ATLANTA — The road repairs to the Interstate 85 bridge collapse have switched from a cleanup effort to construction.
As crews continue to work around the clock on the bridge, drivers are preparing for the worst Monday as the morning commute returns to a normal volume of cars following spring break from many local school districts.
"It's going to be terrible," driver Chuck Taylor told Channel 2's Matt Johnson.
Taylor said he uses I-85 for work and is preparing to leave extra early Monday morning.
[TRAFFIC: Real-time traffic information to help you get around the collapse ]
“We just have to deal with it, like leave maybe an hour, two hours to get where we got to go,” Taylor said.
That's the kind of strategy Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is urging commuters to have before hitting the road on the first day after spring break.
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"You need to have a full tank of gas. We're really concerned about people being stranded on the highway and not having access to their air conditioning because they're not carrying fuel loads," Reed said during a news conference last week.
City officials say travel times could be 30 percent higher than usual Monday.
[READ: Click here for more information on alternate routes]
Traffic is expected to be at its worst between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. Monday, and then between 2:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
“I literally just sat in traffic for 30 minutes when I was 4 miles away,” Brianna Coppock told Johnson about her commute Sunday.
She said she is already worried about Monday’s traffic judging by how things are moving over the weekend.
“People are probably about to crash into each other just trying to make videos of what's going on,” Coppock said.
Crews are making progress and are now in the construction phase of the project.
Still, drivers who use I-85 don't expect to be going anywhere in a hurry until the work is complete.
To help ease some of the congestion, MARTA has created 1,200 new parking spaces for commuters at their five busiest stations. The transit agency also said they will have trains running every six minutes during peak hours.
Several Atlanta Public Schools will open doors 15 minutes earlier in an effort to help student and parent across the city.
In DeKalb County, school bus drivers have been asked to report 30 minutes earlier.
Cox Media Group
