" what in the world is going on with our freeway system atl???!!!" (Atlanta: transplants, contractor)

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by CitiesinUSA

The government is secretly destroying our roadways to promote public transportation.

if so, it's not any government we know about, because the federal government spends trillions to build and maintain these roads in the first place. unless you're talking about some sort of shadow government pulling strings in the background to manipulate the public, this wouldn't make any sense. and at that point it's probably more logical to assume that it's just the will of the universe/God/fate orchestrating events to bring the issue to a head.

[therealpattman]

It's a combination of overbuilding, public opposition against newer freeways and transit and climate. Atlanta's freeways are way overbuilt in terms of lanes but underbuilt in terms of the capacity. Remember this freeway system was designed for a metropolitan area of about 3 million. Instead of reinforcing the current infrastructure with newer construction to reduce usage (northern arc, expanded MARTA) public opposition caused the area to just make do with what was already built and just build it bigger and wider. Eventually the system will fail because it was not designed to handle the load. Georgia's climate fluctuates wildly throughout the year so when its 102 F with a drought in the summer and 29 F with ice in the winner, it can be hard on roads. Human error can also be a factor as well.

[toll_booth]

So which freeway goes down tomorrow? 400??

[roadtrip75]

This series of accidents is not statistically significant. It's a fluke. Our expressways are well maintained.

[therealpattman]

Originally Posted by roadtrip75

This series of accidents is not statistically significant. It's a fluke. Our expressways are well maintained.

For what it has sure but can we agree Atlanta should have either double the freeway miles or double the MARTA htr miles?

[bu2]

Originally Posted by chiatldal

The "roadways" are from the government also

Cause even though Atlanta may be progressive GA is a red leaning state, and there a lack of investment in infrastructure. but I don't want to get into politics

Clearly the state need to start taking transportation issues more serious in the state.

Texas makes major transportation investments and its very Red.

Its a combination of the Liberals and Conservatives in the state both sticking their head in the sand along with a heavy dose of NIMBY. Liberal parts of DeKalb have killed several proposals for rail in addition to roads.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by roadtrip75

This series of accidents is not statistically significant. It's a fluke. Our expressways are well maintained.

Maybe its the Georgia Tech transportation engineers. They aren't as much of a heck of an engineer as they think.

[bUU]

While the roads themselves may or may not be well-maintained, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that both recent incidents can be tracked back to inadequate measures taken with regard to other matters that were allowed to endanger the highway network: Research where the conduit stored under I-85 came from and why it was there; and research what caused the damage to I-20 and ask yourself why other areas can retire abandoned gas lines without them blowing up Interstate highways. I bet in the end, if we ever get the full truth, we'll learn that the I-20 damage was caused by the same thing as the I-85 damage: Inadequate measures taken (read: rabid economizing placing monetary considerations over public safety) by infrastructure contractors.

[DJDeadParrot]

A series of unrelated, statistically insignificant accidents? Sure, okay. But, it sure does have a lot of metro Atlantans talking. Remember, a lot of us are yankee transplants who get asked by friends and family back home why things like an inch and a half of snow trapped people in their cars for upwards of 18 hours.

The answer isn't one that can be summarized quickly because there is no one answer; its a combination of many small problems that, individually, we aren't dealing with largely because we don't see them as problems. Until 3 weeks ago, nobody saw unattended piles of unused utility conduit as inherently dangerous because it wasn't.

However, a combination of each of these unscheduled road closures, however hilarious* the causes, has had an effect on the collective psyche of many in metro ATL [natives and transplants, alike]; that the infrastructure built for our favorite mode of transportation is highly vulnerable to failure at points that don't seem to be weak points, but nonetheless have far-reaching domino effects.

* hilarious when you're not in them

[arjay57]

Looks like the got this repaired quickly. Was this problem due to a defective gas line or a defective highway?

Ahead of schedule, all westbound lanes have reopened on I-20 after a damaged gas line caused part of the interstate to buckle Monday in DeKalb County.

Georgia Department of Transportation officials originally said repairs between Candler and Gresham roads, where the damage occurred, would not be completed until noon Tuesday.

All lanes reopen after part of I-20 buckles in DeKalb County