Ga. 400/I-285 interchange may get funding | www.myajc.com

A massive project to reconstruct the interchange at Ga. 400 and I-285 may take a big step toward reality this week, perhaps its biggest step so far.

During a news conference scheduled for Wednesday, Gov. Nathan Deal is expected to announce a financial contribution toward the project from a local self-taxing business district. On the same day, a much larger piece of money may be freed up in votes by the Atlanta Regional Commission and possibly headed for the interchange.

Although Deal declared the Ga. 400/I-285 project a top priority, that doesn’t mean he has the money. In the current project budget, the interchange isn’t funded until at least 2031, and even that’s somewhat speculative. That budget calls the interchange part of a much larger dream to rebuild the top end of I-285, probably with private toll money.

Under Deal, the state is studying how to carve out the interchange as a stand-alone job and find money to make it happen much, much sooner. That can happen in phases. But the longer it takes and the more phases it’s divided into, the more it will cost, ARC Chairman Tad Leithead said.

The project as proposed in the T-SPLOST cost $450 million. An additional piece, sorting lanes to the north along Ga. 400, would add an additional $190 million, and that may be out of reach even under current efforts.

Funding a $450 million project doesn’t mean finding that money all in one year. The money can be budgeted year by year: perhaps five years or more for preliminary work and construction.

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