Breaking: I-85 Will Reopen By Monday, Maybe Sooner!
Decatur Metro | May 10, 2017 | 11:19 amOh thank goodness! From the AJC…
I-85 in Atlanta will reopen in time for Monday’s morning rush hour commute and probably sooner.
The northbound lanes probably will be open sometime Saturday and the southbound lanes sometime Sunday, Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry said at a press conference Wednesday.
That puts the project a full month ahead of schedule.
Photo and video courtesy of GDOT
I am torn between relief that my commute will go back to heavy traffic from crazy insane and the sense that this seems a bit too quick. There’s that adage that out of fast, high quality, and cheap, you can only get two out of three. Hoping that cheap was compromised, not safety. Does construction like this get pilot tested with back-to-back traffic, including tractor trailers? I’m definitely going to let several weeks of morning and evening backed-up traffic sit on that bridge for several weeks before I use it.
Calm down. They are currently driving construction machinery on it, and DOT has had inspectors on site 24/7 for the project duration. The traditional bid process was side-stepped for this project, and there are millions of dollars of sweeteners available for early completion, so yes it’s safe to say that the “cheap” thing went out the window.
One reason it has been done quickly is that some of the material and techniques used are designed for more speed, but at significantly more cost. Regular construction wouldn’t have used these, but in this case it was basically a “cost is no object” project allowing their use.
I don’t know if this is coincidence but the hardware store was out of duct tape and cable ties last week. Just sayin’.
The headline would have worked as well without the colon.