Downtown Connector

This article is about the Interstate connector in Georgia. For proposed Los Angeles mass transit project, see Regional Connector Transit Corridor.

Interstate 75/85

James Wendell George Parkway

Route information

Maintained by Georgia DOT

Length:

7.40 mi^[1] (11.91 km)

Existed:

1952^[2] – present

Major junctions

South end:

I‑75 / I‑85 towards Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

SR 166 in Atlanta

I‑20 in Atlanta

SR 10 in Atlanta

US 29 / US 78 / US 278 / SR 8 in Atlanta

North end:

I‑75 / I‑85 in Midtown Atlanta

Location

Counties:

Fulton

Highway system

Interstate Highway System

Georgia State Routes

←

SR 294

SR 296

→

In Downtown Atlanta, the Downtown Connector or 75/85 (pronounced "seventy-five eighty-five") is the concurrent section of Interstate 75 and Interstate 85 through the core of the city. Beginning at the I-85/Langford Parkway interchange, the Downtown Connector runs generally due north, meeting the west–east I-20 in the middle. Just north of this is the Grady Curve around Grady Memorial Hospital. Continuing north, the terminus of the Downtown Connector is the Brookwood Interchange or Brookwood Split in the Brookwood area of the city. The overall length of the Downtown Connector is approximately 7.5 miles (12 km).^[1] Since the 2000s, it has been officially named James Wendell George Parkway for most of its length, although it is still designated the Connector in the mainstream. It also has unsigned designations State Route 401 (I-75) and State Route 403 (I-85) along its length, due to I-75 and I-85 having a 400-series reference numbers.

History

The Downtown Connector had its origins in the city's original system of expressways, construction of which began in the early 1950s with the Northeast Expressway and the South Expressway. Construction of the "connector" between the two, which was numbered State Route 295,^[3] and was slated to carry US 19/US 41 at one point, was not completed until the early 1960s.^[4]

Initial construction of the highway displaced parts of Techwood Drive and Williams Street in Midtown Atlanta. It also destroyed street grids east and south of downtown, dividing Sweet Auburn in two and the interchange with I-20 leveling the northern part of the Washington-Rawson district. The proposed I-485 was originally planned by the Georgia Department of Transportation to carry some south–north traffic through the eastern side of the city, but most of this was canceled in the 1970s by the then-governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter (Parts of that road are now I-675 and SR 400).

The highway was heavily reconstructed during the 1980s as part of GDOT's Freeing the Freeways program to widen Atlanta-area freeways, with most of the Connector's width being doubled from three to six or seven lanes in each direction. In addition to the general-purpose lanes, provisions for high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes and dedicated on-ramps at Williams Street, Piedmont Avenue, and Memorial Drive were built, and were subsequently converted to HOV usage in 1996.

Between 2000 and 2004, the six-lane wide 17th Street Bridge was constructed over the Brookwood Interchange, connecting Midtown Atlanta with the then-new Atlantic Station development. In 2008, reconstruction of the 14th Street Bridge took place in order to accommodate increased traffic flow and pedestrian amenities. This work also included the construction of two new off-ramps: a southbound ramp to 10th Street, and a northbound ramp to 17th Street. This work was completed on May 28, 2010.

In early January 2010, a section of the highway between 14th and 17th streets developed an unusual problem dubbed "phantom ice" during a prolonged cold wave that kept temperatures below freezing for several days in the Atlanta region. GDOT engineers believe that heavy rain in previous months raised the water table and caused it to seep upward through joints between lanes, where it subsequently froze. Commuter traffic was stopped briefly on at least two days in order to treat it with deicing materials and inspect the freeway to determine the cause.^[5]

Features

The Downtown Connector carries more than 272,000 vehicles per day at its busiest point — between Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Edgewood Avenue, while no portion of the Downtown Connector carries fewer than 236,000 vehicles per day.^[6] The area around the connector and associated interchanges are considered one of the ten-most congested stretches of interstate in the U.S.^[7] Due to this fact, many motorists often compare Atlanta to Los Angeles, which is also known for its notoriously-congested freeway system.

The highway is fully instrumented with Intelligent transportation system (ITS) devices. There are more than 25 closed-circuit television cameras between the Langford Parkway interchange (south end) and the Brookwood Interchange (north end). Additionally, the Downtown Connector has three large overhead electronic message signs, and four smaller HOV-dedicated message signs on the median barrier wall. Traffic flow data is gathered through a video detection system, using pole-mounted black-and-white cameras spaced every ¹⁄₃ mile (0.54 km) on both sides of the roadway. All video and data is fed into the GDOT's Transportation Management Center (TMC), via fiber optic cable located under the shoulders of the roadway. Virtually all entrance ramps are metered, with the exception of the freeway-to-freeway connection ramps from I-20.

