ATLANTA — The Georgia Department of Transportation’s ambitious plan to close full sections of I-285 in both directions for entire weekends, as they rehab and replace concrete on a 15-mile stretch of the Westside Perimeter, has gone well. Despite gridlocked traffic near the first two closure scenes in southwest Atlanta and some miscommunication and misdirection with trucks using side streets, Atlanta braced itself handily for the first full closures of its bypass.
But a tension with closing the entire freeway for the weekend is the potential of the blockage lasting into a Monday AM drive. This is why a poor weather forecast postponed the initial mid-May I-285 closure for a couple of weeks. Rain during the Sunday night of that first weekend closure ended up not delaying the lanes’ opening by 5 a.m. that Monday. Crisis averted.
GDOT chose not to enact full I-285 closures during the World Cup, as the state did not want to create unnecessary backups with extra tourist traffic in Atlanta. But the department still did other daytime road work around town and worked on I-285 in the overnight hours…