If you were on Twitter yesterday evening then chances are you saw news of the hellacious fire wreaking havoc in Atlanta. The city of Atlanta is already known for its god-awful traffic. It ranks as the 9th worst traffic city in the entire world. So news of this fire spread quickly as Atlanta residents feared a gridlock would be imminent. What happened was a whole lot worse.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but as you can see in the video above and photographs below, this devastating blaze on I-85 caused a large portion of a highway overpass to collapse. According to WSBTV, both northbound and southbound portions of I-85 south of GA 400 will need to be replaced due to damage sustained from this insane fire.
BEFORE AND AFTER: Road crews are busy working just a day after a raging fire collapsed part of I-85 in Atlanta: https://t.co/CPqGCiYU4f pic.twitter.com/idjeQJTrqD
— Brett Rosner (@Brosner85) March 31, 2017
FOX 5 News
This will have far-reaching effects on the traffic in Atlanta as the roads are already over-congested. Georgia’s Governor, Nathan Deal, declared a ‘State of Emergency’ after the blaze broke out during the rush hour commute, the worst possible time for something like this to happen in Atlanta.
There’s no timetable set for repairs because rescue workers still aren’t able to fully access the site because of embers and still burning wreckage.
This is a complete and total clusterfuck and one that is going to take A LONG TIME to fix. Routine maintenance on roads takes an inordinate amount of time, but a repair like this could be crippling to Atlanta’s already hobbled traffic.