James_Jan-Feb_2026_web - Flipbook - Page 10
growing economy do not make
that list. In some ways, it is a decent metric for determining where
growth is happening or what parts
of the country are doing well. Georgia may have the second most in
the country with nine on the list but
Texas has 12. For reference, Iowa
and Kentucky have zero.
The two underway from the list
are both sides of I-285 and I-20, the
west interchange in Cobb and Fulton
counties and the east interchange in
DeKalb County. “We’re reconfiguring
that old, antiquated interchange into
a modern interchange with fly over
bridges so that traffic from 285 and
I-20 don’t have to go around loop
ramps,” said McMurry.
In addition, GDOT is building
four to five miles of auxiliary lanes
along I-20 to separate the traffic
that’s entering and leaving like
from Wesley Chapel Road. “We call
them collector distributor lanes, but
they’re locked frontage roads so that
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JAMES JANUA RY /F E B RUA RY 2 02 6
THE WINDY HILL BOULEVARD INNOVATIVE URBAN HIGHWAY PROJECT IN SMYRNA, GEORGIA.
all the traffic is flowing,” said McMurry. “Collector distributor lane” is the
engineering term for the access road,
a reminder that despite his longtime
work in the upper echelon of Georgia
government, McMurry will always at
heart be an engineer.
The process for this project is
also a little different than what GDOT
usually does. “It’s called a design
build finance project, meaning that
we hired an engineer and a contractor at the same time to basically do
final design and construct the project
