i-75 Atlanta Interstate 75 Atlanta News Blog

i-75 Atlanta News Blog - Mar 08 ...

> Downtown connector repaving delayed until next weekend due to rain ... March 28/08
For about an hour, one block of Washington Street in front of the state capitol closes for a demonstration. The result was a Friday fiasco that was relatively brief. Coming soon, more downtown horn blowing, courtesy of road closures and a weekend packed with events... cont...

> Weekend interstate work will cause jams in Atlanta ... March 27/08
Get ready for some weekend traffic jams on the so-called Downtown Connector, where Interstates 75 and 85 converge and lead into Atlanta. The eight-month project starts Friday and will continue on the weekends. The contractor, E.R. Snell, has drafted a plan for almost no work on traffic lanes from Monday to Friday so weekday commuters should not be affected. The state wants to get the work done by November 30th. That means weekend travelers will deal with traffic delays... cont...

> Repaving to Begin on I 75/85 ... March 25/08
It's called the downtown connector, and this summer it will connect one major road project with another. The Georgia Department of Transportation will begin repaving Interstate 75/85 this Friday night, a project that will occupy every weekend between now and November 30. While it might mean delays, and aggravation, for drivers, the DOT says the repaving is long overdue... cont...

> Georgia Gov. Tallies Damage, Presidential Disaster Declaration Issued... March 21/08
As Atlanta continues to clean debris away from downtown streets after a devastating tornado pummeled the southern capital last week, Gov. Sonny Perdue tallied damages in a letter to the president, requesting federal emergency declaration status. Perdue said the request covering government buildings and public costs due to the storms is still pending. The storms prompted closure of 14 roads including entrance and exit ramps to Interstate Highways 75/85 in downtown Atlanta.... cont...

> Video: Street Closings Stress Downtown Atlanta Drivers ... March 18/08
Commuters who tried to make their way through the tornado-damaged Downtown Atlanta area Monday morning faced some extreme delays, especially those trying to exit at Courtland Street. "What we saw all morning long, especially into the 10 o'clock hour, was just massive delays heading down 75 and down 85 trying to get down the connector. We didn't see them break up until about 11 o'clock this morning," said 11Alive Traffic Reporter Rob Langer. The Courtland Street exit started to back up as the morning rush hour picked up steam, and did not clear until after 11 a.m. Drivers who made it onto the surface streets were then left frustrated as they worked to navigate around dozens of barricades and broken street lights.... cont...

> Video: Atlanta Streets Shut Down after Tornado ... March 16/08
A number of surface streets in Downtown Atlanta were reopened Monday after repairs were made from a tornado that ripped through that part of town Friday night. The majority of streets in the downtown core were reopened to traffic in time for the Monday afternoon rush hour. However, some streets in the areas of Cabbage Town and Vine City remained closed. Many traffic lights are still non-functional. Atlanta Police officers staffed many of the busier intersections during rush-hour Monday afternoon and again Tuesday morning. All exit and entrance ramps to the 75/85 were open..... cont...

> Man who survived i-75 bus crash accepts courage award ... March 12/08
A survivor of a charter bus crash that killed five members of the Bluffton University baseball team last year spoke publicly for the first time as he accepted an award for courage. Tim Berta, 23, the team's student manager, was critically injured in the March 2, 2007, crash in Atlanta as the team headed to spring training in Florida. The driver of the bus apparently mistook an exit ramp for a regular highway lane and crashed the bus into a concrete barrier at a T-intersection. The bus flipped off an overpass and fell 30 feet onto Interstate 75. Besides the five players, the driver and his wife died. Twenty-eight others were injured.... cont...

> Surprise snow flurries in Atlanta put Cup activities on ice ... March 8/08
Snow flurries invaded the countryside around the 1.54-mile track, stirring memories of the "Great Blizzard of 1993" that also was known as the "White Hurricane, No-Name Hurricane" and " '93 Superstorm." Atlanta received between 4 to 6 inches of white stuff that weekend, forcing the then-Winston Cup race to be postponed from Sunday until the following Saturday. It was such a mess that thousands of motorists were stranded for several days on Interstate 75 north of Atlanta.... cont...

> Council vote means 'train moving' for int'l terminal ... March 3/08
The Atlanta City Council on Monday unanimously approved a $1.2 billion construction budget for a new international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, despite objections by Delta Air Lines, the airport's largest customer, over a huge reserve fund. Interstate 75, its own parking garage and gates for 12 wide-bodies jets. Those gates will complement 28 gates at the current international terminal on Concourse E, giving the airport the ability to park 40 international flights at one time.... cont...

> Freight forecast shows shift to trains makes sense ... March 2/08
If you think car traffic is bad and getting worse, you had better brace yourself for an explosion of freight traffic in metro Atlanta by 2030. The Atlanta Regional Freight Mobility Plan, approved by the Atlanta Regional Commission board last week, paints a frightening picture... county region freight will increase from 950 million tons to 1.7 billion tons, a 78 percent increase. And current projections are that more than 1.5 billion of those tons will be hauled by trucks. Much of that is due to having three interstate highways (I-75, I-85 and I-20) converging in the city center. The same is true for railroad lines that connect the Atlantic seaports of Charleston, Savannah and Brunswick with metro Atlanta and cities north and west. It recommended investing in existing highways to remove the freight bottlenecks at key interchanges — I-75 north at I-285; I-20 west at I-285; and I-75 south at I-675 — as well as other intersections across the metro area.... cont...