Starting Feb. 23, a slope monitoring project along Lake Forrest Drive in Sandy Springs will close a section of the corridor for roughly a week from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., while crews work near Maryeanna Drive.
Motorists traveling on Lake Forrest Drive will need to use Stewart Drive, Roswell Road, and Maryeanna Drive as a detour to avoid the road closure. Roswell Road (SR 9), Long Island Drive, and Powers Ferry Road are other north-south options.
The road closure is necessary for city crews to install monitoring devices along a section of deteriorating slope above the roadway. The technology allows the city to track movement and alert it to any changes.
In December, the Sandy Springs City Council accepted the affected property owner’s donation of a permanent easement at Lake Forrest and Maryeanna drives.
Because trees on top of the slope are compromising load capacity, crews are clearing most of the vegetation on the east side of the roadway, just south of the Maryeanna Drive intersection.
The completely linear major collector road runs from Powers Ferry Road in Buckhead to Mount Vernon Highway in Sandy Springs. Sheer slopes along sections of the roadway in Sandy Springs are believed to be the result of dynamite used during its construction in the 1930s.
Nearly a century later, many of the hillsides along Lake Forrest Drive are degrading. City officials said mudslides, cave-ins, and falling rocks over the last 15 years have caused prolonged road closures.
South of Mount Paran Road, Sandy Springs is constructing six-foot-wide sidewalks in phases on the western side of the roadway to connect residents to Chastain Park.
To watch a city video explaining the project, click here.