Atlanta

[Tomahawkin]

I was there today and IDk why but they have shifted the lanes over to the right on 285 W between Chamblee Dunwoody and Ashford-Dunwoody where its a 300' merge, if that? It was already a ClusterF there during rush hours! Its going to be more FUBAR now!

I wish they would get this #### DONE, Already! I hope this doesnt linger into the back to school traffic days in 2+ weeks!

[lordsutch]

What I'm wondering about this GA 316 project is-- will this make GA 316 fully expressway from I-85 to Athens or not?

The long-term plan based on the planning study would seem to be to upgrade the entire route (except the Loop 10 interchange) to at least remove all the median cuts, with some RIROs rather than full interchanges in places. So not really full freeway standards but close.

[The Ghostbuster]

Wikipedia says that GA 316 will eventually be completely freeway from Interstate 85 to its terminus at the GA 10 Athens perimeter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_State_Route_316. I don't know how reliable that page is considering it is Wikipedia, but if it does come to pass, I hope all exits are renumbered to mileage-based both east and west of Exit 27; Business 29/GA 53 (which is the only mileage-based exit number along the corridor).

[RoadWarrior56]

I live in Gwinnett County, GA, and I do a lot of work with GDOT.  It is true that GA 316 is gradually being converted to a freeway.  That has been a goal since the original 4-lane roadway was competed in 1995.

It is an interchange by interchange process.  I figure it will take another 10 years or so to complete the process.   At this point, at least 4 interchanges are completed, and at least 2 more are under construction now.  The first two interchanges (SR 20 and Collins Hill Road near Lawrenceville) were converted almost a decade ago.  I will say that the conversion process is accelerating, being that GDOT is better funded than they were in those days.

[US 89]

Wikipedia says that GA 316 will eventually be completely freeway from Interstate 85 to its terminus at the GA 10 Athens perimeter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_State_Route_316. I don't know how reliable that page is considering it is Wikipedia, but if it does come to pass, I hope all exits are renumbered to mileage-based both east and west of Exit 27; Business 29/GA 53 (which is the only mileage-based exit number along the corridor).

Those other exit numbers look like they are in fact mileage based, but not in the usual way. In Georgia, mileposts on non-interstate routes almost always reset at county lines, and it looks like that is what was used for those exits.

For that matter, mile-based exits are pretty hard to come by off the interstate system in Georgia. Exit numbers on interstates were sequential until the early 2000s and only changed because the feds made them. GA 400 is a rare (the only?) state route to actually have continuous mileage across county lines, but the exit numbers remain sequential. I’m pretty sure Loop 10 in Athens is the only non-Interstate freeway that’s been fully converted. Everything else remains sequential or simply unnumbered.

I hope 400 gets converted at some point, but there are other sequential numbers in the state that will probably never be changed to anything else because they don’t follow one particular route number. The Albany bypass, for instance, is partly US 19 and partly US 82, and so numbers just increase sequentially counterclockwise. I see no reason to mess with that, especially because the exits are dense enough that they aren’t too far from mile based anyway.

[RoadWarrior56]

I noticed the same thing on the exit numbers, that they are mileage based but reset at the County lines.  Once 316 is totally converted to freeway status, it may be possible that the exit numbers and mileposts are uniform and based on the western terminus at I-85, but time will tell if that is ever done.  I doubt this roadway will ever be designated as an Interstate, even if fully converted to Interstate standard, but I may be wrong on that assumption.

Despite the ongoing interchange conversion, I don't know if the roadway will ever be truly "Interstate Standard" in any case.  There are numerous low-volume at-grade intersections that are unsignalized, and others that are right-in-right-out.  What will be done with those intersections?  Will all or some be terminated or fully grade separated?  Also, the paved shoulder widths are narrow.  Work needs to be done on the mainline roadway typical section to make it interstate standard.

[ran4sh]

The feds never "made" Georgia change to mile-marker exits. The MUTCD only prohibited sequential exits in 2009 (Georgia's change was in 2000), in the 2003 and 2000 versions it contained a Guidance statement recommending mile-marker, but not prohibiting sequential. (Note that the 2000 MUTCD was released in Dec. 2000 while Georgia's exit number change was in early 2000 [with 10 Loop in Athens first getting mile-marker exits in late 1999] . ) I don't have a copy of the 1988 MUTCD so I'm not sure what that edition said about exit numbers

[Tomahawkin]

Well it looks like the 285 Bridges over 400 and the 3 other surface streets will open this upcoming weekend after getting delayed by the bad weather in the area. It's about Bleeping Time! I still think it's going to be a Cluster #### when school starts in 2 weeks...

[jdb1234]

Are they still working on the I-285 & GA 400 interchange?  They were working on it the last time I was out that way.

That was in 2018.

[Tomahawkin]

Yes, construction will run well into next year. GDOT already has the weather as a built up excuse

[Tom958]

Are they still working on the I-285 & GA 400 interchange?  They were working on it the last time I was out that way.

That was in 2018.

Yes. I heard that the new eastbound lanes on the three I-285 double bridges that have the mainline down to six lanes were to be opened this weekend, but I don't think it's happened yet. Repaving the 285 mainline is supposed to start in early August, and there's still a great deal of signage to install.

There's also to be a sixty-day inside lane closure for replacement of the Mount Vernon Road bridge, just to add to the mirth.

