Atlanta

[ChiMilNet]

A link to that article would've been nice.

Found this if it helps. https://www.henrycountyga.gov/341/Transportation-Projects

[Georgia]

Contractor on the westside 20-285 interchange project already has 3 piers out of the ground and one of them has the pier cap formed up.  Making good progress on what looks to be the 20W to 285S movement.

[Tom958]

The infuriatingly stupid recently-replaced signs along the GA 141 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard freeway have been addressed if not fully corrected. The biggest issue with them was the inexplicable addition of the mainline route number-- GA 141-- on most of the offramp signage, as shown here. In that particular location, the EXIT ONLY arrow is also wrong, but they neglected to correct it while they were up there greening over the 141 NORTH. At this one, the 141 NORTH was also greened out, but EXIT wasn't added to the distance legend and the erroneous GA 140 NORTH wasn't corrected (in fact, GA 140 is an east-west route which extends in both directions from the interchange and thus shouldn't have a cardinal direction at all). And the embarrassingly bad signage at the 141-Peachtree Boulevard split wasn't addressed at all.

In addition, the beloved but tragically deteriorated all-caps button copy signage on the frontage roads has finally been replaced. The new stuff looks slightly crappy, but it's still a huge improvement. That said, the replacement for this one and its counterpart downstream don't have the black-on-yellow EXIT ONLY plaques they should. It's just one damned thing after another.

[Tom958]

Sorry-not-sorry for the double post: Also on Peachtree Industrial in Gwinnett, a third northbound lane has been added on the right and is nearly ready to open. It extends from the north side of the Holcomb Bridge Road intersection to Medlock Bridge Road, which isn't a very good place to end it. Also, the obvious place to start the new lane would've been here, where the onramp from the 141 frontage road dumps onto PIB. Still, it should do a lot to address that bottleneck.

[ChiMilNet]

Sorry-not-sorry for the double post: Also on Peachtree Industrial in Gwinnett, a third northbound lane has been added on the right and is nearly ready to open. It extends from the north side of the Holcomb Bridge Road intersection to Medlock Bridge Road, which isn't a very good place to end it. Also, the obvious place to start the new lane would've been here, where the onramp from the 141 frontage road dumps onto PIB. Still, it should do a lot to address that bottleneck.

I drive that stretch on a very regular basis and completely agree that I am baffled that they didn't start the third lane at the merge of the entrance from Jimmy Carter Blvd. I wonder if there are plans to extend the third lane further, at least to Old Peachtree Rd, but ultimately to Pleasant Hill Rd. Further to that, they have been replacing several traffic signal installations. Curious how they aren't at least resurfacing the southbound lanes, as only at the intersections they are being resurfaced. I also wonder if there are plans to add a third lane in that direction, though probably not as badly needed as northbound. The project has been going at a very slow pace, but I am glad it seems to nearly be done. That third lane will help either way.

[Great Lakes Roads]

Here's a video on the visualization of the I-285 Westside Express Lanes...

[Georgia]

about what i expected from the west express lanes. 

[Tomahawkin]

Thats a pretty nice visualization. It seems that the Stub Ramps for IH 20 express lanes means that there will be express lanes on IH 20 around 2035-2040. Is there a modified visualization video for the IH 285 in DeKalb express lanes? The last video of that is around 2+ years old, and those are supposed to start sooner, im guessing late 2027?

[Henry]

Thats a pretty nice visualization. It seems that the Stub Ramps for IH 20 express lanes means that there will be express lanes on IH 20 around 2035-2040. Is there a modified visualization video for the IH 285 in DeKalb express lanes? The last video of that is around 2+ years old, and those are supposed to start sooner, im guessing late 2027?

Agreed, GDOT does make the best presentations. Also, I can see the express lanes getting started by the end of 2027, if not sooner.

[architect77]

Thats a pretty nice visualization. It seems that the Stub Ramps for IH 20 express lanes means that there will be express lanes on IH 20 around 2035-2040. Is there a modified visualization video for the IH 285 in DeKalb express lanes? The last video of that is around 2+ years old, and those are supposed to start sooner, im guessing late 2027?

Agreed, GDOT does make the best presentations. Also, I can see the express lanes getting started by the end of 2027, if not sooner.

With the GA400 rebuild being funded by the private consortium that's somewhat controversial, will the I-285 Express Lane projects use a similar funding mechanism? I hate that there is so much distrust in how these huge projects are being delivered. I just don't like the public hating the state agencies so much.

