COBB COUNTY, Ga. — With just one week until the first game at SunTrust Park, crews are rushing to complete road construction around the new Braves stadium.
There are 20 different projects going on right now.
Cobb County Commissioner Bob Ott says although it may look like a construction nightmare, the Georgia Department of Transportation assures him that most projects are on target.
Ott says is checking on the progress nearly every day, and that the flurry of work is partly because they’ve condensed a five-year project into 30 months.
He says most of the road projects will be operationally ready by opening day, with the aesthetic finishing touches taking a while longer.
"The landscaping is going in and the road projects are finishing up and traffic cones are coming down. You know, it's a lot of stuff over the last 30 months but most of it is coming to completion,” he said.
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Many people who live nearby have a hard time believing the roads will be ready for the April 14 opener, much less next week.
"It'll be a miracle. Even 24/7 it will not be ready in two weeks,” Alan Womack said.
They say the constant work means closed lanes, closed roads and long delays.
“I just live around the corner and my commute that’s five minutes has taken me from 15 to 20 minutes now,” Eileen Polk said. "It’s already difficult to just get back and forth to work as it is now with all the extra road work and everything that's going on around the corner. It's miserable."
But neighbors say they are optimistic that it will only get better
"It's chaotic. You've got to put on your patience hat," Womack said.
The Braves plan to unveil their final traffic and parking plan early next week, called Phase III, and when they do, Ott says the flow and parking will come into sharper focus.
"All the lots have names or colors now -- the orange lot, the red lot, the delta lot -- so you'll see a lot of that because in Phase II we didn't have the names. You'll also see how people will be directed to those lots,” he said.