Politics & Government
Heavy Lifting for Sope Creek Bridge
Beam transport work will affect traffic in the Johnson Ferry-Paper Mill area all day next Wednesday.
If you thought detours around the Sope Creek Bridge replacement project were making East Cobb traffic more of a headache than usual, wait until next week.
And in particular, don't plan on using Paper Mill Road east of the project site to Johnson Ferry Road if you can avoid it on Wednesday.
That's when construction crews will be using that route to haul five massive beams to the bridge site, one at a time, in a laborious, time-consuming process.
District 2 Commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb said at a recent town hall meeting it will be an all-day deal.
"They have to be backed down Paper Mill Road," he said of the beams, adding that the estimated hours for the transport will be approximately 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
It will take around an hour for each beam to be delivered to the project site.
The beam staging operation will begin on Johnson Ferry between Paper Mill and the Chattahoochee River.
There wlll be traffic stoppages at the following intersections as the beam transport trucks move westbound along Paper Mill Road (see map for more details):
- Johnson Ferry Road
- Village Parkway
- Gateside Place
- Atlanta Country Club Drive
- Thunderbird Drive
- River Cliff Gate
- River Ridge Chase
- Streamside Drive
That's caused more bottlenecks than usual along some of East Cobb's busiest corridors, especially with the start of a new school year earlier this month.
Lower Roswell Road has become especially backlogged, and not just during rush hour. At his town hall, Ott urged residents to use other routes, including Old Canton Road and Johnson Ferry.
"There are going to be days when it's really busy," he said. "Lower Roswell is a full road while we go through this process."
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