Bethlehem Road/I-75 IJR approved by Federal Highway Administration(Henry County) (Atlanta: houses, construction)

[Airforceguy]

The new interchange would be between SR 155 and Bill Gardner Pkwy.
I-75/Bethlehem Rd Interchange-Henry County by brandon walker, on Flickr

I-75/Bethlehem Rd Interchange-Henry County by brandon walker, on Flickr

To date, all project activities have been funded with Henry County SPLOST IV dollars. Expenditures to date total $238,673 covering the interchange feasibility study and interchange justification report. Remaining funds of $5.2 million are sufficient to cover preliminary engineering and the environmental impact study.

The design process will take two to three years. When the environmental report has been completed, it will be submitted to FHWA before Henry County can receive a final approval to build the new exit.

Right of way acquisition could start in 2021-2022 and take about two years to complete. Construction is tentatively planned to start by 2025 with the new exit open by 2028. Henry County is working with Georgia DOT and the Atlanta Regional Commission to secure state and federal funding to cover right of way and construction. Total project costs are estimated at $40-50 million.

https://movinghenryforward.org/2018/...dministration/

[PKCorey]

9 years? My goodness.

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by PKCorey

9 years? My goodness.

Seriously! 9 years?? 2-3 years just to design a simple ramp interchange? Or, looking closer, that's including completely re-aligning Bethlehem Road into new ROW. I don't know anything about this area, but what is this new intersection supposed to solve? I see that it connects to a large distribution warehouse area, but that area seems perfectly accessible from McDonough Rd. Is there an issue at McDonough that this exit will aid? I know that's a big hot-spot for traffic backup.

[citidata18]

Tha would actually be a pretty quick turnaround.

The IJR for Exit 49 on I-85 (Amlajack Interchange) here in Coweta County was submitted about 10 years ago, and they haven't even completed the engineering for it yet.

Meanwhile, the Poplar Road interchange (exit 44 on I-85) has taken 14 years since the IJR, and it still won't open for another few weeks.

Poor Peachtree City / Fayette County have been looking forward to Exit 61 on I-85 (Fairburn) being reconfigured for the longest, yet GDOT keeps blowing them off.

[citidata18]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

Seriously! 9 years?? 2-3 years just to design a simple ramp interchange? Or, looking closer, that's including completely re-aligning Bethlehem Road into new ROW. I don't know anything about this area, but what is this new intersection supposed to solve? I see that it connects to a large distribution warehouse area, but that area seems perfectly accessible from McDonough Rd. Is there an issue at McDonough that this exit will aid? I know that's a big hot-spot for traffic backup.

Traffic backs up significantly on McDonough Road because of all of the semi-trucks feom the warehouses trying to access I-75.

It's a huge PITA/inconvenience for residents and commercials establishments they share that exit with, as it greatly increases their drive times since those semi-trucks take a lot longer getting through intersections, turnings, mergibg onto I-75, etc.

Of course, going down to the Locust Grove exit takes them out of the way and Highway 20 isn't much relief because then you're running into all of the shopping center traffic.