If your travels take you to or through Atlanta, expect significant delays starting as early as Saturday, Oct. 8, and continuing for at least eight months as work begins on the Interstate 285/400 interchange.

According to the Georgia Department of Transportation, one Interstate 285 eastbound lane will be closed Saturday, between Roswell Road and Ashford Dunwoody Road for bridge demolition and reconstruction at Glenridge Drive, State Route (SR) 400 and Peachtree Dunwoody Road. The closure of one lane in the westbound direction will follow approximately one week later.

A statement from GDOT said the bridge replacements and associated closure of single lanes on I-285 eastbound and westbound will take at least eight months to complete and are expected to cause what it called “extreme delays” around and approaching the work zone. Three lanes in each direction will remain open during the daytime hours, with the potential for additional overnight lane closures to further reduce available travel lanes, according to GDOT.

While the long-term I-285 closures will cause extreme delays, newly constructed and recently opened connecting lanes should provide some relief by offering additional roadway capacity outside of the existing interstate lanes, said the GDOT statement.

“The traveling public should utilize the new connecting lanes as much as possible to get to their local destinations,” Georgia DOT Alternative Delivery Program Manager Marlo Clowers said. “While over 240,000 vehicles move through this part of I-285 each day, many drivers are headed to local destinations. The new connecting lanes facilitate easier and hopefully faster trips for those drivers and should help move people around the profound delays we anticipate on I-285.”

The bridge demolition and reconstruction will take place in two phases:

• Phase 1: Inside lanes will close on I-285 in each direction between Roswell Road to Ashford Dunwoody Road, so crews can reconstruct the interior portions of the I-285 bridges over Glenridge Drive, SR 400, and Peachtree Dunwoody Road. This phase will take approximately four months.
• Phase 2: Traffic will shift to the inside lanes and the existing outside lanes will close to traffic so crews can demolish and reconstruct the exterior portions of the bridges. This phase will take approximately four months.

Updates will be posted to a Georgia DOT web page dedicated to the lane closures: https://transform285400-gdot.hub.arcgis.com/pages/lanereductions.