Gwinnett residents seeing extra-long commutes because of bridge collapse

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Gwinnett County residents are frustrated with their commute into the city of Atlanta after Thursday’s Interstate 85 bridge collapse that shut down a portion of the interstate.

Some of them are working from home while the bridge is repaired, but those who can’t are looking for alternate ways to get into the office.

“I think everybody in Gwinnett is going to have a really difficult time,” said Gwinnett resident Dorcas King.

King lives in Lawrenceville, but works as a project manager at a bank downtown Atlanta. She said her commute has always been time consuming, but now it’s unbearable.

"I have to tack on an extra two hours on top of my long commute. It's been crazy to say the least, just to get anywhere," King told Channel 2's Tyisha Fernandes.

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The closest MARTA station to her home is in Doraville, which is 40 minutes away.

On Friday, she tried using MARTA to get to work.

“The parking lot is full, so I can't even get in the parking lot to get on the train. They say go down to the next station, which is Chamblee, and just trying to get to the Chamblee station it was traffic backed up to even get to the Chamblee station,” said King.

So then she tried taking a Gwinnett Transit bus to get to the MARTA station, but she said the buses don’t run frequently enough to save her any time. She called her boss.

“So fortunately for me, my boss says just work from home and we'll see what happens over the next few weeks,” King said.

Everyone doesn’t have the option to work from home, like people who work for the city of Atlanta.

Fernandes talked to a city representative who said all employees are expected to show up for work on time, regardless of the bridge collapse.

“What are you going to do? You know? You got to figure it out,” King told Fernandes.

The Gwinnett Transit buses aren’t running any more frequently than they did before, but they are avoiding the bridge collapse by taking Interstate 285 to Interstate 20.

Cox Media Group