ATLANTA – The State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA) signed off Monday on two major highway improvement projects.
Board members unanimously approved resolutions authorizing agreements between SRTA and the Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) to split oversight of upgrades to intersections along Georgia 316 and an overhaul of the heavily congested Interstate 285/I-20 West interchange.
The 316 project calls for building seven grade-separated intersections along the busy highway connecting Athens with I-85 in Lawrenceville both to improve traffic flow and safety. The intersections involved in the project are in Barrow and Oconee counties.
The work will be done through three contracts worth about $350 million in total. The first of the three contracts will involve two Georgia 316 intersections in Barrow County.
The DOT plans to issue a request for proposals from interested road builders for the $100 million contract next month and announce the apparent winner of the bidding in December. Construction is due to start during the fall of next year.
The second project calls for redesigning the I-285/I-20 West interchange west of Atlanta, ranked the fifth-worst bottleneck in the nation by the American Transportation Research Institute.
The nearly $1 billion project will involve removing the left-hand entrance and exit ramps and building a westbound collector-distributor system from the interchange to Fulton Industrial Boulevard. Lanes will be added along I-20 from Factory Shoals Road to Hamilton E. Holmes Drive and along I-285 from Donald E. Hollowell Parkway to MLK Jr. Drive. Several bridges also will be replaced.
In April, the DOT chose two finalists for the work. The agency plans to announce a “best value proposer” during the second quarter of next year.
Under the agreements between SRTA and the DOT, SRTA will finance the projects and pay the contractors, while the DOT will manage the construction. The State Transportation Board already has approved both agreements.