Sope Creek Bridge Beams Delivered Wednesday

Cobb County government spokesman Robert Quigley sent out some updated information just now about the Sope Creek Bridge beam transport activity on Wednesday that East Cobb Patch reported last Friday.

He said the the transport of five 53-ton beams to site on Paper Mill Road "will cause a single day of periodic traffic stoppages along Johnson Ferry Road and Paper Mill Road beginning 10 a.m."

The beams will be delivered via Interstate 285 north, to Georgia 400 north, to Abernathy Road, to Johnson Ferry Road to Paper Mill Road.

Here's the rest of the release:

“This large-scale delivery involves maximum planning and minor inconveniences to the public,” Cobb County Department of Transportation Director Faye DiMassimo said. “A team of engineer and traffic managers have carefully selected the best route to get the beams from point A to point B as safely and efficiently as possible.”

The five super-sized delivery trucks will line up northbound along Johnson Ferry Rd., resulting in a single inside lane closure along Johnson Ferry Road between the Chattahoochee River and Paper Mill Road. Two police officers will temporarily and intermittently close the intersection at Johnson Ferry/Paper Mill Roads while each delivery truck is maneuvered into position to back down the 1.8 miles to the Sope Creek construction site at 5 mph.  As each loaded truck backs down Paper Mill Road, traffic will be held on side streets and driveways until the truck passes.

“The delivery trucks must back down Paper Mill Road because there is no place for a 140-foot truck to turn around … especially in the vicinity of the construction site,” says Dan McDuff, Deputy Director for Cobb County Department of Transportation.

Flaggers will direct traffic at all side streets along Paper Mill Road, until each delivery truck passes on its way to the construction site. The procedure will be repeated for each of the five beams to be delivered, which is expected to be completed and set by 3 p.m. The beams are part of the new Sope Creek bridge design plan calling for a single span bridge, which requires larger and deeper beams to span across the creek between two piers. The two piers replace the five piers of the former bridge which required smaller beams.

The delivery of the beams is being coordinated by the bridge contractor, Sunbelt Structures, in conjunction with Cobb County Department of Transportation and Georgia Department of Transportation.  The design engineer for the 2011 SPLOST funded project is AECOM. The project is on schedule to open the Paper Mill Road bridge over Sope Creek to traffic by Oct. 25.

If the delivery schedule changes due to weather, another advisory will be sent out.