SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — The City of Sandy Springs is trying to get ahead of reports of explosions over the next week by telling the public when they'll probably happen.
The city warned on its Facebook page on Sunday that there would be three controlled blasts along I-285's eastbound side between the Perimeter Center Parkway overpass and Ashford-Dunwoody Road.
The city said that, with weather permitting, the first of the three blasts will happen on Monday (Jan. 20) at 1:30 p.m. The next will be on Wednesday (Jan. 22) at 1:30 p.m. and the final one will be on Friday (Jan. 24) at 1:30 p.m.
Aside from being a bit jarring, the blasts will also require traffic pacing on I-285 in both directions and on Perimeter Center Parkway. Eastbound traffic pacing will happen from Roswell Road to Perimeter Center Parkway. Westbound pacing will happen from Chamblee-Dunwoody Road to the west of Perimeter Center Parkway.
Meanwhile, traffic on Perimeter Center Parkway from Lake Hearn Drive to Hammond Drive will be stopped before and during the blasts.
And don't expect one week to be the end of it. The city reports that controlled blasts will occur three days of the workweek during daytime hours until the end of March.
For regular commuters along on I-285, this may not be a huge surprise, though. The use of explosives to blast through rock has happened as far back as 2018 (and probably earlier) as GDOT facilitates construction along the busy interstate. The I-285 - Ga. 400 interchange project is also in that general area.
And if you're worried about debris on the road, during previous blasts, a specialized crew came with its own cleanup equipment in the event that rocks or dirt flew too far. A viewer sent us this video back in 2018:
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