State, local and federal officials gathered on a Sandy Springs hillside on Oct. 21 to celebrate the completion of the Hammond Drive half-diamond interchange with Ga. 400.
“This is a wonderful example of how you can get something done,” Sandy Springs Mayor Eva Galambos said of the project built through a partnership of state and city officials and the Perimeter Community Improvement Districts.
The rebuilt and expanded interchange, which opened to traffic Sept. 2, consists of a new, nine-lane bridge carrying Hammond across Ga. 400 and a pair of ramps connecting Ga. 400 to Hammond from the north. The Georgia Department of Transportation, the Perimeter Community Improvement Districts and the city of Sandy Springs Development Authority were partners in the $18 million project.
Officials said the interchange created the first new access point onto Ga. 400 since 1983.
“This won’t be the last project at the Perimeter,” said PCIDs president and chief executive officer Yvonne Williams.
Officials of the PCIDs, self-taxing business districts that include portions of Sandy Springs and Dunwoody, also plan a $4.6 million project to remake the Ashford-Dunwoody intersection with I-285 a “diverging diamond” intersection, meaning traffic would move through the intersection in an unusual way.
The intersection will be the first “diverging diamond” in Georgia and the seventh in the U.S., according to the PCID. Construction is scheduled to begin in January and be completed by next September, the organization says.
After the roadside ceremony, U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Roswell) told scores of local business and government leaders gathered for a PCIDs-sponsored luncheon at Cox Enterprises headquarters that trade bills approved recently in Congress could help boost the local economy.
“These are big pieces of legislation for the country and for Georgia,” Price said.
The free trade agreements with South Korea, Columbia and Panama could increase U.S. trade by more than $14 billion and create thousands of jobs, a federal commission has said
