Feds Wants Your Opinion On Proposed I-575 Bridge Widening

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is asking the public to weigh in on plans to widen the Interstate 575 bridge over Little River in Woodstock.

The agency has released an environmental assessment of the plans, which can be viewed online. The bridge widening is needed to accommodate the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Northwest Corridor project.

Public comments about the assessment may be submitted to the USACE, Mobile District by mail, fax or email.

Correspondence concerning this DEA should refer to I-575 Bridge Expansion and should be directed to the Commander, U.S. Army Engineer District Mobile, P.O. Box 2288, Mobile, Alabama 36628-0001, ATTN: CESAM-PD-EI; by faxing comments to 251-694-3815; or by emailing comments to CESAM-PD-H@USACE.ARMY.MIL.

The $834 million Northwest Corridor project is a public-private partnership between GDOT and Northwest Express Roadbuilders (NWER), a joint venture of Archer Western Contractors, LLC, of Atlanta and Hubbard Construction Company, of Winter Park, Florida.

The project will feature two new managed lanes along the west side of I-75 between its interchanges with I-285 and I-575. The lanes, scheduled to open in 2018, will be barrier separated from the existing interstate and will be reversible so that both will carry traffic southbound during morning commute hours and northbound in the evenings.

Above the I-575 interchange, one new reversible lane will be added in the I-75 center median to Hickory Grove Road in Cobb County and a similar new I-575 lane will extend to Sixes Road in Cherokee County. Vehicles will access the NWC managed lane system via six new I-75 interchanges at I-285, Terrell Mill and Roswell roads, I-575 and Big Shanty and Hickory Grove roads and three slip-ramp access points from existing lanes on I-75 and I-575.

Photo: view of the Little River Bridge over Interstate 575 from Olde Rope Mill Park in Woodstock. Credit: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers