Atlanta

[Tomahawkin]

I believe the 400/285 interchange will surpass, Spaghetti Junction once the toll lane flyovers are added to it in 10-12 years, but man that's s long time away!

[architect77]

I believe the 400/285 interchange will surpass, Spaghetti Junction once the toll lane flyovers are added to it in 10-12 years, but man that's s long time away!

Surpass Spaghetti in complexity sure, but exude elegance almost to a level of art? Never  A single curve flyover with 5 changes in supports underneath that's segmented instead of continuous curved steel just looks like it was the cheapest possible

[Tomahawkin]

Oh I agree. I was in Texas last week and Atlanta could really do a better job of using overhead lighting on its interstates and state roads, especially in the suburbs. There is little to no overhead streetlights in the Lawrenceville area as well as other suburbs north of Atlanta...

[architect77]

Oh I agree. I was in Texas last week and Atlanta could really do a better job of using overhead lighting on its interstates and state roads, especially in the suburbs. There is little to no overhead streetlights in the Lawrenceville area as well as other suburbs north of Atlanta...

Oh I agree. I was in Texas last week and Atlanta could really do a better job of using overhead lighting on its interstates and state roads, especially in the suburbs. There is little to no overhead streetlights in the Lawrenceville area as well as other suburbs north of Atlanta...

The cities along the highway must provide the lighting and pay for it. Of course highway lighting is the standard only in urban settings where it helps in moving into the emergency shoulder in a chaotic setting with lots of other cars.

If trees are buffering on both sides, then no lighting is specified for what is considered to be a rural setting.

[Great Lakes Roads]

Here is a video of the proposed express lanes on I-285 on the westside of Atlanta.

[Tomahawkin]

Thanks for posting this. The revenue collected from the toll lanes is really helpful in getting the projects that are 15 to 20 years overdue started

[architect77]

Thanks for posting this. The revenue collected from the toll lanes is really helpful in getting the projects that are 15 to 20 years overdue started

Ok, but here's what I want to know: With gas prices in North Georgia the same or higher than NC who with $6 billion a year is able to maintain 80,000 miles of roads vs. 35,000 for GDOT, and still use $3 billion every year for new construction oh highways and improvements....

Where is the the money from each gallon of gas going, and why can't Georgia spend billions on new construction every year like NC does?

Gov. Deal got a 10 cent increase in gas tax to add what was already being collected and I hope that 25% is no longer going to the general fund like before.

It's like the tire disposal fees we are charged.... none of it has ever been spent on the disposal of tires,..

The HOT lanes are good, simply because they can be controlled to stay free flowing.

But claiming that the revenue is all the state has to do rebuilds and new construction is just not true.

GDOT has a big chunk of money to work with now.

Their inaction over decades is why interchanges cost a billion or more, that's the only place to expand and it's tight to begin with.

Think about the billions other states spend acquiring new right of way every year and then here none is bought. Where did that money go?

[formulanone]

Camp Creek DDI opened up this morning and seemed to be flowing decently at 7am and 11am when I drove the project. 

I took a photo of it last July; after a few months without flying it really stuck out!

[US 89]

Camp Creek DDI opened up this morning and seemed to be flowing decently at 7am and 11am when I drove the project. 

I took a photo of it last July; after a few months without flying it really stuck out!

I drove through that one a few months ago. I had to stop at both lights and they were p a i n f u l l y  s l o w. Definitely seemed less coordinated than the DDI's I've gone through in Utah.

[architect77]

Camp Creek DDI opened up this morning and seemed to be flowing decently at 7am and 11am when I drove the project. 

I took a photo of it last July; after a few months without flying it really stuck out!

I drove through that one a few months ago. I had to stop at both lights and they were p a i n f u l l y  s l o w. Definitely seemed less coordinated than the DDI's I've gone through in Utah.

You should call the municipality that it's in and tell them the lights should have a few seconds shaved off the phases. There are many intersections in the metro area with badly timed  signals and no one ever reports them. The city of Atlanta will call you the next day and ask about the lights you're requesting service on. You could save thousands of people a few minutes every day.

Fixed quote. - rmf67

[Tomahawkin]

Speaking of DDI's. Roswell road over 285 needs this! I have been a broken record in saying that. That interchange is Booty at all hours of the day!

[Tomahawkin]

Welp, I was way off on the 400 SB to 285 West ramp opening. I thought it would be near New years, but its set to open this weekend. The way it looks, that 400-285 interchange may not be complete til summer 2022??? This is a big fail for G-DOT IMO. Isn't this interchange project in its 5th year? I swear the LBJ underneath express lanes project in Dallas took the same amount of time and that was a total overhaul with the Hi-Five Stack. Correct me if Im wrong? Or am I being impatient because I have been underwhelmed by the lack of progress within the last 120 days. IMO i dont think the contractors knew that they would have to blast a lot of rock in that area???

[architect77]

What angers me the most is the neglect I see in much of metro Atlanta. All of the roads near the I-285 interchanges on the East wall in Dekalb look like GDOT hasn't been over there in 50 years. There are small shield signs that are 2 generations ago designs of the shields with most faded beyond recognition.

Dekalb is such a strange county, I know people must enjoy lower taxes but are they so conditioned to corruption that they never realize or expect any maintenance to be done to the roads and signage over there?

In some ways it's like going back in time to see major thoroughfares with fast food restaurants etc. that haven't been renovated in 40 years. In another way it's depressing to see the sole tall building piercing the trees and right by the interstate be the Dekalb County Jail.

