Say Goodbye To Flex Lanes: Collector-Distributor Lanes Are On The Way
Natalie Dale, with the Georgia Department of Transportation, said the flex lanes were just a temporary solution, but once the collector-distributor lanes are finished, traffic should become much less congested. The department plans to add the new lanes on I-285 and GA 400.
Pixabay
Flex lanes headed into Atlanta near the Georgia 400 and I-285 interchange were permanently shut down Friday.
When the shoulder operates as an extra lane during rush hour, that’s a flex lane. Georgia’s Department of Transportation will replace those with “collector-distributor” lanes.
Crews will build concrete walls between the new lanes and regular traffic. They are supposed to give people longer to merge onto or get off 400.
Joseph Hacker teaches in the Andrew Young School of Public Policy at Georgia State University. He said these new lanes serve the same purpose as metered ramps.
“We all want to go fast, and this is an attempt to regulate that flow,” Hacker said. “These lanes help to keep the flow going and to avoid these kind of conflicts or collisions that are really going to bung up your commute time.”
Natalie Dale, with the state’s Department of Transportation, said getting rid of those flex lanes is part of the big overhaul of the whole interchange.
“You’re going to see more and more traffic interruption caused by the building of this project,” Dale said. “We want to encourage people to start now finding new routes because it’s going to get worse before it gets better in this intersection.”
She said the flex lanes were just a temporary solution, but once the collector-distributor lanes are finished, traffic should become much less congested.
The department plans to add the new lanes on I-285 and GA 400.
Dale said the lanes are part of a larger $800 million interchange project that should be complete by mid-2020.
Top Stories
