Trees have been coming down by the truckload along Ga. 400 and I-285 in recent weeks as the state’s “Transform 285/400” interchange reconstruction project preparation moves ahead.
Tree-clearing along Ga. 400 — which eventually will require some new sound barriers for local neighborhoods — has been underway for months. But activity in recent weeks has ramped up as the project nears its first milestone: replacing the Mount Vernon Highway bridge over Ga. 400 in Sandy Springs.
Right of way clearing on I-285 got started, including at the busy Roswell Road interchange. The work has involved some lane and ramp closures, which are done at night to minimize traffic effects.
All of the clearing is just prep work to relocate utilities and make way for new lanes and ramps.
Aiming for completion in mid-2020, the project will rebuild the interchange to improve vehicle capacity and flow. It will also add “collector-distributor lanes”—physically separated exit and entrance lanes — to 400 north to Sandy Springs’ Spalding Drive and to 285 between Roswell Road and Ashford-Dunwoody Road in Dunwoody and Brookhaven.
The 400/Abernathy Road interchange in Sandy Springs will be rebuilt as a “diverging diamond,” in which traffic flow changes in time with traffic lights to move cars faster, and 33 bridges will be built or rehabbed.
Here are some scenes from the recent work in late September and early October.
Photos by Phil Mosier.
Some years ago Photographer and artist Sally Epstein took a picture south down Roswell Road through a then empty construction site. The picture clearly shows the line between the skyscrapers of Buckhead and the trees of Brookhaven to the east. It takes about thirty years to reproduce a fully mature, functional tree. First you make your decisions, then your decisions make you.