As for improving/ widening I-85 to SC, there are no plans that I ever seen for there to be anymore projects beyond the one that's in progress now. It doesn't even go to Commerce.

I'm grateful that they have been doing all the work in Gwinnett though. They seem to ok with narrow-feeling highway corriedors though and the full gantries holding up one sign instead of cantilievered drive me craazy.

But the worst is how crooked all the gantries are with one in the new I-85 section tilting down to the left 15 degrees or more. It cancels out having respect for a state because these signs are the state speaking to motorists. It's about the most direct communication a state has with residents and visitors. These structures which other states have on all roads not just interstates like here should be erected with much more care and vigilance.

[Tomahawkin]

Does anyone know how long it took spaghetti junction to get built. It seems like the 400/285 interchange is going at a snail's pace even with the enhanced construction technology

[ran4sh]

DeKalb isn't really known for low taxes though.

[architect77]

Does anyone know how long it took spaghetti junction to get built. It seems like the 400/285 interchange is going at a snail's pace even with the enhanced construction technology

1) Well obviously we've had a lot of rain which delays things. A new 26 floor condo development across the street from me in Midtown has just finished its foundation that it began last summer? a full year for the foundation work that doesn't go way below ground either.

2) I guess much of the 400/285 interchange includes connections to so much that hasn't been built yet like the express lanes.

3) Then it may have some unconventional aspects because of insufficient height for which one of the flyovers that had to be crammed underneath I believe.

4) Use of those straight precast beams probably falls under the advanced construction techniques, but man I sure do hate that one of the flyovers is supported differently back and forth 5 times. You can't look elegant or aesthetically pleasing doing that. It's still an impressive interchange though.

Spaghetti Junction is a true treasure. I wish they would power wash the algae and discoloration off it or paint it to look like new concrete. It was almost white as was all of the median walls and retaining walls in the first few years after all the freeways had just been widened in the 90s.

[Tomahawkin]

I so cant wait to see what Spaghetti Junction will look like with toll lane flyovers in 8 years... With that said there is little room to build around that interchange and the C/D Roads that access the surface streets in that area....Same with the Express lanes that will be on 285 east of Atlanta in 4 years....

[architect77]

I'm worried about the longevity of Spaghetti Junction though.

I doubt those box girder flyovers were initially designed be fully loaded with heavy 18 wheelers that sit for 16 hours a day moving ever so slowly.

I know they can handle it, but when I was in school in structures class we were taught to consider the most extreme loading conditions, calculate them, but then design for 80% of that because it was so unlikely.

Hopefully if one of them ever had to be replaced, they would go about it like with the I-85 collapse: they rebuilt it to match the existing which was one of my biggest initial worries, because aesthetics get virtually no consideration at GDOT.

The express lanes will be ugly segmented flyovers like everything GDOT has produced since the 1990s. They will surround the elegant Tom Moreland Interchange that might not even get cleaned off or fixed up.

Remember everyone that these ultra expensive interchange rebuilds are the consequence of never building any other alternates or nearby parallel roads to relieve our big interstate trunks.

These convoluted interchanges wouldn't cost a billion each if another smaller freeway was offering connectivity and redundancy.

[Finrod]

These convoluted interchanges wouldn't cost a billion each if another smaller freeway was offering connectivity and redundancy.

Tell it to the Atlanta mayor that nixed the idea of extending 400 south of I-85 with a tunnel ten years ago or so.

[Tomahawkin]

Welp, since no outer perimeter will be built. SR 20 Is the closest thing to that in the north suburbs of Atlanta. Its better to be proactive than reactive as our BASS-ACKWARD Gov't has been over the last 30 years

What do you suggest???

[architect77]

Welp, since no outer perimeter will be built. SR 20 Is the closest thing to that in the north suburbs of Atlanta. Its better to be proactive than reactive as our BASS-ACKWARD Gov't has been over the last 30 years

What do you suggest???

I agree. It's the obvious corridor that could be the closest adjunct to I-285 Top End for East-West travel.

But I remember a few years ago some residents along GA20 were fighting a small stretch being widened for a very local purpose.

However that is expected just as the default reaction to any announcement involving change.

There is a 2 lane road that goes through Jasper near big canoe that has hellacious traffic  primarily 18 wheelers going very fast on the winding and hilly road.

I don't know where they are going or coming from, but that indicates another need for some better East-West throughput North of the metro.

[Tomahawkin]

Found out yesterday that work will began on replacing both the Covington HWY and Glenwood Rd. Bridges late this year. Both replacements will take 2-3 years and are the beginning stages of the 285 East express lane project in Dekalb county which IIRC will not be completed til 2028. That is too long of a construction project to just add 1 added lane in both directions on 285, IMO. Plus there will not be any express lane flyover ramps. The only ramps will only be limited to about 2-3 interchanges at bridges that GDOT plans to have ramps added...

[Georgia]

here is the MMIP program timeline

https://cdn.majormobilityga.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/18105911/MMIP-Timeline-Updated_19.pdf

Last updated in December though

[Gnutella]

I can't wait until I-85 is widened to six lanes all the way up to South Carolina.

[architect77]

I can't wait until I-85 is widened to six lanes all the way up to South Carolina.

There aren't any plans to do that I don't think. The completion of the current 3rd lane project to US129 is all there is officiially. That's not even up to Commerce.

I'm not complaining though because at least I-85 is in good condition unlike I-20 to Augusta which is bad shape in several spots.