Last week, GDOT commissioner Russell McMurry spoke with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the progress of major metro Atlanta interstate projects. Some of them will be completed many years from now. But there’s one Georgia Department of Transportation program that had to take a step backward in order to move forward.
Last July, GDOT’s Highway Emergency Response Operators (HERO) program scaled back from 24/7 service and decreased its metro Atlanta coverage footprint by 35% . At that time, McMurry said the agency made these changes to account for staff shortages and to try to regroup. The state hoped the cutbacks would be temporary. And McMurry said that GDOT hopes to restore the HERO program to its original coverage by the end of 2024.
“We tried to backfill with the CHAMP program to help pick up some of those less covered areas on mileage. And then [HERO units still] obviously try to respond in the off or overnight hours as necessary,” McMurry said in an August interview.
CHAMPs are white-colored HERO trucks that serve outside of metro Atlanta.