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COMMUNITY
GDOT chief: l-285/Ga. 400
project will save time, lives
BY JOHNRIICH
johnruch@reporternewspapers.net
Time—and lives—will be saved by the
upcoming reconstruction of the 1-285/
Ga. 400 interchange, state transportation
Commissioner Russell McMurry said at a
Dec. 11 luncheon celebrating GDOT s se
lection of construction team North Perim
eter Contractors.
“We always get focused on what
the design is and what the project will
look like.. .but sometimes we lose sight
of what the project does,” McMur
ry said at the Perimeter Business Alli
ance luncheon at Dunwoody’s La Me-
ridien Atlanta Perimeter Hotel. This
project will annually save commuters
eight hours and employers $100 mil
lion in lost productivity, and will re
duce accidents in the crash-prone cor
ridor, he said.
Slated for a possible groundbreak
ing next year and completion in 2020,
the rebuild will add exit/entrance lanes
and flyover ramps, much like the I-
285/1-85 interchange nicknamed Spa
ghetti Junction.
Also like Spaghetti Junction, the
new I-285/Ga. 400 interchange won’t
be clog-free. Those eight saved hours
a year amounts to less than two min
utes shaved off the average trip, and
McMurry acknowledged, “There still
will be congestion on 1-285.” Still, he
said it should handle projected devel
opment growth for “20-plus years” in
an interchange that currently carries
about 400,000 vehicles per day.
“I submit to you the Perimeter area
is the economic heart of our entire
state” and needs cleared-out “arteries,”
said Wendell Willard, the city attorney
for Sandy Springs and one of its local
state representatives.
An unusual, pedestrian-friendly ad
dition to the project is an extension
of the PATH400 multi-use trail cross
ing through the interchange by a yet-
to-be-designed route, thanks to the
PATH Foundation and the Perimeter
Center Improvement Districts. Mc
Murry said there are “not many plac
es in the nation where you can say
you are doing a freeway project with a
multi-use path going right through it.”
PCIDs, a group of self-taxing busi
nesses and organizations, is a ma
jor contributor to the project both
in planning and in cash to the tune
of $10 million. “That’s putting your
money where your mouth is,” Mc
Murry said, praising PCIDs as a “shin
ing example” for other business dis
tricts nationwide to follow.
Yvonne Williams, president and
CEO of PCIDs, praised the 285/400
project as part of “a system of trans
portation that has never been seen be
fore in a corporate area.” The group
works on a wide variety of transporta
tion improvements in Perimeter Cen
ter, from sidewalks to shuttle services
to MARTA connections.
North Perimeter Contractors has a
big local connection, too. The team’s
lead contractor is Ferrovial Agroman
US Corp., which has a regional head
quarters office in the Dunwoody part
of Perimeter Center.
“Our leadership for the entire east
ern U.S. drives through the project
[area] every day,” said Ferrovial Agro
man’s Jeffrey Wagner.
Having a lead contractor who
shares the pain of local commuters
may count as a plus. But Brookhaven
Mayor Rebecca Chase Williams and
Dunwoody City Councilwoman Lynn
Deutsch were among those who ex
pressed concerns in an interview about
traffic detours and delays during con
struction.
“Were doomed” with cut-through
traffic during construction, Deutsch
said. However, both officials agreed
that, as Williams put it, “The long
term fix is worth it.”
McMurry said that construction
impacts on traffic will be unavoidable.
But, he added, part of the contrac
tor selection included coming up with
a plan to handle it—or at least warn
travelers about how bad it will be.
“We will have the most intensive
public communications plan ever,”
McMurry said. “We’re very excit
ed about really elevated communica
tion... on a level that’s never been seen
in Georgia.”
North Perimeter Contractors was
awarded the project with a $460 mil
lion bid. That’s probably closer to
$680 million with right-of-way acqui
sitions, McMurry said, but still far be
low the $1.1 billion GDOT once esti
mated as the project’s cost. It remains
unclear exactly how North Perimeter
came in with such a lower-than-es-
timated cost, though McMurry said
proposing somewhat smaller bridges
was one factor.
“Don’t worry about that price being
so cheap it won’t get done,” McMurry
said, adding that GDOT is protected
by contractual guarantees. The project
is being funded under a plan that has
the contractor self-funding during the
project and the state then reimburs
ing it over a three-year period sever
al years later, allowing the cost to be
spread out.
While the I-285/Ga. 400 project
was proposed in 2012 and is still at
least five years from completion, that’s
a fast process by state highway stan
dards. Bob Voyles, chair of the Perime
ter Business Alliance board, was among
many officials and business leaders ex
pressing excitement at the luncheon
about both GDOT and MARTA be
coming faster-moving transportation
agencies.
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