Interstate collapses in Atlanta

Happening now, just northeast of downtown. Huge traffic chokepoint on a good day, of which there will be none for months to come.

BREAKING: All lanes shut down on I-85 due to heavy black smoke

 

But how will this affect Braves Opening Day traffic?

 

Not on the way to the park, but an absolute fucking disaster for the city as a whole. WSB is live streaming now. If you work in the city and live in Gwinnett County (population 850k-plus), probably looking at a 20-30 mile detour minimum on the already-gridlocked Perimeter. That doesn't even get into north Fulton and north DeKalb ($$$ suburbs) and all the way up to Forsyth County ($$ suburbs) and points north. An unmitigated clusterfuck.

 

I've only driven through once, and it was a straight shot down I-75. It was enough to realize the traffic horror stories I've heard are not tall tales.

 

In addition to the regular daily commute of hundreds of thousands of vehicles, you're talking about the major north-south thoroughfare from the midwest to Florida (spring break under way) and from Raleigh-Durham/Charlotte/Spartanburg to all points southwest. Amazingly, sounds like nobody was underneath the portion of the overpass when it collapsed. Everything but Interstate 20 merges together (75, 85 and Georgia 400) in that two-mile stretch of six-lane highway.

 

Last time I was in Atlanta, I got a ride to the airport at 4 or 5 a.m. On a Sunday. And there was a steady flow of traffic.

 

The fire had been going for quite some time before the bridge fell.

Traffic is going to be insanely horrible. That's going to be a 24/7 teardown and repair job, and it will take weeks, maybe a couple of months. We had a similar fire in B'ham, oil truck under the overpass, and they got it fixed in about four weeks IIRC, but that looks like a larger bridge. Gawd, glad it's not here.

 

Another epic collapse for Atlanta. It's a curse!

 

If they had been under it, tons of collapsing concrete and steel would've been the least of their worries. That thing was an absolute inferno.
There are reports that cops were frantically diverting people away from that section of interstate just before it collapsed.

 

Reports are all firemen are safe. And when the bridge collapsed it actually snuffed out most of the fire.

 

And now a severe t-storm warning for Gwinnett.