I-85N bridge has collapsed after a major fire, I85/75N traffic has been rerouted to I75, expect epic traffic jams anywhere near the area. Schools are closed and government offices are on a delayed start so they know this is going to be brutally bad traffic.

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.

North Atlanta | Good Sam Community

irishtom29
Explorer
Mar 31, 2017
Is this the work of Uncle Billy and his profane Midwesterners of the Army of the Tennessee?
CharlesinGA
Explorer
Mar 31, 2017
PVC pipe on a semi, could easily catch fire if trailer experienced a brake/wheel fire. You can see the spools of fiber optic cable, by looking on Google street view. Probably a hundred spools stored under the bridge at Piedmont Road NE where it passes under I-85 (probably belonging to Google since they are going to "wire" Atlanta with fiber optic).

Google street view of underside of I-85 bridge showing the spools of fiber optic, image made Nov '16.

Charles
2gypsies1
Explorer III
Apr 01, 2017
New update: 3 arrested:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/31/us/atlanta-interstate-85-fire-collapse/index.html
afidel
Explorer II
Apr 05, 2017
GDOT is now saying 10 weeks to reopen (June 15th) which is probably reasonable given that more sections were deemed structurally deficient than I was originally assuming.
kohldad
Explorer III
Apr 05, 2017
I was figuring 3 months for emergency repairs based on other emergency projects. So the 10 weeks is reasonable, especially considering the money being thrown at it.

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