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Atlanta...
Hammond Drive Project Designed for Easing Traffic By Eric Olson CEG CORRESPONDENT
Metro Atlanta motorists may face a hassle in the near term, but in the long term, the expansion of the Hammond Drive bridge over Georgia Highway 400 will help alleviate traffic in the busy area north of the city. Earth began to be moved in the late spring on the $17 million design-build project, located several miles north of downtown Atlanta in the busy corridor between I-285 and Abernathy Road in the suburban city of Sandy Springs. The target date for completion is set for Aug. 31, 2011. According to Mickey McGee, the Metro Atlanta construction engineer for the Georgia DOT, the project entails expanding the Hammond Drive overpass at state Road 400 from a four-lane to a nine-lane bridge, including two turning lanes at each end of the overpass. A raised median on the bridge will separate the east- and west-bound lanes of Hammond Drive. “When work is finished, we will have a much wider and longer bridge to accommodate any future expansion of the lanes on Georgia 400, as well as a half-diamond interchange,” McGee said. “That half-diamond will include a southbound off ramp and a northbound on ramp, with those auxiliary lanes extending up Georgia 400 to the next interchange at Abernathy Road.” McGee hopes that the new Hammond Drive half-diamond interchange and bridge will help drivers move more easily through a historically congested area. “Certainly this project is designed to funnel some of the traffic that normally would use Abernathy Road and/or I-285 toward Sandy Springs and/or the Dunwoody-Perimeter Center area,” he added. With work underway, traffic has been disrupted along both Hammond Drive and Georgia 400, mainly though traffic lane shifting, McGee said. The contract for building the interchange and expanding the see ATLANTA page 2
Photo courtesy of Aerial Innovations of Georgia Inc.
The expansion of the Hammond Drive bridge over Georgia Highway 400 will help alleviate traffic in the busy area north of the city.