Tales from the Corners

Morguefile/ Alvimann Here is another local post, but this does serve the national and even international interest. On March 30, Atlanta lost a portion of I-85 from a bridge collapse following an inferno.Thus the highway has been shut down ever since this unfortunate event. The impacts are felt throughout the metro area as commuters, local residents and business traffic find ways to deal with this event.  As of this writing, I-85 in Atlanta should be re-opened in less than two months. With a bevy of incentives to get this much-needed road repaired and in today’s terms, “placed by online,” things look good for Atlanta’s near future. As expected, we are feeling the pain with having this road “offline” throughout spring 2017. There have been several incidents with accidents happening on the Buford-Spring Connector which is already handicapped with one southbound lane closed – to allow construction equipment some room to rebuild the I-85’s bridge. Unfortunate episodes already

Saturday, April 22, 2017 marks another Earth Day. Check out this package that I was involved with to honor this special day:

Twitter/BostonMarathon I'm always amazed with the Boston Marathon and this year was no different. I viewed the legendary spectacle on April 17th. There are some great stories that came out of the race - especially with Kathrine Switzer who was the first woman to run the course in 1967 (50 years ago as of this writing). Then there is the story of Staff Sergeant Luis Sanchez, a member of the United State Marine Corps and amputee. Sanchez carried the American flag across the finish line. Check out the story at Runners World. 

It's no secret that March 30's I-85 bridge collapse caused a traffic headache in metro Atlanta. We all knew that there would be more challenging days than others. April 17 has been one of those days. At 3 a.m., there was a mix up with a truck carrying chemicals which spilled all over the Downtown Connector thus effectively shutting down that road north and south. To top all of that off, I-20 buckled! That explains the photo above. Okay, the alien was added for effect, but I do hope that you all get the idea. I certainly could use the comic relief as our traffic woes add up and the days get even hotter. I'll keep on going with my traffic hacks as much as I can, but even my great patience is wearing thin. I drove into the I-85 mess on Easter Sunday. It was okay as I made my way through the 20 minute tie-up, but one must remember that it was Easter Sunday. Most days, this tie-up is far worse.

I-85 bridge collapse hacked! That's me taking MARTA instead of driving into Atlanta, GA's downtown.  As most of us know, the March 30 th I-85 North bridge collapse made challenging traffic situations even worse in metropolitan Atlanta. This vital link of roadway forces thousands of commuters and travelers alike onto the few alternative routes available thus making our already-awful traffic conditions into a nightmare of epic proportions. This debacle took over our television airwaves as viewers watched in amazement as a federal road burned to the ground. Much is being debated as to who started the inferno as well as why in the world were there materials stored under the bridge that could have accelerated the fire. “Atlanta burning” made national and world headlines once again, but the unfortunate event showed that this could happen anywhere. I’m about to get a bit too local here, but this is the scenario taking place with I-85 out of commission. Those traveling I-85