Being safe while dealing with less traffic is all a Cobb County resident wants these days. The county says it’s well on its way to making that a reality for one stretch of road.
All it took was more than a year of work and what might end up being nearly $48 million for the I-75 overpass at Windy Hill Road.
Oh, and the bridge will be closed this weekend and the first weekend in March, as long as the weather cooperates.
From 9 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday, crews will reconfigure the interchange. During the same timeframe from March 3 to March 6, crews will pave and paint stripes on the new road. Detours will be posted.
The lanes made a big shift a couple of weeks ago, but now crews will be creating and refining the new lanes for what will be the permanent traffic flow come mid-March.
“These final steps are necessary to bring valuable mobility improvements for businesses and motorists,” said Jim Wilgus, director of Cobb DOT, in a news release.
The five-part Windy Hill project spans the less than two-mile stretch from Cobb Parkway and Powers Ferry Road.
And there's a reason besides Cobb's population growth they've been going through all this work since October 2014.
Wilgus cited a 2010 study detailing crash rates along that stretch of Windy Hill to be three times greater than statewide crash rates. Injury rates were double statewide rates.
The diverging diamond interchange, or DDI, will permanently shift traffic to the opposite side of the bridge on both sides and eliminates the need for a left turn signal onto I-75.
The county warned that it’ll be weird at first and feel like you’re driving on the wrong side of the read.
“It’ll take a minute for drivers to get used to the change,” said Wilgus. “Eliminating the signal will make through traffic and left turns onto I-75 safer and more efficient.”
About the Author
