Northwest Corridor Express Lanes

Akers Mill Road ramp to I-75 express lanes gets final $5M funding push

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Akers Mill Road ramp
A rendering of the Akers Mill Road ramp to the I-75 managed lanes, via the Cumberland Community Improvement District.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is providing the final $5 million in funding to construct a ramp connecting Akers Mill Road to the Northwest Corridor Express Lanes.

The $5 million grant is from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Infrastructure for Rebuilding America’s Nationally Significant Freight and Highway Projects (INFRA) program, and is the final funding component of the nearly $44 million project.

That money has come from state, local and other federal funding sources as well as the nearby Cumberland Community Improvement District

(Info sheet here from the Cumberland CID.)

The 29.7-mile express lanes opened late last summer along I-75 between an area just north of Akers Mill and Hickory Grove Road in north Cobb, and along I-575 in Cobb to Sixes Road in Cherokee County.

Georgia DOT estimates nearly 4.2 million trips along the toll lanes have been taken since they opened.

Drivers in the Akers Mill area who wish to use the managed lanes have had to travel several miles to reach access points, in particular at Terrell Mill Road.

The 24-foot reversible ramp will allow motorists to bypass congested local roads. Traffic estimates in the Cumberland area are around 100,000 trips a day.

The grant was hailed by county and Cumberland CID leaders, as well as U.S. senators Johnny Isakson and David Perdue, Congressman Barry Lowdermilk and Congresswoman Lucy McBath.

Construction on the Akers Mill Road ramp is expected to begin in 2021 and be completed by 2023.

 

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Northwest Corridor Express Lanes holiday schedule announced

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If you’re planning on using the Northwest Corridor Express Lanes over the next week or so, here is the holiday schedule Georgia DOT has put together:

  • Dec. 24-25: Operate northbound
  • Dec. 25, 11 p.m.: Reverse to southbound
  • Dec. 26-28: Normal operations
  • Dec. 28, 11 p.m.: Reverse to southbound
  • Operate southbound until Dec. 31, 11:30 a.m.
  • Dec. 28-31: Operate southbound at 11:30 a.m.
  • Dec. 31: Normal operations
  • Jan. 1: Operate northbound
  • Jan. 1, 11 p.m.: reverse to southbound
  • Jan. 2: Return to normal schedule

There also will be no lane closures for ongoing Georgia DOT construction projects during much of the holiday period.

There’s a no lane closure period going on now that began on Saturday, and that will continue through Wednesday.

Some construction work and lane closures will resume from Thursday through Saturday.

No closures will also be in effect starting at 6 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 31, and continuing through 5 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 2.

For up-to-date information about travel conditions on Georgia’s interstates and state routes, call 511 or visit www.511ga.org before heading out on the roads.

 

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I-285 Express Lanes would include several Cobb County access points

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I-285 Express Lanes
The Northwest Corridor Express Lanes will connect to I-285 and managed lanes to be built between I-85 and I-20 by 2028. (East Cobb News file photo)

The $834 million Northwest Corridor Express Lanes that are set to open soon (and with an access point on Roswell Road, near the Big Chicken, as seen above), are part of the initial phase of the colossal I-285 Express Lanes project to address congestion on Atlanta’s suburban northside.

The Georgia Department of Transportation has been holding information sessions with local government bodies about its Major Mobility Investment Program, a total of 11 projects that are expected to be completed over the next decade or so.

On Tuesday, Cobb commissioners were briefed at a work session about the I-285 Express Lanes, which would range between I-85 in Gwinnett County and I-20 west of Atlanta.

The toll road projects, dubbed the I-285 Top End Express Lanes (fact sheet) and the I-285 Westside Express Lanes (fact sheet), would be fully complete by 2028, connecting to I-75 and I-575 in Cobb and Cherokee and the Northwest Corridor managed lanes.

The Top End project will cost an estimated $4.2 billion, with expected completion by 2028. That corridor currently handles around 240,000 vehicle trips a day.

The Westside project is expected to cost around $655 million, and is slated to open to traffic by 2026. Unlike the Northwest Corridor, which will have reversible lanes, the Westside project will have an express lane in each direction, inside existing general purpose lanes.

Tim Matthews, the MMIP project manager for Georgia DOT, told commissioners that three Cobb County access points are being proposed for Westside project. Two are at Mt. Wilkinson Parkway and Cumberland Parkway.

Another would be at 285 and Cumberland Boulevard. That access point was chosen over Akers Mill Road, both for cost and traffic demand reasons.

Matthews said the Cumberland Boulevard access point would cost an estimated $15 million, compared to a $110 million price tag for Akers Mill. Planned development in the Akers Mill area also was a hindrance for access point consideration.

The Cumberland Boulevard access point also would serve traffic projected by the year 2040 to be around 25,000 vehicles per day, compared to around 17,000 at Akers Mill.

Although that may not seem like a lot, Matthews said “that’s a significant difference.”

He said the proposed locations are not final, but represent a “baseline access map” that could be altered, since the project will be taken to the public and also because of land acquisition issues that could come up.

No proposed access points for the Top End Express Lanes were presented at the commission work session.

The next steps for Georgia DOT with both projects are to address environmental issues, which are underway and will take around three years, and to have public comment periods in 2019 and 2020. Right-of-way acquisition is expected take place in 2021-22, with construction starting in 2023.

 

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