Athens Perimeter should be widened (Atlanta, Monroe: construction, design, car)

[Craziaskowboi]

When I first moved to Athens 20 years ago, the Athens Perimeter was perfectly able to handle its traffic. But Athens has grown pretty rapidly since then, and I've noticed that the Perimeter is much more congested than it used to be. I've even noticed traffic at a few interchanges backing up nearly onto the highway at various times of the day. All the interchanges across the north side of town are substandard as well. I appreciate that GDOT is about to reconfigure the Oconee Street/Lexington Road interchange, but I hope that eventually they widen the highway to six lanes with full shoulders. If they have to do it incrementally, then I'd say they should start with the segment between GA 316 and Oconee Street/Lexington Road, especially since it's where the worst traffic is on football weekends. After that, the segment between U.S. 29 and Prince Avenue should be widened because it handles a lot of truck traffic. Another thing that needs to be done is a reconfiguration of the U.S. 29 and Old Hull Road interchanges, so the Perimeter doesn't have to exit itself. I know that money doesn't grow on trees, but these things can still be done incrementally.

[sedimenjerry]

The loop needs improvements that's for sure. It just seems outdated in spots in capacity and design.

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by sedimenjerry

The loop needs improvements that's for sure. It just seems outdated in spots in capacity and design.

More specific improvements I'd like to see:


1. Improve all the north Perimeter interchanges to Interstate standards. This includes the Old Hull Road, U.S. 29, North Avenue/Danielsville Road, U.S. 441, Chase Street, U.S. 129/Prince Avenue and Tallassee Road/Oglethorpe Avenue interchanges.

2. Make the Perimeter continuous by reconfiguring the U.S. 29 and Old Hull Road interchanges. GDOT already has the right of way in which to do this. There's a lot of space currently being wasted in that area. This should also involve construction of an Athena Parkway between the north Perimeter and Winterville Road.

3. Consider collector/distributor lanes between the North Avenue/Danielsville Road and U.S. 441 interchanges. Those two interchanges are too close together to properly lengthen the ramps without creating awkward traffic patterns in between them.

4. Widen the entire Perimeter to six lanes, but if forced to do so incrementally, start with the segments from GA 316/Epps Bridge Parkway to U.S. 78/Lexington Road, and U.S. 29 to U.S. 129/Prince Avenue. After that, the segments from U.S. 78/Lexington Road to U.S. 29, and U.S. 129/Prince Avenue to Atlanta Highway, should be done next. The segment from GA 316 to Atlanta highway can be widened last.

[Carolina Knight]

Exit 1
Exit 1 needs to be converted to a flee flowing interchange. An entry ramp is needed from Epps Bridge Parkway to inner-loop traffic. Flyover ramps are needed for inner-loop traffic to United States Route 29 southbound and from outer-loop traffic to Epps Bridge Parkway.

Three or four at-grade intersections on United States Route 29 from Monroe Highway to the loop will need to become grade-separated.

Exit 10
Exit 10 needs to be converted from a four-directional cloverleaf interchange to a three-directional interchange. Old Hull Road traffic can use Danielsville Road (exit 11).

[brenn21]

My opinion about the loop is this, it needs to get wider shoulders so that when a stalled car is there you're not going to nearly hit it. Idk how many times I've seen a car that was too close to the travel lane and not far enough over, at least to me. I just don't know why when the hwy was built, they didn't build it with normal width shoulders. And also like some have said parts of the loop are needing to be rebuilt, especially around the north ave and US 29 interchange areas. I'm glad they finally got rid of the Olympic Dr stoplight, and the speed limit increase to 65 MPH all around which was weird being 55 in some areas.