Georgia 400 toll removal project about to start

View this article at the Atlanta Business Chronicle

Portable message signs began going up Friday alerting motorists on Georgia 400 that the toll removal project there is about to begin.

Starting next Friday, work crews will restripe the electronic toll lanes and start modifying or removing nearly 70 signs relating to the toll.

Gov. Nathan Deal announced last year that the state would pay off its bond debt on the Georgia 400 expansion, built during the early 1990s, and end the tolls by December of this year.

After the restriping, work crews will install concrete barriers between the electronic toll lanes and the cash lanes in anticipation of the eventual shifting of all traffic into the electronic toll lanes.

After the toll ends next month, traffic will flow through the area formerly occupied by the toll booths in just three lanes north- and southbound, down from the current nine lanes each way needed to collect the tolls.

The toll booths won’t be removed until January in order not to interrupt the flow of traffic during the winter holidays.

The entire $3.5 million project is due to be completed by next fall.

The Georgia Department of Transportation and State Road and Tollway Authority warn that traffic patterns and travel times could shift during construction.

See the State Road & Tollway Authority GA 400 Demolition Project page for more information.