[Tom958]

The four-lane eastbound 285 mainline through the 400 interchange is surely now open. Photos were posted on Facebook at 7:20 showing the striping well underway. The rightmost third of the APL for the Ashford-Dunwoody offramp was also erected, indicating that the ramp is two lanes, and the photos seem to support that, though I wouldn't be shocked if it narrows back to one lane downstream. Normally I'd conduct a recon mission today, but my family car is in the shop and I don't want to take my work truck. Maybe I'll come home from work that way later this week. 

[Tomahawkin]

Just went through it, the traffic is still FUBAR. The new chokepoints are the C/D lanes on both sides of 285 when 2-3 lanes merge into one. The truck traffic especially dump trucks can make it worse. And school starts this week
. Thank Gawd I'm going to upstate NY on vacation

[Tom958]

Something will probably happen to derail it, but I'm hearing that two of the three lanes of the southbound GA 400 roadway under 285 will open this weekend. That'll be the last of the new ramps and roadways to open, though a lot of tidying up will remain to be done.

[Tomahawkin]

Good, I was hoping something would open before or when school starts, and you are right there is a lot of tidying up to do. I don't know how they will have room to add 4 toll lanes in that area of 400 from the 285 interchange to Northridge. There is little room left to do anything there...

[Georgia Guardrail]

Something will probably happen to derail it, but I'm hearing that two of the three lanes of the southbound GA 400 roadway under 285 will open this weekend. That'll be the last of the new ramps and roadways to open, though a lot of tidying up will remain to be done.

They also have to realign the Hammond Drive/Abernathy road ramp to combine with the SR 400 Marta exit to North Spring station.

[Tom958]

I just heard that they did it, I guess overnight. 

Something will probably happen to derail it, but I'm hearing that two of the three lanes of the southbound GA 400 roadway under 285 will open this weekend. That'll be the last of the new ramps and roadways to open, though a lot of tidying up will remain to be done.

[Georgia Guardrail]

Just went through the 285 400 interchange on 400 south.  No worrying about oncoming traffic merging from the left.  Very smooth

[Tom958]

On the way home from work today, I drove on the newly-opened southbound 400 roadway for the first time. Approaching via 285 from the west, I decided to get off at Ashford-Dunwoody and turn around to head north on 400 because one panel of an APL including the split arrow and the one to its right had been erected to mark the Ashford-Dunwoody exit and I was wondering how that was supposed to work given that the ramp narrowed to a single lane well before reaching Ashford-Dunwoody itself. I used the second lane from the right because I expected the right lane to end not long after the exit. There was an eighteen-wheeler in front of me that prevented me from seeing until the last second that in fact the option lane that the APL proclaimed didn't exist and the lane I was in was for straight-though traffic only. WTF, GDOT?

Obviously, the split arrow should've been covered up until the second exiting lane was open. Beyond that, though, doesn't it seem strange to use a full-blown APL to indicate a two-lane offramp that, in this case, narrows to a single lane a little over a quarter mile after the split?

[Georgia Guardrail]

The SR 400 bridge replacement projects seem to be coming along nicely.  They just started laying the beams for the new Roberts Drive bridge. 

However, it seems like the SR 400/McGinnis Ferry Interchange project has ground to a halt.  They don't seem to have made any notable progress in the last few months.  Anyone have any info on this?

[Tomahawkin]

I'm curious as to how GDOT plans to incorporate 4 total toll lanes on 400 all the way to McGinnis Ferry? The land along that stretch is really narrow and they need to replace the antiquated bridges over the Chattahoochee ASAP...

[Tom958]

I'm curious as to how GDOT plans to incorporate 4 total toll lanes on 400 all the way to McGinnis Ferry? The land along that stretch is really narrow and they need to replace the antiquated bridges over the Chattahoochee ASAP...

GDOT made a flyover video of the concept a while back. It's available at this rather obvious location.

[Tom958]

Definitive signage is being installed on I-285 in the vicinity of GA 400 including two APLs on westbound 285 and most of one eastbound. Also, the rather harrowing detour eastbound routing the offramp to 285 along the eventual Roswell Road offramp is gone, with the Roswell Road offramp in its definitive location.

[Tomahawkin]

@ Tom, I saw that as well. Do you know when construction of the 400 toll lanes will start? im guessing next summer? How does GDOT Plan on getting that in at the North Springs MARTA Station? That area is landlocked. Im guessing they will Start at the Spalding Dr bridge? It needs to be rebuilt as well. GDOT Has been vague about this over the last 18 months, IMO

[Tom958]

@ Tom, I saw that as well. Do you know when construction of the 400 toll lanes will start? im guessing next summer? How does GDOT Plan on getting that in at the North Springs MARTA Station? That area is landlocked. Im guessing they will Start at the Spalding Dr bridge? It needs to be rebuilt as well. GDOT Has been vague about this over the last 18 months, IMO

Welp, the page I linked to above tells us:

Procurement activities for the SR 400 Express Lanes project restarted in March 2022. Georgia DOT announced the selection of shortlisted teams invited to submit a proposal for the project on September 7, 2022. In June 2023, Georgia DOT announced an extension to the procurement schedule for the SR 400 Express Lanes project. Since the project is in active procurement, the Department cannot share any details that is (sic) not currently available on the Georgia Procurement Registry or the Georgia DOT P3 webpage.

Almost everything south of North Springs Station will be elevated, though according to the video I mentioned above, a short section of the southbound express lane outboard of the MARTA station offramp is being built under the 285-400 project.