ATLANTA — Drivers are navigating detours around a two-mile section of Interstate 285 that’s completely closed this weekend.
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Steve Tennin drove from Riverdale to drop off his daughter at a softball clinic before getting a workout at Planet Fitness on Martin Luther King Junior Drive.
His day began with a text.
“Coaches sent out the message, make sure you plan ahead and get there early because 285 is shut down,” he said.
He normally would have followed I-285 to get to the area, but he relied on his navigation app to guide the way.
“It took us a back way, a scenic way,” he said. “It wasn’t too bad.”
The Georgia Department of Transportation has closed I-285 from Martin Luther King Drive to Cascade Road. Workers are stripping away the 60-year-old concrete and replacing it with asphalt. It’s part of a three-year, $370 million rebuild of 17 miles of I-285.
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Closing an eight-lane interstate for a whole weekend fueled concerns of clogged roads.
But Joeann Ellis, who lives just off the interstate, says traffic isn’t bad – at least not in her neighborhood.
“It’s not,” she said. “I think because they’ve been talking about it on the news – and they were gonna shut it down last weekend but decided not to – I think everybody was prepared.”
She made preparations herself so she wouldn’t have to do any shopping on Cascade Road, at the southern end of the closure.
“I already went to the grocery store, I already got things that I needed,” she said.
The interstate will remain closed until 5 a.m. Monday.
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