Cobb County

Repairs on sinkhole could impact Braves game day traffic

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Crews are back at the site of a large sinkhole near SunTrust Park.

Braves fans could experience more traffic for Sunday's afternoon game.

The sinkhole opened up along Cobb Parkway at the offramp from Interstate 285. That is the same offramp people use for SunTrust Park, Cumberland Mall, Cobb Galleria and several other places.

Channel 2 Action News learned that on Sunday morning a second crew was on their way to fine grade the rock filling the sinkhole.

The hole that opened on the off ramp of I-285 eastbound at Cobb Parkway spans two lanes. Georgia DOT said it hopes the road work near SunTrust Park in Cobb County will wrap-up by Monday.

That is not in time for a Braves home game scheduled for Sunday afternoon at 1:35 p.m.

TRENDING STORIES:

Channel 2's Lori Wilson was with repair crews Friday night as the Atlanta Braves game got out, and saw the problems fans had leaving the ball park.

Georgia's Department of Transportation told Wilson they are working to fix the sinkhole as quickly as they can, but they say it could take three days to one week to get the hole fully repaired.

“Three days to a week? Oh my gosh, that's a lot of days that it could potentially impact the whole community, really,” driver Vanessa Vigo said.

Brittani Martin told Wilson she had just moved into her new apartment behind SunTrust Park and said the sinkhole that opened up Friday is going to be an inconvenience.

“Can they move a little faster? Do they need some help? I’ll get out there,” Martin said.

The hole started out small, but GDOT had to dig into it to try and get to the bottom of the hole, or at least to the point where they could fill it and fix it for the thousands of cars that travel through there every day.

“It's terrible. Traffic is going to be backed up for a while. I’m just trying to get out of here as fast as I can, get some gas and go,” a driver, who would only identify himself as "Tre," told Wilson.

In an area that is already heavily congested, the GDOT warns drivers to be patient and to avoid the area if they can.

“The traffic is already bad, so that's just going to (make the traffic) even worse,” Martin said.