The cost of I-285 Express Lanes, probably broken into 3 separate projects will probably be triple of the GA400's $4.8B price tag. I am liking the fact that they will use concrete that lasts 50 years without maintenance though.

[ChiMilNet]

Thats a pretty nice visualization. It seems that the Stub Ramps for IH 20 express lanes means that there will be express lanes on IH 20 around 2035-2040. Is there a modified visualization video for the IH 285 in DeKalb express lanes? The last video of that is around 2+ years old, and those are supposed to start sooner, im guessing late 2027?

Agreed, GDOT does make the best presentations. Also, I can see the express lanes getting started by the end of 2027, if not sooner.

With the GA400 rebuild being funded by the private consortium that's somewhat controversial, will the I-285 Express Lane projects use a similar funding mechanism? I hate that there is so much distrust in how these huge projects are being delivered. I just don't like the public hating the state agencies so much.

The cost of I-285 Express Lanes, probably broken into 3 separate projects will probably be triple of the GA400's $4.8B price tag. I am liking the fact that they will use concrete that lasts 50 years without maintenance though.

I realize I sound like a broken record here, but I'll just say it, because I emailed the project team my thoughts, but they really need to take this opportunity to install lighting along the I-285 Perimeter as part of these projects. For such a populated area, these highways should all be lit up much better. If it's a private partnership, why not require them to install and maintain lighting as part of the agreement?

[architect77]

Thats a pretty nice visualization. It seems that the Stub Ramps for IH 20 express lanes means that there will be express lanes on IH 20 around 2035-2040. Is there a modified visualization video for the IH 285 in DeKalb express lanes? The last video of that is around 2+ years old, and those are supposed to start sooner, im guessing late 2027?

Agreed, GDOT does make the best presentations. Also, I can see the express lanes getting started by the end of 2027, if not sooner.

With the GA400 rebuild being funded by the private consortium that's somewhat controversial, will the I-285 Express Lane projects use a similar funding mechanism? I hate that there is so much distrust in how these huge projects are being delivered. I just don't like the public hating the state agencies so much.

The cost of I-285 Express Lanes, probably broken into 3 separate projects will probably be triple of the GA400's $4.8B price tag. I am liking the fact that they will use concrete that lasts 50 years without maintenance though.

I realize I sound like a broken record here, but I'll just say it, because I emailed the project team my thoughts, but they really need to take this opportunity to install lighting along the I-285 Perimeter as part of these projects. For such a populated area, these highways should all be lit up much better. If it's a private partnership, why not require them to install and maintain lighting as part of the agreement?

If I-285 isn't inside a municipality there wouldn't be anyone to pay for the lighting, and much of it is nothing but trees on both sides which won't meet the criteria for lighting. Perhaps they will install some tall mast light at the new interchanges with I-20 and the top half will get express lanes and they are always lit so some lighting is definitely coming to the top half of I-285 on the 4 new elevated lanes, although it will be 15 years before they'll be completed.

[Tomahawkin]

Agreed with that last post but 285 is IMO The most dangerous perimeter in the country because of the lack of overhead lighting! driving on it in the early morning sucks ass at 5am because of furniture or construction equipment falls on that road over the weeknights and mornings. Too many truck drivers use 285 overnights! I don't want to go Down The Hall but our backward ass government needs to mandate another perimeter or make more Atlanta Bypasses! For instance US 27 needs to be widened from The Tennessee state line down south to Florida

[RoadWarrior56]

As somebody who has lived in Metro Atlanta since the early 1980's, and who works as a transportation engineer, I can say that GADOT tried to plan and construct an outer perimeter (it was supposed to be GA 500), with planning and R/W acquistion starting in the mid to late 1980's, but lack of political will by political leaders and fierce opposition by affluent well-connected NIMBY's in the outer suburbs, killed the effort for even part of the Outer Perimeter (Northern Arc) by the end of 2002.  BTW, US 27 (along with I-185) is already four-laned throughout Georgia.  I do agree with what you say about I-285.  Lighting would be very helpful and desirable.

[Georgia]

The only place that US 27 could use a widening that doesnt already have it is Summerville, which presents obvious challenges that i believe GDOT has just now decided to overcome. 

[ChiMilNet]

For those who follow his channel, Road Guy Rob has a video that talks about Atlanta's traffic woes. Interesting watch. https://youtu.be/va7rxlEt068?si=my0VENQ2dHhXlvkm

[Great Lakes Roads]

Here's a video on the visualization of the I-285 Eastside Express Lanes...

