Following detour signs, not GPS, and other lessons from I-285 closures

Wash, rinse, repeat. Mostly.

Just as they did in mid-May, the Georgia Department of Transportation shut down I-285 in both directions between Martin Luther King Jr. Drive (Exit 9) and Cascade Road (Exit 7) from the evening of June 5 to very early June 8.

Atlanta handled the first closure well and also performed well this second time. But neither drivers nor the state was perfect.

This time around, GDOT crews were able to fully shut both sides of I-285 before 9 p.m. that Friday. They appeared to need less time to close the freeway than three weeks before, making for a smaller traffic impact.

During the May closure, numerous trucks clogged up the Cascade Road exit ramp and then eventually Cascade, Fairburn Road and other nearby arteries that were not outfitted for 18-wheelers. When those trucks got as far as they could, they then backed up traffic even more as they had to slowly amble and turn around.

The Georgia Trucking Association’s Emily Crane said GDOT notified them when things got bad during the Saturday of that first weekend closure.

“As soon as we started seeing this as an issue, (we started) to shift some of our messaging,” Crane said.

Both she and GDOT spokesperson Natalie Dale stated the backups started decreasing soon after an email and text blast. GDOT engineers also retimed the Cascade Road traffic lights to flush that slow traffic out.

For this second I-285 closure, the state and the trucking group met several days before and coordinated messaging: follow the detours, not GPS devices.

Said Crane: “(GPS apps) were sending them places that you just can’t navigate with… all those extra wheels.”

GDOT alerted Google, Apple and Waze, but those apps take time to update. Truckers, one driver told me, also use all sorts of different apps. And freight drivers come from all over the country, so spreading the message is difficult. Crane said the GTA alerted its partners in surrounding states, too.

On June 5, the interstate had only been fully closed for a few minutes, and the Cascade Road exit was already very slow. By the middle of the next day, that ramp and the eastbound lanes of Cascade were jammed inside I-285, according to Google Maps data I watched in real time.

Lynhurst Drive, which runs north-south and is not suited for all that extra traffic, was also a madhouse. Drivers of both large and small vehicles ignored the detours. Dale said GDOT is going to work with the freight industry to improve this over each closure period.

“While some operators followed these instructions, there were still many cases in which clear detour notifications were ignored,” she said.

GDOT, in my opinion, did make one moderate mistake along the detour by scheduling a rolling maintenance closure on I-20 eastbound, east of I-285 (Exit 51) to around MLK Jr. Dr. (Exit 53) midday Sunday, June 7. This is the freeway and direction that the state recommended all I-285 southbound (Outer Loop) drivers take to go into Atlanta to avoid the Perimeter closure.

“Given the recent weather patterns and upcoming World Cup festivities, we felt it important that these maintenance activities carry on as scheduled,” Dale said via email.

She said GDOT tries to avoid closures such as this one during full I-285 shutdowns but can’t guarantee it won’t happen. Delays were very heavy leaving I-285 for those couple of hours on I-20 eastbound.

Sunday afternoon rain did not stop crews from finishing their work before 5 a.m. Monday, and Dale said an extra crew joined the effort to make sure it would be wrapped up.

There will be no full I-285 closures during the weeks of World Cup festivities, but expect dozens more weekends like these over the next three years for the concrete replacement project on the westside Perimeter.

During round two of “I-285 Closure-palooza,” we learned yet again that Atlantans are resilient. Drivers adjusted and largely stayed away from the mess. We also learned that far too many people, including professionals, simply follow their phones, and that can create problems.

Hopefully, GDOT will go to greater lengths to avoid blocking 25% of one of the posted detours during the next closure.

Doug Turnbull covers the traffic/transportation beat for WXIA-TV (11Alive). His reports appear on the 11Alive Morning News from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and on 11Alive.com. Email Doug at dturnbull@11alive.com. Subscribe to the weekly “Gridlock Guy” newsletter for the column here.