Top Highway Boondoggles: I-285 and SR 400 Interchange Rebuilding (Atlanta, Alpharetta: construction, cost)

[jsvh]

Highway Boondoggles: I-285 and SR 400 Interchange Rebuilding in Atlanta, Georgia

https://uspirg.org/sites/pirg/files/...ondoggles4.pdf

In their fourth Highway Boondoggles report, U.S. PIRG and the Frontier Group profile wasteful highway projects that state DOTs are building across the country. Today’s boondoggle: the I-285 and SR400 Interchange Rebuilding in Atlanta, Georgia. The expensive interchange project goes far beyond necessary repairs to add miles of new lanes on two highways, and is moving forward even as Atlanta residents clamor for more and better transit.

Aging interchanges can be dangerous and updating their design can be necessary to keep drivers safe. Yet in Georgia, the need for an interchange design update has led to something far larger...

[Craziaskowboi]

Yeah, yeah, cars and highways are evil, so saith Ralph Nader, who founded the U.S. PIRG, which is the author of this study.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by Craziaskowboi

Yeah, yeah, cars and highways are evil, so saith Ralph Nader, who founded the U.S. PIRG, which is the author of this study.

Clearly the only option is to continue to rack up huge debt overbuilding roads and highways that simply encourage more traffic.

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Clearly the only option is to continue to rack up huge debt overbuilding roads and highways that simply encourage more traffic.

I don't like the cost or the loss of so many trees, but what they're doing out there is a necessary evil.

In a perfect world, it would be happening in concert with the expansion of the Red Line to Alpharetta. Again, in a perfect world.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Highway Boondoggles: I-285 and SR 400 Interchange Rebuilding in Atlanta, Georgia

https://uspirg.org/sites/pirg/files/...ondoggles4.pdf

Best project and one of the best $ value projects GDOT is doing. The biggest factor in traffic after accidents is interchanges.

[brown_dog_us]

This quote from the link demonstrates why most urbanist blogs are not credible. Note how they seemlessly flip back and forth between the City of Atlanta (600k residents) and the region (6 million residents) about a project that is not in the City of Atlanta.

Meanwhile, the Atlanta region is working to make urgent transportation improvements to support the city’s revitalization and growth. Nearly twice as many Atlanta residents say they would prefer transit upgrades to new roads.

[Mossberg]

Sometimes, out-of-date things such as interchanges need to be brought up to modern design standards. Even if this rebuilt interchange doesn't provide much traffic relief, those left side merges are a safety nightmare that needed to be addressed. To me that's the most important thing about this project. If traffic flows better, then that's an added bonus.

I also wish that North Fulton would have gotten a red line extension, but apparently the mayors wanted BRT instead.

[J2rescue]

Are you guys intentionally avoiding the point of the article? Yes the interchange needed to be updated and that is acknowledged.

Aging interchanges can be dangerous and updating their design can be necessary to keep drivers safe. Yet in Georgia, the need for an interchange design update has led to something far larger...

The question is, did updating the interchange really have to be a nearly $600 million project?

According to a report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, after the project’s conception it “morphed far beyond its original scope” after state leaders “latched on to a truly mammoth version of the concept, one that would add miles of lanes adjacent to both major highways and consume an amount almost equal to the state’s entire annual road construction budget.”

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by J2rescue

Are you guys intentionally avoiding the point of the article? Yes the interchange needed to be updated and that is acknowledged.

The question is, did updating the interchange really have to be a nearly $600 million project?

Yep. Make safety improvements and maintain the highway. But the project on this scale is a boondoggle.

[cabasse]

600 million and they still left one of the clovers (400N to 285W)