Unfortunately, construction is a part of living in a big city. There are always orange cones somewhere. If you take Ga. 400 or Interstate 85 to work, no doubt you've seen the crews near that merge as the Georgia Department of Transportation works to make it easier to move south to north.
It's a $40 million project meant to make it easier to travel on two of Atlanta's busiest highways. When it's complete, two new flyover bridges will connect Interstate 85 with Ga. 400.
If you could view the project from above, you can see the bridges above the two roads starting to take shape.
"Now that they've got the big supports up for the flyover bridge, people are starting to notice…definitely," said GDOT's Jill Goldberg.
With the construction, you can expect a lot longer during rush hour. To move from either Ga. 400 south to I-85 north or I-85 south to Ga. 400 north, you have to get off the interstate, and make about four turns and get back on the interstate.
Once the overpasses are done-- you won't even have to hit the brakes.
"Prior to this project, motorists would have to do a zig-zag pattern around over some surface streets, really follow the signs and connect back up with either 400 or 85 -- whichever one they were trying to access," said Goldberg.
GDOT says this will really help tourists, or people just driving through Atlanta.
"They could get lost if they're not paying attention to the signs or get very confused anyways. So, this is going to definitely be an improvement for them," Goldberg said.
Along with the construction, drivers can expect lane closures.
"There will be continuous closures going on for short periods of time, maybe over the weekend or during the day and stuff. People do need to be aware of that. It's all just part of that construction so that we can meet that end of the year deadline," said Goldberg.
The deadline for the end of the year construction is December 31.
The overpasses are being paid for with a bond, but that will be paid back by Ga. 400 toll collections.
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