Last Sunday I took a short road trip to see the reversible toll roadway construction on I-75 in Henry County, south of Atlanta. And the new Lithonia bypass. And whatever. We'll just see what I get around to posting.
Starting with I-75: I decided to head from Lithonia via I-20, I-285 and I-675 to I-75, then make a U-turn back toward Atlanta at Locust Grove, where the Tanger Outlets are.
This photo is of the new bridge carrying Walt Stephens Road over I-75 just south of the merge from I-675. The general traffic lanes will be moved to the right and the reversible roadway will, with one exception, be on the southbound side adjacent to the median. The new bridge is symmetrical about the centerline of 75 in order to preserve the option of building a second tolled roadway on the northbound side someday. IIRC, the fourth lane is relatively recent, with auxiliary lanes being added between 675 and Hudson Bridge Road within this decade. At first glance I was chagrined to see how similar
what Google has was to my photo, but... look closer, Tom. The noise barrier in Streetview sits atop a wall with nothing on it in your pic.


Next, Hudson Bridge Road. When this part of I-75 was built in the late '60's, this was two short bridges with a mound of earth between them. When the bridge was rebuilt, the earth mound was removed and the center span added. Of course, the reversible roadway will run through the center span. I don't remember, but this bridge must've been twinned at some point: it has eleven lanes now, which seems like a lot.

The Jodeco Road overpass has bays for two lane CD roads both northbound and southbound,
but no obvious intent to ever build them. Apparently that's my theme for this week.

EDIT: wait... maybe they could do a Parclo B4 there!

Here's the Jonesboro Road bridge. Unsurprisingly, the reversible roadway and the relocated southbound roadway will take up all of the available room and still require some modest design exceptions (I read the project concept report a while back, but I'm too lazy to look it up now).

I'm gonna go out of sequence and show the same bridge northbound. It and all other interchange bridges from GA 36 near Jackson to GA 54 at Morrow were replaced starting in the '90s-- hence the wide right side clearances.

This is the Mount Carmel Road bridge, which is the last surviving original bridge in the project area. I included it
to give you an idea of the scale of the project out of nostalgia.


Headed back northbound, this is (I think) an access point to the reversible roadway. Here's
Google's view to the east.

With Hudson Bridge Road in the distance, here's the one spot where the reversible roadway will run adjacent to the northbound lanes instead to the southbound, which surely will complicate future construction of a second roadway. IIRC from the project concept report, water quality in a stream running through the wide, wooded median was a factor in deciding to do it that way. You're kidding, right?

Approaching the I-675 split. Originally this wide median was provided in order to allow a left side entrance from GA 400 to I-75 southbound. Eventually 400 became I-675 and left hand entrances fell out of favor, so the median provided a bit of greenery-- until now. The diagrammatic (big arrow) sign... I guess it's new, being replaced with current generation signage before GDOT began its infatuation with APL signs. Which reminds me...

Backing up half a mile or so to right before Walt Stephens Road, I'm stealing this photo from formulaone.

Last for now, the abutments for the ramps to I-675. Of course, that's the flyover for southbound 675 just beyond.
