I-85/GA 400 Interchange Upgrade

[Bryant5493]

Seeing how close in proximity the project is to the parallel-running GA 13 (old I-85), this is going to be a tricky modification. But if they can somehow pull it off, then more power to them!

If memory serves, the current ramp to GA-13 southbound is going to be shared by GA-400 northbound, from I-85 southbound. But it's still going to be interesting to see how this is pulled off.


Be well,

Bryant

[Grzrd]

This video report indicates that construction has started!

[Grzrd]

the Georgia tax payers (me included) were told a lie about the tolls being removed when the bonds were paid for

Gov. Perdue maintains that a lie will not be told:

In order to satisfy the original promise that the tolls would come down in 2011, Perdue said, SRTA will see if it can suspend the tolls briefly in 2011.  When they went back online, he said, they would be a "new" toll.

(http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/ga-400-tolls-to-620626.html)
Only problem is, I don't recall anyone from the Georgia government asking me if I would be in favor of a "new" toll.

In Won't Get Fooled Again, the Who advise us all to:

"Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss"

In Georgia, the old boss was Sonny Perdue, who broke the promise that the tolls would be removed once the bonds were paid for.  The new boss is Nathan Deal, who pledged to do away with the tolls before the end of 2011 during the gubernatorial campaign and now maintains that he is powerless to keep his promise:

A group of Georgia activists plans to ask Gov. Nathan Deal to make good on a campaign promise to remove the Ga. 400 toll.
The group Voter GA said this week that it will deliver petitions on the toll to Deal in July. About a dozen people met at the Roswell Public Library Monday night to hear Garland Favorito, founder of Voter GA, outline the case against keeping the toll.
Favorito, a Roswell resident, said the state broke its promise to citizens when it extended the toll in 2010. "We're stuck with a toll for a road we've already paid for," he said ....
To keep its original promise to remove the toll, SRTA temporarily suspended it last June. A week later, it enacted a "new" toll, effectively keeping Ga. 400 as a toll road for another 10 years.
Favorito called the extension a "slick trick." He and the other attendees at Monday's meeting said they have little trust in government ....
In a June 2010 news release, then gubernatorial candidate Deal pledged to "swing the sledgehammer" on the Ga. 400 tollbooth before the end of 2011.
"The state has collected more than enough money to pay the bonds for the highway," Deal said in the news release, which included a picture of him on the toll plaza holding a "closed" sign. "We are now using the tolls of Ga. 400 drivers to pay for other road projects. That's not fair to the commuter in north Fulton and Forsyth counties," the release said.
Brian Robinson, spokesman for the governor, said this week that Deal did not support SRTA's decision to extend the toll, which happened before he was elected. Robinson said the toll can't simply be removed now that the state has already sold bonds that must be repaid with the revenue.
"He wants them to come down as soon as they possibly can," Robinson said. "We're committed to that, but we can't hurt the state's bond rating in the meantime."

"Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"