Atlanta

[architect77]

Thank you for the report on Illinois doing a good job with keeping the lights working.

Y'all seem to care about the design of the light poles. Atlanta's 1980s "Freeing the Freeways" mega project installed the truss poles with cobra head bulbs on the major freeways. I-85 through Gwinnett used the have them also in the 1990s.

When I returned to Atlanta in 2010, none of the freeway lights were on as a cost-cutting measure from the Great Recession. I was miffed. Only Gwinnett's were working, and they had replaced the cobra heads with much shorter poles with bright lights in the center median. Apparently municipalities usually don't own trucks with cherry pickers that can reach the typical highway lights, and must hire Georgia Power to replace the bulbs.

Georgia Power converted street lights citywide to LEDs 10 years ago, yet our freeway lights have not been updated. I'm just happy they're mostly working so I'm not going to complain about that yet.

I don't particularly like the lighting pole style used on the Express Lane elevated lanes. It's a sorta S-curve which is too decorative for my personal tastes. I expect there to be thousands of them with so many elevated Express Lanes coming to I-285 over the next decade.

Please join me in emailing GDOT and Georgia Power about repairing the 200+ lights on I-75 in Marietta that haven't been fixed since 2018 from wire theft. The City of Marietta says they can't agree on who should pay for the repairs.

GDOT just completed a massive project on I-75 and having 200 or more lights not functioning for years is a shame.

I drove through the referenced stretch of I-75 today, and I agree the lighting there is in bad shape. To be honest, they need to entirely replace those poles. They all look rusted and and in disrepair. In my opinion, part of the issue of using steel poles (or at least that particular style, which I have never been a huge fan of).

I may follow you in petitioning GDOT to do something about that. It takes away from an otherwise well maintained highway.

Not only that, but the recent construction of the reversible Express Lanes along I-75 through Cobb was a total makeover for this entire corridor with new signage and repaving of the general purpose lanes. To have 200 lights not working after so much work went into this stretch of I-75 just isn't right. Atlanta is THE city right now and is the place to be among American cities. GDOT is doing the best work I've seen in decades and the money is there.

[Tom958]

The first flyover at I-20-285 east, carrying southbound 285 to eastbound 20 traffic, is now open.

[architect77]

I noticed the other day while transitioning from GA400 North to I-285 West that one of the 2 collector/distributor roads forms from 2 separate ramps coming together with a lot of high speed traffic. These two lanes then become a single lane without any notice as the lone lane merge sign is located too far in advance.
It seemed dangerous because people are going 65mph already as they are headed onto I-285 and suddenly the white concrete pavement's lane stripe has vanished and drivers are jockeying for position into a single lane.

I think they did a good job with this monster interchange, but it does feel strange to switch from one collector/distributor onto another 3 times just to get on I-285 West bound.

I'm going to email GDOT about the need for an additional lane ending sign.

[Tomahawkin]

It was Dumb to only have 1 lane go from 285 WB to Roswell Road. That CD set up is going to be a continued bottle neck! And I said it 5 years ago! The Roswell Road bridge over 285 should have been gutted during Covid! I bleeping hate that area!!! Bleeping GDOT and their Backwards BS!!!

[Tom958]

Last Friday, a new sign gantry went up at North Druid Hills and I-85. It spans the northbound offramp in front of the already-open gold ramp, bearing signs for the split of the soon-to-open green ramp and the existing loop ramp. It also cantilevers over the mainline to carry the GA 155 Clairmont Road sign.
 
WAIT: Did I say cantilever? Yes, I did! Could it be that the era of full-width gantries for every damned sign is finally coming to an end? I hope so! It would've been easy enough to incorporate a median sign footing into the gold ramp's median bent footing, but they didn't.

Last I heard, the green ramp will open in mid July. The biggest action item is widening the ramp the new gantry spans to two lanes and maybe putting the top coat of asphalt on the whole thing.

[architect77]

Last Friday, a new sign gantry went up at North Druid Hills and I-85. It spans the northbound offramp in front of the already-open gold ramp, bearing signs for the split of the soon-to-open green ramp and the existing loop ramp. It also cantilevers over the mainline to carry the GA 155 Clairmont Road sign.
 
WAIT: Did I say cantilever? Yes, I did! Could it be that the era of full-width gantries for every damned sign is finally coming to an end? I hope so! It would've been easy enough to incorporate a median sign footing into the gold ramp's median bent footing, but they didn't.

Last I heard, the green ramp will open in mid July. The biggest action item is widening the ramp the new gantry spans to two lanes and maybe putting the top coat of asphalt on the whole thing.

OMG! I'm so happy that someone besides me cares about this! Ever since that Jimmy Carter Blvd overhead fell in the 1990s GDOT has not erected anymore cantilevered overheads, which I lamented as a retreat to the stone ages as it's not an engineering marvel to support overheads with an extended truss.

Mounting these gantries on both sides of some of the US's widest freeways has been expensive too and cantilevered single pole structures cost less and are more appropriate.

I used to hound GDOT about this and they replied that the bolts as the base of these steel poles had to be inspected and were the possible point of failure. I was happy that they kept the existing cantilevers within the city.

