Ga. officials: Interstate 85 bridge to be completed by June
ATLANTA — Officials at the Georgia Department of Transportation said Tuesday that they expect the repair of the collapsed section of Interstate 85 to be completed by the middle of June.
The initial timeline provided after the Thursday collapse of the northbound bridge said it could take until the end of the year to rebuild the bridge. On Thursday, an explosion and fire caused the bridge to collapse. The collapse severed the vital roadway that runs north-south through downtown Atlanta. The interstate carries 250,000 vehicles daily, Georgia transportation commissioner Russell McMurry told USA TODAY last week.
There were no deaths or injuries in the explosion and fire.
The Georgia transportation department said Tuesday there are a combination of factors that will allow them to complete the project within 10 weeks. The department will use the same beams the interstate is built on and wrap them in new material. The department also did not go through the traditional bidding process for contractors.
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Demolition of the bridge is expected to be completed Tuesday evening. Contractor CW Matthews, which was hired for the project, has financial incentives to complete the project on time and ahead of time. If the project takes longer than projected, there also are financial penalties.
The transportation department feels confident the project could be completely safely in 10 weeks.
On Monday, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said he sent a letter to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao "asking them to waive the regulations for contracting bids and allow the state the flexibility to expedite the repair" of that section of the interstate.
But in the meantime, traffic will continue to be an issue despite the department's efforts to relieve congestion on surface streets.
"We anticipate traffic to continue to be challenging throughout the rebuild," said Andrew Heath, Georgia traffic operations engineer.
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The Georgia Department of Transportation has noted dramatic reductions in traffic on Interstate 85 in areas that are open. A significant increase in traffic on surface streets also was noted. Heath said the volume on one bridge, Cheshire Bridge, has increased from 18,000 vehicles a day to 40,000 — an increase of 122%.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident and the Georgia Department of Transportation is conducting a joint review.
One person has been charged with first-degree arson and criminal damage to property. Basil Eleby, 39, a homeless man, was arrested Friday.
Atlanta City Council member, C.T. Martin, questioned why flammable materials were stored under the bridge without sprinkler protection or other fire hazard precautions.
McMurry, the state transportation department commissioner, said storing the materials under the bridge was not in violation of any policy but said if they could predict the future, they would have chosen a different option.
"If we knew then what we know now, we would not have stored it there," he said.
Related: Rebuilding I-85 bridge will 'take at least several months'
McMurry said the main reason the high-density plastic pipe was stored under the bridge was because the department did not want to be wasteful after a construction project along another route was stopped.
"(Georgia Department of Transportation) had already paid for this material, so we stored it. ... In an effort to save taxpayer dollars, (the department) chose to store the material so that it could be used in another project," McMurry said.
Georgia is receiving at least $10 million in emergency federal aid to repair the interstate.
"We fully expect the first $10 million to make a big difference in the overall cost of this process," McMurry said.
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"We do know that there are other federal funds available. This was a quick release of federal funds to get the money quickly."
The full cost of the repair has not been determined, but the state transportation department and federal agencies are conducting different analyses to arrive at a figure. It also has not been determined how much money Georgia taxpayers will spend on the reconstruction of interstate.
Contributing: Melanie Eversley, Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY. Follow WXIA-TV on Twitter: @11AliveNews
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