The planned 285/400 interchange redesign (Atlanta, Roswell: house, dangerous, parking)

[GeorgiaLakeSearch]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Because they were not getting a rail extension and the NAACP told them to vote against it!

Well that is what they get for listening to the NAACP. I do not vote by what La Raza says.

[cqholt]

Well that is what they get for listening to the NAACP. I do not vote by what La Raza says.

True dat! South DeKalb is very deserving of a rail extension, they have been paying decades of sales taxes and have always been behind MARTA, unlike many in North Fulton.

[HayateWind]

They're building collector-distributor lanes on I-20 East from I-285 to Wesley Chapel (and maybe Panola, but it doesn't look that way), but I doubt they'll do too much to ease traffic in that area.

I feel like if GDOT rebuilds this interchange, everything's going to go. The interchange has the same design it had when it opened nearly 50 years ago, and I feel like they'll look at that as a chance to build a monument to Atlanta's roads, whether it was too much building or not. Plus, it looks like the project could potentially cut into the exit space for Glenridge Drive and Peachtree-Dunwoody Road. That could potentially require a redesign of all three exits and their bridges (maybe even Johnson Ferry on 400 too), which could be a problem. The cost alone could make them just say "Screw it, let's just redesign it all."

[GeorgiaLakeSearch]

Originally Posted by cqholt

True dat! South DeKalb is very deserving of a rail extension, they have been paying decades of sales taxes and have always been behind MARTA, unlike many in North Fulton.

I agree they need at least one line in SE. Ideally they would have another with all of the undeveloped land around Jonesboro & Moreland.

[cqholt]

I feel like if GDOT rebuilds this interchange, everything's going to go. The interchange has the same design it had when it opened nearly 50 years ago, and I feel like they'll look at that as a chance to build a monument to Atlanta's roads, whether it was too much building or not. Plus, it looks like the project could potentially cut into the exit space for Glenridge Drive and Peachtree-Dunwoody Road. That could potentially require a redesign of all three exits and their bridges (maybe even Johnson Ferry on 400 too), which could be a problem. The cost alone could make them just say "Screw it, let's just redesign it all."

Let's not forget that MARTA's Red Line is also in the vicinity, underground to the SE of the interchange.

[tikigod311]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaLakeSearch

I agree they need at least one line in SE. Ideally they would have another with all of the undeveloped land around Jonesboro & Moreland.

Is that land undeveloped due to a nature preserve or prior land use? Or is it just that undesirable?

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaLakeSearch

I agree they need at least one line in SE. Ideally they would have another with all of the undeveloped land around Jonesboro & Moreland.

Putting a high-capacity rail line where it serves no one is the best way to generate more anti-transit sentiment.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Let's not forget that MARTA's Red Line is also in the vicinity, underground to the SE of the interchange.

Um, the MARTA line is more than half a mile away and mostly above-ground at this point.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Replace the 2 ramps that merge traffic into the 'fast lanes' and keep the rest the of the interchange. rehab the bridges some, but for god sake the interchange does not need to be a huge concrete monster. The only reason Deal picked this to be his priority is because it leads into the Republican strong hold of the metro! I-20 in South DeKalb is in greater need of congestion relief, but I don't see Deal giving hundreds of millions to build a MARTA line there.

Unfortunately there is some truth to this. Both the 285/20 interchanges have a couple ramps that desperately need to be rebuilt, but we don't hear Deal clamoring for that.

I offer the Cobb Cloverleaf as a good example of how an interchange can be improved without completely rebuilding it. The original I-285 lanes became C/D lanes, and they added the 75S -> 285E flyover as the main alternative to the much more dangerous cloverleaf (and kept it because of Windy Hill). 75N also has a ramp stub to a future flyover to 285W, should it ever be needed in the future.

Don't get me wrong, everyone, 285/400 definitely needs improvements as well. I just don't see the need of tearing down the parts that do work in addition to those that don't.

[bryantm3]

i think there are bigger priorities, but honestly if you're going to do something about it the whole thing has to be rebuilt. the thing is a mess— there are only two unobstructed lanes going northbound and southbound on 400 and if you ditch those the whole damn thing has got to go because they sandwich the rest of the interchange.

what i'm very curious to see are the concepts or drawings for the redesign— if you are familiar with the interchange, the hammond drive bridge was built in an unusual way to be able to carry about 3 additional lanes on both sides, so they must have had a pretty good idea what they were going to do when they built that. barring that one, about 3 or 4 exits are going to have to be integrated into the entire thing and it's going to be a pretty complex system. seeing as 400 is not even an interstate, initially i was not sure if a multi-layer stack interchange was going to be necessary, but seeing how many exits are going to have to be integrated into the system, it may become the only solution.