Okay! Whats going on with the downtown connector uneven roads. (Atlanta: how much, construction)

[Atlwarrior]

Have anyone else notice how progressively bad some parts of the downtown connector roads has become. Particular when exiting toward 1-20 Augusta, Fulton Street and again exiting on 10th street on the 75 north payment. I tired of rocks and gravel hitting my car.

[st3mpy]

It's not just The Connector, it's the whole dang town. I just had to put a second set of ball joints on my car. Midtown has become especially bad. If a construction project tears into the road to tap a water main or whatever, they should be required to perform a proper repair. At best they put a little gravel over it, at worst they just leave a trench in the middle of the road (Spring and 10th).

If I'm on my bike, it's downright dangerous.

[CCATL]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

Have anyone else notice how progressively bad some parts of the downtown connector roads has become. Particular when exiting toward 1-20 Augusta, Fulton Street and again exiting on 10th street on the 75 north payment. I tired of rocks and gravel hitting my car.

Yes! Going Northbound, just after Turner Field, it's a mess. I actually had a piece of gravel pop up and crack my windshield a couple of weeks ago. I have no idea what is going on, but it doesn't look like they are doing anything to improve it. It looks like the shredded off some of the top layer, like it was going to be repaved, but then never repaved it.

[Gulch]

Couple hundred thousand cars/day + freeze/thaw cycles = lousy pavement.

[samiwas1]

They never repair roads around here after doing construction on them. Dig a trench, and the metal plate will stay there for months before being peeled up and a half-assed asphalt dump placed on top or some sand and gravel.

But the worst is just needing some street sweepers. It amazes me how much gravel and grit collects on some major roads, and on medians. After they built the new bridge over the Chattahoochee on Marietta Blvd/Atlanta Rd, they never cleaned up the debris. To this day, the whole area is completely covered in gravel bits.

On a related note (but not safety related), why do they not put liners when they build sidewalks here? Brand new sidewalks have plants growing out of them within a month.

This is a Google Street view of the same area on Marietta Blvd. at the bridge. This is only a few years old and it looks like an abandoned industrial lot. This is the same location just like a year after it was completed. Compare to 2010 just after it was completed and it looks great!

[atler8]

Unfortunately the problem is not merely confined to The Connector.
I was in Des Moines 2 weeks ago. Believe me, they have far more serious winter weather & experience the freezing & thawing issues with pavement that someone mentioned here earlier.
Nevertheless, I was able to remark to my host as we drove around the City of Des Moines and a couple of it's suburbs that their roads were in markedly better shape than those back in Atlanta.
Plus, traffic lights were time-coordinated on a massive scale as compared to what I find in Atlanta and it's suburbs.
We in metro Atlanta just have a failure of bureaucracy to get things accomplished in infrastructure maintenance & improvement & have acquiesced to accept pitifully low standards.

[magnetar]

Ask GDOT. City streets certainly have issues of their own but the Connector is maintained (barely) by the state.

More than the bad pavement, it's the fading lane markings that bother me. When I have the misfortune of driving on the connector in the rain, I can barely tell where the lanes are on some of the curves.

[atl1221]

It's a real shame. Georgia used to have some of the best roads in the country. It's getting terrible on the connector!

[OneTrickNet]

Heaven forbid we raise the gas tax or anything in the state to help pay for some of these things. And the farmers elsewhere in the state don't want any money tossed at Atlanta because they feel left out.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by OneTrickNet

Heaven forbid we raise the gas tax or anything in the state to help pay for some of these things. And the farmers elsewhere in the state don't want any money tossed at Atlanta because they feel left out.

We just did last year with HB 170.