Over the past year, the Cusseta Road, Old Cusseta Road and Farr Road area around the Interstate 185 overpass has been in a state of transformation, and right now you can really see how and where you'll be driving in the future. It's an extensive project going in multiple directions so there are a number of active construction locations throughout the corridors on any given day.
Contractors have set up a staging area just south of the current Farr Road intersection with Old Cusseta Road, adjacent to the interstate overpass. If you want to estimate how much is going on overall, just look at all the concrete pipe, gravel, asphalt, and dirt comes and goes daily. Looking just to the west under the Interstate 185 overpass, the future new lanes have been graded and show the larger roadway 'footprint' that will come with the new interchange and ramps.
Contractors have set up a staging area just south of the current Farr Road intersection with Old Cusseta Road, adjacent to the interstate overpass. If you want to estimate how much is going on overall, just look at all the concrete pipe, gravel, asphalt, and dirt comes and goes daily. Looking just to the west under the Interstate 185 overpass, the future new lanes have been graded and show the larger roadway 'footprint' that will come with the new interchange and ramps.
Ready to see something that really shows how much excavation has occurred here in recent months? Take a look at the area just to the west of the interstate. See that group of engineers and construction managers, having a field meeting there? Look at how much earth and rock the crews have removed at just that one location! If we go a bit more to the west on Old Cusseta Road, we see an excavating team continuing to carve out lanes that will eventually lead to a new ramp at Interstate 185.
If we head back eastward on Old Cusseta Road toward the apartment complexes on the north side of the street, we see multiple excavating crews digging out new lanes here as well. With so many local residents affected by the construction, contractors want to get this work done as quickly as possible. Going up north on the current Farr Road, off in the distance we can see yet another excavating team removing tons of dirt and shaping the future new-and-improved-and-relocated Farr Road. That ridge of earth next to the excavator is about five-to-six feet tall - it shows how much higher the land surface was previously, how much work contractors have done already as well as how much is still left to do.
With so many excavators removing so much dirt, so many dump trucks are constantly getting loaded and then making hundreds of trips to and from the numerous work sites each day. Plus, where there are excavators there are also bulldozers smoothing down the freshly-dug and graded land. So here's yet another reminder to #DriveAlert #ArriveAliveGA when passing through the area. Watch for the orange and white barrels, and often you'll also see a construction worker with flags, directing traffic when huge vehicles are close to the roadway. There's so much to be distracted by in this project, as our contractors and crews continue their progress.