining infrastructure to avoid catastrophe is important. Doing so, however, has a cost beyond dollars and cents.
GDOT is closing two lanes at a time, one westbound and the other eastbound, around the Glenridge Drive, SR 400, and Peachtree Dunwoody Road bridges so that construction workers can repair the interior over the course of four months, before switching which lanes are closed so they may work on the exterior portions of the bridge for another four months.
GDOT estimates that the traffic impact will be a commute that is an hour longer for anyone passing through. At 240,000 vehicles per day, we estimate that the lost time drivers will experience is over 58.5 million hours, or almost 9,200 years, unless a good portion of those drivers opt to take another route.
Fortunately, GDOT is taking steps to mitigate time loss. One method is the addition of more connecting lanes on the freeway for drivers traveling locally to approach their destination from a different angle than by way of the I-285.
Conclusion
By the time you read this article, the two lanes will be closed down and traffic at I-285 in the greater Atlanta area will increase dramatically. It is highly advised that unless your trucking route involves driving through Atlanta to take another route in order to save on time and fuel.
With the repair project starting in early October and being planned to last eight months, it will be until at least June that traffic in the area will increase. Our proposed solution is that unless you have business in Florida to stay on the I-85 instead, which connects Alabama with South Carolina, and also travels past Atlanta.
Hopefully we can all agree that repairing the United States’ crumbling infrastructure is a juice that is worth the squeeze.
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