All lanes of Interstate 285 will be shut down south of I-20 from Friday night until Monday morning, forcing drivers onto a long detour through some of metro Atlanta’s busiest roads. The closure runs from Cascade Road at Exit 7 to Martin Luther King Jr. Drive at Exit 9 in Fulton County and is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Friday, with the interstate reopening at 5 a.m. Monday.
Georgia Department of Transportation officials said the move will have significant impacts on travel throughout the metro area and that highway drivers will be hit hardest. Northbound motorists will be sent to Langford Parkway, then I-75/I-85, then I-20, and back to I-285, while southbound travelers will use the same route in reverse. Freight vehicles are also expected to use the detour and can use the Downtown Connector without penalty.
The shutdown is part of the I-285 westside reconstruction project, a rebuilding effort covering 18 miles of a major interstate. Crews need the highway fully closed so heavy equipment has enough room to work, and they will spend the weekend milling and grinding existing concrete pavement before preparing the roadway for slab repair and replacement. Natalie Dale said the department tries to “balance impactful closures when possible,” but called it “a complex task to thread the needle through these unending events to be able to accomplish the amount of work needed to rebuild 18 miles of a major interstate.”
The timing makes the closure especially disruptive. Traffic will be pushed through the city during Mother’s Day weekend, when Savannah Bananas games are scheduled at Truist Park on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Atlanta United is set to play at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Saturday night, and Georgia Tech, Mercer University and Emory all have commencement events in Atlanta, Duluth and near campus over the weekend. GDOT said side streets in Atlanta and southwest Fulton County are likely to see spillover traffic as drivers look for ways around the shutdown. That means the 285 shut down is not just a construction detour; it is the weekend’s main traffic constraint, and drivers who stay away from the route are the ones most likely to move through the metro area with the least delay.
