Hammond Drive Ramps Open Friday

The long-awaited Hammond  ramps, which will offer access for the first time to Ga. 400 at Hammond Drive, will open to the public on Friday.

"By providing a new gateway into and out of the market, it also will offer a new opportunity for quality development and jobs in this major corridor," said Yvonne Williams, president and chief executive officer of the Perimeter Community Improvement Districts.

The Hammond project had been planned for 15 years, but state collaboration with the PCIDs jump-started the project, which was the only one left by the Georgia Department of Transportation in the last quarter of 2008.

“By adding this connection between Ga. 400 and Hammond Drive, these new ramps into Sandy Springs will help relieve congestion and enhance access to our community,” said Sandy Springs Mayor Eva Galambos, in a press statement.

The ramps will provide a north entrance and a south exit along Ga. 400, offering a new gateway to Metro Atlanta’s largest office district.  They are part of the nearly $18 million Hammond Half-Diamond Interchange project that also includes a new, wider Hammond Drive bridge across Ga. 400.

The interchange was developed through a partnership of GDOT, which funded the $12 million cost of the bridge, and the PCIDs, which contributed $5 million for the ramps. The City of Sandy Springs Development Authority financed the PCIDs’ portion of the project, saving the organization $500,000 in interest fees.

Sandy Springs also contributed $150,000 for lighting, fencing and other upgrades to the Hammond Bridge.

The opening of the ramps will complete nearly two years of construction on the Hammond Half-Diamond Interchange.  The ramps and replacement of the four-lane Hammond overpass with a nine-lane, higher bridge are designed to meet current and future traffic volumes.  GDOT also added an auxiliary lane from the north entrance ramp to the Abernathy Interchange at Ga. 400.

“The Hammond Half-Diamond Project serves as a model showcasing the success of sharing a common goal, creating bold and innovative strategies and bringing all available resources to the table,” said Williams. “This project will be a tremendous asset to the business and residential areas of Perimeter.”

A GDOT study released in April 2008 of the existing and projected volume of trips along the Ga. 400 corridor showed that additional capacity to enter and exit Ga. 400 was urgently needed.  At present, the Abernathy Road interchange is the only access point on Ga. 400 for both local and regional traffic into and out of the Perimeter Center area in Fulton and DeKalb Counties.