ATLANTA – The recently completed multi-year overhaul of Georgia 400 at Interstate 285 is starting to pay off.
The heavily trafficked interchange has moved down the American Transportation Research Institute’s rankings from the nation’s ninth-worst freight traffic bottleneck to 29th, Georgia Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry told members of the State Transportation Board Thursday. Peak-hour speeds at the interchange have increased by 12 miles per hour, he said.
“We’re moving in the trajectory we want to move in,” he said.
The Georgia Department of Transportation has been working since 2016 on an ambitious plan to improve major highway corridors across the state to ease the flow of freight. The Georgia 400/I-285 overhaul is the first to be completed, although crews are still working to add toll lanes along 400 in Fulton and Forsyth counties.
McMurry said work is well underway on improvements to the interchange of I-20 and I-285 east of Atlanta, while a planned overhaul of the I-20/I-285 interchange west of Atlanta is about to enter construction. The DOT also is converting reversible toll lanes along I-75 south of Atlanta into non-reversible lanes, the commissioner said.
“We’re working toward solutions on many of these,” McMurry said. “It takes time to get there.”