Several events bring thousands to downtown Atlanta, snarl traffic

ATLANTA — It’s an exciting weekend with Olympic hopefuls running through Atlanta to try to qualify for the Tokyo summer games -- but the event also caused major traffic snarls across the city Saturday.

The race route began at Centennial Olympic Park just after noon and continued up Peachtree Street to the intersection of West Peachtree Street.

The race was expected to end around 3:30 p.m.

[READ: U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials to close main roads throughout downtown, midtown this weekend]

The Olympic Marathon Trials is one of many events that are bringing thousands of people downtown this weekend.

Several exits were closed including the I-75/85 northbound ramp to Pine Street and Peachtree Street:

“If you need to get downtown, I want you to use MARTA or maybe a rideshare like Uber or Lyft,” Triple Team Traffic’s Mark Arum said.

Add Atlanta Hawks games, an auto show and supercross to the mix, and about 100,000 people are expected in downtown this weekend for all of them.

“It will be extremely busy. There will be a lot of traffic and that is expected for the amount of events that we have,” said Georgia World Congress Center Police Chief Paul Guerrucci.

And with construction and closed roads, confusion can easily set in.

“It'll be complex, but we've beefed that up with officers on the ground, traffic post, foot beat. There literally will be hundreds of officers in this area,” Guerrucci said.

Utilizing thousands of interior and exterior cameras and time tested local, state and federal partnerships that are a solid piece of the safety plan.

MARTA use is encouraged, but if you plan to drive into downtown, use the Waze app.

“We have populated that with road closures and best avenues to get to our campus,” Guerrucci said.

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