[Tom958]

Here's a video on the visualization of the I-285 Eastside Express Lanes...

The tl;dw: About 85 percent of the project is elevated and the express lane roadways are always outboard of the existing lanes. There'll be no opportunity to reconstruct the existing lanes as part of the express lanes project.

There'll be direct interchanges with the express lanes at Northlake Parkway (pictured) and Redan Road.

At US 78, there'll be an elevated connection to and from east of Brockett-Cooledge to and from the express lanes in both directions. it'll be Texas tall. I think the southbound connection is a bit much, but at least some traffic won't have to use that godawful left-side onramp. Speaking of which, both left-side onramps and the two-lane loop ramp will remain as-is for general traffic.

At I-20, there'll be an exclusive ramp from 20 westbound onto the express lanes northbound, but southbound there'll just be a ramp connecting into the existing fifth southbound lane on 285, before the offramp. Express lane users will have to sit in the same mess on that undersized CD as everyone else.

And finally:

Back in the nineties, GDOT started building elements of what they envisioned as a seventy-mile system of Toronto 401-style three-lane CD roads paralleling about seventy miles of freeways on the north side of Atlanta. After the air quality crisis of the late nineties, they seemed to have given up-- except around 2010 they spent a whole lot of money building provision for these three-lane CDs under Memorial Drive at 285. While there's ample room for the express lanes there, apparently the nearby ramps and bridges make it too complicated to use these expensively-provided roadbeds, so the new express lanes will be elevated right down the middle of them. This belongs in the Hall of Fame of government waste, but only a handful of people will even notice.

[ElishaGOtis]

Here's a video on the visualization of the I-285 Eastside Express Lanes...

I wonder how they are going to do this since they already built out the middle reversable toll lane.  I'm assuming they get rid of that or it becomes part of the original freeway. 

Will the I-75 South express lanes be similar to the Northside "tollercoaster" with lots of high bridges?  I haven't seen any renderings yet.

They should also upgrade the northside I-75 express lanes to be two lanes in both directions although that may be next to impossible to do now.

I sound like a broken record with my opinions on this but...

I hope they won't make the same mistake they did with the tollercoaster. The fact that the speed limit and design speed in the express lanes is LOWER than the general purpose lanes is kinda messed up imho  (55 express 65 general south of 575, and 65 express 70 general on 575).

Wow, I never even realized that. I understand the roller coaster aspect of the lanes (which it's really neat how they put them in there to begin with) can limited the design speed in some areas, but I don't know why they can't post it at 65 mph and then have advisory speeds where needed.

I imagine trucks are banned in the lanes so that should allow a little more flexibility in speed setting as well.

I-575 is strange... 65 mph in the middle where you pay, yet 70 mph on the free lanes? Nothing geometrically different... that should get changed.

Seeing all the renderings for the elevated lanes being proposed for I-285 makes me kinda anxious for this happening again tbh     

Regardless, it doesn't mute the fact that on a civil engineering perspective, the I-75 NWC project was beyond impressive with the bridges. These renderings do give me hope of impressive structures to come.

[architect77]

Here's a video on the visualization of the I-285 Eastside Express Lanes...

I wonder how they are going to do this since they already built out the middle reversable toll lane.  I'm assuming they get rid of that or it becomes part of the original freeway. 

Will the I-75 South express lanes be similar to the Northside "tollercoaster" with lots of high bridges?  I haven't seen any renderings yet.

They should also upgrade the northside I-75 express lanes to be two lanes in both directions although that may be next to impossible to do now.

I sound like a broken record with my opinions on this but...

I hope they won't make the same mistake they did with the tollercoaster. The fact that the speed limit and design speed in the express lanes is LOWER than the general purpose lanes is kinda messed up imho  (55 express 65 general south of 575, and 65 express 70 general on 575).

Wow, I never even realized that. I understand the roller coaster aspect of the lanes (which it's really neat how they put them in there to begin with) can limited the design speed in some areas, but I don't know why they can't post it at 65 mph and then have advisory speeds where needed.

I imagine trucks are banned in the lanes so that should allow a little more flexibility in speed setting as well.

I-575 is strange... 65 mph in the middle where you pay, yet 70 mph on the free lanes? Nothing geometrically different... that should get changed.