Atlanta's skyline, both Downtown and Midtown, can be seen from the highway, especially at the northern and southern ends. The route also goes directly past Turner Field, formerly Centennial Olympic Stadium, where the opening and closing ceremonies and track and field events were held for the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Gallery

North end of the Downtown Connector where I-75 and I-85 converge in Midtown
Downtown Connector view of the downtown skyline
Downtown Connector facing south from Tenth Street overpass
Downtown Connector facing south from Fifth Street bridge; nighttime view
Aerial view of the Downtown Connector facing north from downtown
Aerial view of the Downtown Connector facing south from downtown
Atlanta Downtown Connector at night

Exit list

Exit numbers follow the mileposts along I-75.The entire route is in Atlanta, Fulton County.

mi	km	Old exit	New exit	Destinations	Notes
0.0	0.0	87	242	I‑85 south – ATL Airport (Domestic), Montgomery, Columbus I‑75 south – ATL Airport (International and Air Cargo), Macon, Tampa	Southbound exit and northbound entrance; freeway continues with HOV lanes to and from I-75 to the south (no HOV ramps to or from I-85 to the south)
0.6	0.97	88	243	SR 166 (Langford Parkway) – East Point
1.7	2.7	89	244	University Avenue, Pryor Street
2.5	4.0	90	245	Abernathy Boulevard, Capitol Avenue – Turner Field	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		91	246	Fulton Street, Central Avenue – Downtown
2.7	4.3	91	246	Central Avenue, Downtown, Georgia State Capitol
3.2	5.1	92	247	I‑20 (Ralph D. Abernathy Freeway) – Birmingham, Augusta
3.1	5.0	— 93 A	—	Memorial Drive	HOV ramps for northbound exit and southbound entrance
3.9	6.3	93	248A	Martin Luther King Jr. Drive – State Capitol	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
4.4	7.1	94	248B	Edgewood Avenue, Auburn Avenue, J.W. Dobbs Avenue	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
4.6	7.4	96	248C	SR 10 east (Freedom Parkway) / Andrew Young International Boulevard – Carter Center
5.0	8.0	95	248D	J.W. Dobbs Avenue, Edgewood Avenue	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
4.6	7.4	— 95 B	—	Piedmont Avenue	HOV ramps for northbound exit and southbound entrance
5.5	8.9	97	249A	Courtland Street – Georgia State University	Southbound exit only
5.7	9.2	98	249B	Pine Street, Peachtree Street – Civic Center	Northbound exit only
5.8	9.3	99	249C	Williams Street – Georgia World Congress Center, Georgia Dome	No northbound exit
6.0	9.7	99		Willams Street
6.4	10.3				HOV ramps for southbound exit and northbound entrance
			249D	Spring Street, West Peachtree Street	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
6.2	10.0	100	249D	US 29 / US 78 / US 278 / SR 8 (North Avenue) – Georgia Tech	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
6.9	11.1	101	250	10th Street, 14th Street – Georgia Tech	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
6.7	10.8	102	250	16th Street, 14th Street, 10th Street	Southbound exit from and northbound entrance to I-75 only; I-85 has a southbound exit to 17th-14th-10th streets (exit 84) but no northbound entrance
7.0	11.3		251A	17th Street – Midtown	Northbound exit only
7.4	11.9	103	251B	I‑85 north to SR 400 north – Greenville, Charlotte I‑75 north – Marietta, Chattanooga	Left exits in both directions; main HOV lanes on Downtown Connector continue to and from I-85 to the north; freeway continues as I-75 beyond I-85 north with direct HOV ramps provided to and from I-75 to the north
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi HOV only Incomplete access

References

1 2 Google (July 30, 2016). "Route of Downtown Connector (I-75/85)" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved July 30, 2016.
↑ State Highway Department of Georgia (1952). System of State Roads (PDF) (Map). Scale not given. Atlanta: State Highway Department of Georgia. OCLC 5673161. Retrieved July 15, 2016. (Corrected to January 1, 1952.)
↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20070417221207/http://www.geocities.com/garoadwarrior76/garoutelog281_300.html Accessed January 23, 2007
↑ http://www.geocities.com/garoadwarrior76/SR295_1956 Accessed January 23, 2007
↑ http://www.11alive.com/news/news_story.aspx?storyid=139424&catid=40
↑ 2005 Annual Average Daily Traffic Report (AADT). Georgia Department of Transportation, Office of Transportation Data. Last accessed January 2, 2007.
↑ "Worst City Choke Points". Forbes. 6 February 2006.

External links

Route map: Bing / Google

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/31/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.