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40 year project finally complete

It was a project that took more than 40 years, but it is finally finished and ready to go.

Abernathy Road at Johnson Ferry Road has long been problem for drivers, and the Georgia DOT.  More than 70,000 cars, per day, use the road which, during drive time, turned into a parking lot.

But not anymore.

"I look forward to spending the rest of my life driving on Johnson Ferry and Abernathy and not being parked on Johnson Ferry and Abernathy," says U.S. senator Johnny Isakson, who cut the ribbon on the roadway widening project.

Isakson says that when he first ran for office some four decades ago this project was on the design table.  Now, some 40 years later, it is complete.

The newly designed road will allow drivers to actually go from Cobb County into Sandy Springs without having to run into traffic.  In a worst case scenario those drivers found themselves stopped in traffic as the road slowly moved.

Now, with the widening, the corridor will allow cars to get into the city, or to the Perimeter Mall area as easily as any other roadway.

For Isakson, it was a long time in coming.

"Anybody who rides on the road today will tell you that, between 7 and 9 in the morning, this used to be a parking lot," he says.  "Between 5 and 7 at night, this was a parking lot.

"Horns were blowing, people were mad and cars were overheating," says Isakson.  "Traffic was just terrible.  But this new design, with the divided median in the center, the islands cut out for left and right turn lanes and the coordinated signals made a perfect, seamless passageway."

"So now you can go from East Cobb County to Perimeter Center this way as easily as any other way in the world."

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