I-85 overpass collapse northeast of downtown Atlanta

[barcncpt44]

I guess we can just add to the Atlanta road madness.  I-20 west east of downtown Atlanta closed after a gas leak buckled the HOV lane.
https://twitter.com/tomreganWSB/status/854001014411808769

[Brian556]

What the hell? How could a gas leak do that? Did Godzilla eat 5,000 burritos and burrow under the freeway?

[MrDisco99]

If I were you I might actually consider taking I-20 into the city and I-75 N from there.  Traffic may be lighter than usual on the connector.

Never mind... I-20 WB inside 285 is closed as well.  Looks like north perimeter is your only option.

[kkt]

Atlanta can't get a break.

[bing101]

http://www.11alive.com/mb/news/local/air-pocket-blow-out-rips-through-surface-of-i-20/431861804


Update apparently an air pocket is blamed here.

[Henry]

At least that area has been fixed, so good news for I-20!

[Tom958]

Next Tuesday, Piedmont Road under the viaduct will be closed for the setting of new precast beams!

[Henry]

Let the rebuild begin

[golden eagle]

The I-85 bridge fire reminds of the time a tanker truck crashed into a bridge pillar on 400 underneath the I-285 overpass in 2001. The truck caught fire and burned a hole into the 285 bridge and caused a mess. It happened in the wee hours of a Saturday morning, but traffic was snarled much of that weekend.

[Tom958]

I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned it, but there has never been a proper overhead sign in advance of the 85-400 split, just this pitiful butterfly mount at the half-mile point and this one awkwardly cantilevered beyond the soon-to-dropped right lane at a mile and a half. There's nothing at the one mile point. I haven't heard anything about it and I'm afraid to jinx it by asking, but IMO it'd be good if one or even two proper APL's, or at least their foundations, could be installed while highway is closed

[Tom958]

And, since no one else has mentioned it, detours directing 85 traffic onto GA 13 were put in place quite promptly. Northbound, the one-lane ramp from northbound 85 onto 13 was restriped for two lanes, and the ramp from GA 13 back to 85, built for one lane, has been striped for two for decades. And, the GA 13 connection from Peachtree and West Peachtree is open, or at least was. I haven't driven it, so my information comes from a 3am video that a friend made a couple of days after the fire. At that time, it appeared that both lanes of 13 northbound were open, which would've led to a bit of a free-for-all at the merge with the two lanes of traffic from 85. I wouldn't be surprised if the 13 connection has been striped down to one lane or closed off altogether.

I drove the southbound detour on Thursday morning since I needed to stop by a vendor in the Armour industrial district on my way to Carrollton and Google, to my amazement, routed me that way. It's a lot less impressive, with only the single lane from the southbound flyover from 85 to 13 carried through the construction zone and the onramp from Piedmont adding a second lane. Wisely, there's an anti-rubbernecking fence between the road and the construction site. As with the northbound direction, the one-lane ramp from 13 to 85 has been restriped for two. To my amazement, the sign for the exit from 13 onto 85 was modified to correctly show the existence of an option lane.This was done in pre-2009 MUTCD style with one green-on-white and one black-on-yellow arrow, but with the arrows pointing up and to the right! AFAIK, this has never been done in Georgia-- before compliance with the 2009 MUCTD began in 2014 or so, arrows at multilane exits pointed down, and usually straight down.

[hm insulators]

What the hell? How could a gas leak do that? Did Godzilla eat 5,000 burritos and burrow under the freeway?

[Georgia]

according to Marc Mastronardi, Construction Director of GDOT, the first bridge deck pour could be tonight.

source: WSB TV last night

[Tom958]

For the last two evenings, GPS has routed my trip from Carrollton to Lawrenceville via the burned bridge detour. I'm not gonna post photos, but I'll tell you that:

Most of the asphalt that's closed to traffic has been milled in preparation for repaving. It was in pretty hammered shape, too,

A section of the median barrier on I-85 just south of the viaduct has been cut out, surely for installation of a decades-overdue overhead sign gantry. The new overhead is one mile from the 400 split.

To my amazement, both lanes of old 85, a.k.a GA 13, are open and continuous throughout the detour. Of the two lanes from 85 onto the detour, the right one has to exit at Monroe Drive and the left just ends immediately after the Monroe Drive exit. It's horribly operationally unsound, but people seems to approach it with a cooperative attitude.

[D-Dey65]

Believe it or not, the conspiracy nuts are using this for more enemy propaganda:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-OmL5wMlls&;

[NJRoadfan]

Timelapse video of the reconstruction here: https://app.oxblue.com/open/GADOT/I85BridgeRebuild

Press the play button at the bottom.

[Georgia]

I-85 will reopen for Monday morning rush hour.

per Nathan Deal and Russell McMurry.

maybe the best $3.1 million GDOT ever spent

[oscar]

Followup on my previous post (reply #74) in this thread.

I drove through Atlanta today about 3:00, on my way from Charleston SC to Chattanooga. I decided to cut through Atlanta in I-20, to take the west side of I-285 up to I-75, since traffic reports indicated congestion both counter-clockwise on the northeast quadrant ot I-285 and on I-75/85 through downtown. No problem until I got to I-75, which looked like early afternoon rush hour congestion. I didn't even notice the repairs done to reopen I-20 east of downtown -- that part was a breeze.

Multiple work zones on I-20 in the Augusta area caused me more delays than anything in Atlanta.

[barcncpt44]

I-85 NB has now reopened!  SB will reopen by Sunday.
https://twitter.com/11AliveNews/status/863183411619516416

[KEVIN_224]

http://www.myajc.com/news/local/northbound-lanes-reopen-atlanta/8FJkU2X75t8tMILwkkOuUM/

Courtesy of the paywall from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Their summary of it all...

[kkt]

I-85 to reopen by 15 June, per GDOT: http://www.ajc.com/news/breaking-reopen-june-officials-say/fQcpIeQxcrptK4jarOZSqM/

Congratulations to GDOT for reopening so quickly!

[CtrlAltDel]

Both directions now open. A tip of my hat to GDOT and the contractors.

As you can see, traffic is quite a bit greener, but then again, today is Sunday.

[Henry]

I-85 to reopen by 15 June, per GDOT: http://www.ajc.com/news/breaking-reopen-june-officials-say/fQcpIeQxcrptK4jarOZSqM/

Congratulations to GDOT for reopening so quickly!

Now that's progress!

[roadman]

Believe it or not, the conspiracy nuts are using this for more enemy propaganda:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-OmL5wMlls&

Let me guess.  Mothman was sighted within the PVC pipes two days before the fire.

[roadgeek01]

Believe it or not, the conspiracy nuts are using this for more enemy propaganda:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-OmL5wMlls&

Let me guess.  Mothman was sighted within the PVC pipes two days before the fire.

Or maybe it's the Illuminati, because 8-5=3, and there are three sides on a triangle.