North Atlanta

You are the fourth one I've seen to post on this. One heck of a fire and from what I saw as a caption to one of the video feeds it was caused by a semi-load of PVC conduit. How that got set on fire must be a real tale.

Atlanta traffic is a cluster without any problems, add in weather or an accident and it gets bad, I can't imagine what it will be like with a major road closed. Back in December I drove 14 hours straight because I couldn't leave until early afternoon and there was no way I was stopping north of Atlanta and fighting rush hour traffic if I could drive a few more hours and get south of town. Coming home I stopped after only 7 hours driving because I didn't want to fight Friday afternoon rush hour, way better to go through Saturday morning. Basically if I didn't hate 77 through the mountains I'd do almost anything to avoid normal Atlanta traffic so the idea of driving through there any time in the next few months gives me cold sweats and I'm hundreds of miles away =)

Last weekend I was going to NE Georgia and drove to Lagrange then straight North to Rome and then straight East. All that to avoid Atlanta, it is horrible. I took the route and additional hour of driving to get around Atlanta.

exactly where is it blocked? i will be traveling the section from i-285 to gainesville sunday morning.

ADAD437 wrote:
exactly where is it blocked? i will be traveling the section from i-285 to gainesville sunday morning.

You will be OK. The collapsed bridge is inside I-285 where Ga. Hwy. 400 intersects with I 85. This morning, I 85 northbound is closed at its intersection with I 5 in downtown Atlanta and rerouted onto I 75. I 85 southbound is re routed onto surface streets and Ga Hwy 400 northbound. All of this is inside I 285.

I downstreamed the ATLANTA CH2 LIVE NEWS (ABC) on the internet way up into the night watching everything. At that time they had no idea how the fire got started but there was a hugh stocking of things under the freeway there awaiting for a new cable installation I think they said... Lots of PVC items and fiber optics cabling...

The last news I heard no one was hurt from the ordeal. They got real lucky... The scenes from the stranded cars and not moving traffic was one big parking lots as far as you could see in both directions. This happened during going home from work rush hour time... The NEWS said folks eventually just abandoned their cars and walked home...

What a mess it was...

Roy Ken

Alabama Jim wrote:
Last weekend I was going to NE Georgia and drove to Lagrange then straight North to Rome and then straight East. All that to avoid Atlanta, it is horrible. I took the route and additional hour of driving to get around Atlanta.

That's one alternative route that's worth the detour. Good restaurants along that route and beautiful little areas. Worth one extra hour to see it.

Another option is US 441 east of Atlanta. A little more traffic than the route you took but also worth the small increase in travel time to avoid traffic stress.

The latest news on I-85 is they don't think it's terrorism, the governor declared a state of emergency and the investigation will take weeks, repairs a couple of months. It looks like those alternative routes east and west of Atlanta will be the shortest travel times for now. I pity those who live there and I'm pretty sure they'll appreciate it if we don't add to their traffic load with our bigger rigs.

many thanks for the info. great help.

The latest: both north and southbound were damaged. A total of 6 sections of interstate will need replacement including the section that collapsed. These sections were damaged by the intense heat of the fire.