If you love the elegance of cantilevered overheads, I-85 through NC and Raleigh's tolled outerloop NC540 has tons of them, and NC isn't afraid to mount 2 signs on them, or lunge far distances over the roadway. I like the look of defying gravity and putting signage directly within eyesight of the intended audience.


NCCantilevers by Stephen Edwards, on Flickr

[architect77]

It was Dumb to only have 1 lane go from 285 WB to Roswell Road. That CD set up is going to be a continued bottle neck! And I said it 5 years ago! The Roswell Road bridge over 285 should have been gutted during Covid! I bleeping hate that area!!! Bleeping GDOT and their Backwards BS!!!

I contacted GDOT about the problem. They just mounted 2 signs at the wrong spots. The Bridge Ices sign needs to be moved to the bridge and the Lane Ends sign needs to be moved closer to the merge spot.

400285 by Stephen Edwards, on Flickr

[Henry]

Last Friday, a new sign gantry went up at North Druid Hills and I-85. It spans the northbound offramp in front of the already-open gold ramp, bearing signs for the split of the soon-to-open green ramp and the existing loop ramp. It also cantilevers over the mainline to carry the GA 155 Clairmont Road sign.
 
WAIT: Did I say cantilever? Yes, I did! Could it be that the era of full-width gantries for every damned sign is finally coming to an end? I hope so! It would've been easy enough to incorporate a median sign footing into the gold ramp's median bent footing, but they didn't.

Last I heard, the green ramp will open in mid July. The biggest action item is widening the ramp the new gantry spans to two lanes and maybe putting the top coat of asphalt on the whole thing.

OMG! I'm so happy that someone besides me cares about this! Ever since that Jimmy Carter Blvd overhead fell in the 1990s GDOT has not erected anymore cantilevered overheads, which I lamented as a retreat to the stone ages as it's not an engineering marvel to support overheads with an extended truss.

Mounting these gantries on both sides of some of the US's widest freeways has been expensive too and cantilevered single pole structures cost less and are more appropriate.

I used to hound GDOT about this and they replied that the bolts as the base of these steel poles had to be inspected and were the possible point of failure. I was happy that they kept the existing cantilevers within the city.

If you love the elegance of cantilevered overheads, I-85 through NC and Raleigh's tolled outerloop NC540 has tons of them, and NC isn't afraid to mount 2 signs on them, or lunge far distances over the roadway. I like the look of defying gravity and putting signage directly within eyesight of the intended audience.


NCCantilevers by Stephen Edwards, on Flickr

I agree, having full-width gantries with only one sign that is not an APL, diagrammatical or VMS is stupid, and cantilevers are a far better fit. Hopefully GDOT is getting away from this permanently, as well as abandoning the practice of adding EXIT X MILES to the bottom of every sign that already has an exit number attached to it. The latter one is the one thing I hated about them in the Series D era, but the upgrade to Series EEM, although not as charmingly unique as the old font was, seems to rectify this.

[architect77]

Last Friday, a new sign gantry went up at North Druid Hills and I-85. It spans the northbound offramp in front of the already-open gold ramp, bearing signs for the split of the soon-to-open green ramp and the existing loop ramp. It also cantilevers over the mainline to carry the GA 155 Clairmont Road sign.
 
WAIT: Did I say cantilever? Yes, I did! Could it be that the era of full-width gantries for every damned sign is finally coming to an end? I hope so! It would've been easy enough to incorporate a median sign footing into the gold ramp's median bent footing, but they didn't.

Last I heard, the green ramp will open in mid July. The biggest action item is widening the ramp the new gantry spans to two lanes and maybe putting the top coat of asphalt on the whole thing.

OMG! I'm so happy that someone besides me cares about this! Ever since that Jimmy Carter Blvd overhead fell in the 1990s GDOT has not erected anymore cantilevered overheads, which I lamented as a retreat to the stone ages as it's not an engineering marvel to support overheads with an extended truss.

Mounting these gantries on both sides of some of the US's widest freeways has been expensive too and cantilevered single pole structures cost less and are more appropriate.

I used to hound GDOT about this and they replied that the bolts as the base of these steel poles had to be inspected and were the possible point of failure. I was happy that they kept the existing cantilevers within the city.

If you love the elegance of cantilevered overheads, I-85 through NC and Raleigh's tolled outerloop NC540 has tons of them, and NC isn't afraid to mount 2 signs on them, or lunge far distances over the roadway. I like the look of defying gravity and putting signage directly within eyesight of the intended audience.


NCCantilevers by Stephen Edwards, on Flickr

I agree, having full-width gantries with only one sign that is not an APL, diagrammatical or VMS is stupid, and cantilevers are a far better fit. Hopefully GDOT is getting away from this permanently, as well as abandoning the practice of adding EXIT X MILES to the bottom of every sign that already has an exit number attached to it. The latter one is the one thing I hated about them in the Series D era, but the upgrade to Series EEM, although not as charmingly unique as the old font was, seems to rectify this.

Now that exit tabs are used, they don't preface distance with EXIT 1 MILE.

I love the fat oversized text on new GA overheads. This is the nexus of the Southeast like Chicago is to Midwest.

Another oddity is how Georgia will say XXXX City "3 Right Lanes" and I'm used to other states, "Right 3 Lanes"

The "Next 3 Exits" isn't necessary on the center distance to next exit signs either.