I-285 shutdown impacts SW Atlanta businesses during construction project | WSB-TV

追加: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]And thank you for joining us for WSB tonight on your Saturday. I'm Candace McAuen. Happening right now, the 285 construction project is underway. The highway shut down for a two-mile stretch between Cascade Road and MLK Drive.

[00:00:12]Drivers have been using detours all day.

[00:00:14]Channel 2's Aaron Rogers joins us live from Boulderberg Drive in Southwest Atlanta. And Aaron, you spoke to some business owners who've been impacted by this construction.

[00:00:24]>> I have, Candace. They say it's been a really slow Saturday. So, right now, we're actually 285 right past where you can still get on the interstate from that construction and where it's closed off. But I want you to take a look over on the far lanes from me. You can see police getting ready. Traffic starting to slow down to divert those cars towards the detour.

[00:00:51]>> It's been like very slow today. So I guess people are struggling to get here.

[00:00:55]Monty Benny is a barista at Cafe Bartik on Cascade Road. He told me he felt shocked when he showed up for his shift.

[00:01:02]>> It was completely empty and that is not usual for especially on a Saturday.

[00:01:07]>> He says on his stretch of Cascade, he's seen traffic back up.

[00:01:10]>> The cars have been practically like stopped for a little bit >> and more 18 wheelers on the road.

[00:01:16]>> Usually we don't see trucks or at least as much as we've seen on this road specifically, but there's been like so many trucks. Employees at the Salted Fork also told me it was a slow Saturday.

[00:01:28]>> Hasn't seen no foot traffic here.

[00:01:30]>> They believe this construction project on 285 is partly to blame.

[00:01:35]>> The Georgia Department of Transportation shut down I 285 from Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to Cascade Road until Monday morning. Workers are replacing 60-year-old concrete with asphalt.

[00:01:45]Martyr riders say they've been delayed, too.

[00:01:48]>> I end up not seeing the bus for an hour, so I end up having to start walking to get to work. And then by the time I seen the next bus, I was 20 minutes down the road. And that was an hour and a half later.

[00:01:56]>> An inconvenient Chef Jarvis Jones says he's experienced before. The Atlanta Department of Transportation finished what became a year'slong construction project on Cascade last day that also hurt businesses on the same corridor.

[00:02:10]Now employees are thankful this project has a definitive end.

[00:02:14]>> It's just a weekend for us, you know.

[00:02:18]Now, unfortunately, G Dot says this will be the first of multiple closures on 285. They say though, doing it this way allows them to cut down this project to rebuild 17 miles here on 285 from six years down to three years. Reporting live from 285, I'm Aaron Rogers, WSB Tonight.