The work on the Wayne Shackelford Interchange ("Shack Stack") at I-85 and GA 316 in Gwinnett County is progressing ahead of schedule, and tomorrow (Saturday) night, travelers will soon be getting to take advantage of the first phase of it.
According to today's Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC), the Georgia DOT will be opening new bridges that will allow westbound GA 316 traffic to merge into I-85 southbound from the right and allow the same traffic to exit directly onto Pleasant Hill Road.
Please click here to read all about it.
Until this construction was started, the I-85/GA 316 interchange remained virtually unchanged from the time it was originally built in the early 1960's. Before that, only a new exit ramp from GA 316 eastbound to Boggs Road was added. Alex Nitzman's
GA 316 page on the AARoads Southeast Roads website that shows, among other things, a photo of the Boggs Road exit. For photos of the new bridges from the AJC,
please click here.
In other Georgia road news, J.T. Legg, webmaster of
Peach State Roads, reports on the misc.transport.road (MTR) newsgroup that the GA 120 Loop in Marietta has undergone recent changes as follows (text taken from his MTR post)...
1) Church Street, GA 5, is replaced with an overlap along US 41 and GA
120 Loop back west to where Church Street currently intersects GA 5.
This more than doubles the length of that portion of GA 5 and results
in part of a short freeway that is not exactly in the best condition
being ceded to city control. Church Street is partially dualized with
Cherokee Street serving as SB on Church and NB on Cherokee.
2) Roswell Street is being decommissioned between US 41/Cobb Parkway
and GA 120 at 5/120 Loop west of downtown Marietta. The resulting
change places mainline GA 120 on the south loop and the north loop
being changed to GA 120 Alt in lieu of keeping the "Loop" designation.
3) The remaining GA 120 east of US 41 inside the loop will become GA 3
Connector as if there is not enough bannered routes in Cobb County.
With both of these changes, it sounds to me like time to take a special roadtrip to check them out. It may be awhile, but they are definitely on my roadgeek "to-do" list. 
Oh yeah... one more thing before I call it a night...
JCB... PIB... FIB... WTF?!!!!
My wife made an interesting observation regarding the Atlanta-area traffic reporters' tendency to use abbreviations in their reports, including "JCB" (Jimmy Carter Boulevard), "PIB" (Peachtree Industrial Boulevard), and "FIB" (Fulton Industrial Boulevard).
To many of us who have lived in the area for a while, we get it. However, as my wife pointed out, if you are from outside the area and you are listening to the traffic reports, you may be thinking WTF?!!! Just some "food for thought", y'all.
And finally, some personal "shout outs"...
To my Dad and my brother-in-law Lib... Happy Birthday!!!
To Mary's friend JoAnne ... Happy Wedding Day!!!
Mary and I will be traveling to both Henry and Gwinnett Counties tomorrow to attend JoAnne's wedding and celebrate my family's birthdays, respectively. We're looking forward to both events.
That's it for now. Thanks for reading and please visit often.