Seeing all the renderings for the elevated lanes being proposed for I-285 makes me kinda anxious for this happening again tbh     

Regardless, it doesn't mute the fact that on a civil engineering perspective, the I-75 NWC project was beyond impressive with the bridges. These renderings do give me hope of impressive structures to come.

I hope the elevated viaducts are smooth enough to handle Atlanta' high average driving speeds. People say you can't drive all that fast on the Cobb Express Lanes because of the ups and downs. Still though I think it's impressive that they built all of those elevated lanes and interchanges for under $1 Billion. I think about $900M was the final price.

When I view these renderings of I-285 Express Lanes and all of the ramps at the main interchanges, I can't help thinking how beautiful they'd be if built as box trusses on curved column bents in the style of Spaghetti Junction.

Of course they will use precast concrete girders and beams but the price is going to be staggering. They will put lights on the elevated lanes so I-285 will get partially lit.

I hate that the East I-285 rebuild includes some freeway lanes at only 11' width instead of the standard 12'. The restriping of I-85 to add the HOV/Express Lane took 1' from at least 2 inner lanes turning it from a luxurious drive of 5 generous lanes into a white knuckle more stressful event.

[Tom958]

On September 26th, contracts were let for the removal and replacement of the concrete pavement on most (18 miles) of westside 285 with asphalt. 250,000 tons of asphalt will be required, as will some pretty major lane closures. The segments are:

11.5 miles from Roosevelt Highway to MLK, $206 million. The contractor is Webber, which is under the umbrella of the dread Ferrovial.

6.7 miles from Hollowell Parkway to Paces Ferry, $155 million to CW Matthews and ER Snell.


Also, a $134 million contract was awarded to ER Snell for interchanges on GA 316 from Cedars Road to Sugarloaf Parkway, including at US 29. That and a shorter segment westward to GA 20-124 will complete the 316 freeway conversion west of Sugarloaf, doing away with the last traffic signal on 316 in Gwinnett. I don't know the status of that last segment, but everything's supposed to be let in 2026 or before. Here's a link to the other projects in that area: https://transformingsr316-gdot.hub.arcgis.com/pages/publicoutreach

Weirdly, the ER Snell section will build new roadways outboard of the existing roadbed, then remove the existing pavement, leaving a median roughly 150 feet wide!  https://gdot.maps.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/26c64345f7c54584915d8fe4d8da944d/data

[Georgia Guardrail]

The Eastside Express lanes are impressive.  I do like how they are elevated and are two lanes in each direction.  While they are at it, I wish they would make some modifications to the I 285/US 78 interchange general access areas. It is such a dangerous interchange with the left hand merges.

My ideas would be to eliminate the left hand merges on I 285 from US 78 on the general purpose lanes. 

For this interchange, I would reconstruct I 285 North right next to I 285 south including a new bridge over US 78 and the US 78 to I 285 north ramp. 

Then I would use the existing I 285 North bridge and ramp alignment as a CD system for traffic going from US 78 East to I 285 north or US 29. 

I would build a new flyover from US 78 West to I 285 South to replace the left ramp merge on the south side of I 285. 



I do hope that they fix unsafe interchanges like this as they construct this project.  Would be a huge missed opportunity if they didn't.

[Tom958]

I do hope that they fix unsafe interchanges like this as they construct this project.  Would be a huge missed opportunity if they didn't.

They won't.

I do idly wonder if they ever looked at the feasibility of removing those left-side onramps by elevating the mainline on fill as they did at both 285-75s. Aside from the median being much narrower here, I suspect that the gradient on the south side is so close to the maximum that the new mainline would have to begin back at E. Ponce.

[sprjus4]

I hate that the East I-285 rebuild includes some freeway lanes at only 11' width instead of the standard 12'. The restriping of I-85 to add the HOV/Express Lane took 1' from at least 2 inner lanes turning it from a luxurious drive of 5 generous lanes into a white knuckle more stressful event.

Why is this becoming an acceptable practice on interstates nowadays? Texas seems to be leaning into it more and more on urban reconstruction. I understand the benefit of saving right of way, but you're compromising safety in the process, and violating interstate standards.

[RoadWarrior56]

Responding to the previous post, my response be that there is always an ongoing tradeoff between safety and capacity, especially where freeways are concerned, notwithstanding the cost considerations.   I don't like 11' lanes on freeways either, especially on I-285, but sometimes it is the only way to squeeze lanes into some of these corridors, and if you take the width from the shoulders, that causes its own safety issues.