$834 Million Road Project Begins Toll Network Around Atlanta

The massive investment in Cobb and Cherokee counties is the first phase of a decades-long plan for toll lanes throughout the metro area. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the initial phase is on schedule for completion by 2018.

“We are at a point in our city’s growth, where we can’t build our way out of congestion,” GDOT spokeswoman Natalie Dale said. “Simply adding general purpose lanes only means we are adding lanes that will fill up and be just as congested.”

The Northwest Corridor design includes 30 miles of new express roadways along Interstates 75 and 575, with 39 bridges. One bridge is 10-stories tall. Reversible lanes will allow traffic to flow into the metro core during the morning and out to the suburbs during the evening commute.

“So when commuters need to get into the city in the morning, those lanes will flow southbound,” Dale said. “We’ll clear the system and they will flow northbound in the afternoon to accommodate the direction that traffic is flowing the heaviest.”

Also slated for completion by 2018 is a 12-mile reversible corridor along I-75 south of downtown in Henry and Clayton counties.