Overnight single-lane closures are set for four sections of Georgia 400 this week as crews continue work on the State Route 400 Express Lanes project. The Georgia Department of Transportation says the closures will run from 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Monday, July 6, through Friday, July 10, weather permitting, on stretches in Fulton and Forsyth counties.
Transportation officials are urging drivers to expect delays, slow down in work zones and use extra caution around crews on the roadway. GDOT said the construction schedule could change because of weather or other factors. The agency is pointing drivers to Georgia 511 for the latest traffic conditions before they head out.
Four Sections of Georgia 400 Affected This Week
Four stretches of Georgia 400 are on the overnight closure list this week, all single-lane reductions rather than full shutdowns. According to GDOT, the work runs nightly from Monday, July 6, through Friday, July 10, between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., weather permitting. The closures are concentrated in southbound traffic, with one short northbound section included.
The southbound Ga. 400 closure runs from Kimball Bridge Road to McFarland Road, the longest of the four segments. A second southbound segment is set from Pitts Road to Abernathy Road. The southbound collector-distributor lanes from Exit 5 to Abernathy Road will also be reduced to a single lane overnight. On the northbound side, the same Kimball Bridge Road to McFarland Road stretch will be affected. Each closure affects a single lane, with the others open to traffic during the work window.
- Southbound Ga. 400: Kimball Bridge Road to McFarland Road
- Southbound Ga. 400: Pitts Road to Abernathy Road
- Southbound collector-distributor lanes: Exit 5 to Abernathy Road
- Northbound Ga. 400: Kimball Bridge Road to McFarland Road
What GDOT Is Building on the Corridor
Each night’s single-lane closure is one piece of a much larger project, the State Route 400 Express Lanes, a 16-mile corridor project reshaping one of metro Atlanta’s busiest commuter arteries. According to GDOT, the project will add new express lanes in both directions along approximately 16 miles of Ga. 400. The work zone stretches from the MARTA North Springs Station at Exit 5C in Fulton County to about one mile north of McFarland Parkway, or Exit 12, in Forsyth County. More information on the project’s scope and timeline is published on the SR 400 Express Lanes project scope and timeline page maintained by the project team.
Once complete, the new express lanes will sit alongside the existing general-purpose lanes rather than replace them, giving drivers a choice between the two. The corridor connects Sandy Springs, Alpharetta, Johns Creek and other North Fulton communities to jobs and housing across the region.
True North 400, the regional planning coalition supporting the project, describes the corridor as a vital link between businesses, workforce and communities in North Fulton and the greater metro Atlanta area. The project is described by its backers as the largest infrastructure investment in Georgia’s history. The express lanes will be dynamically priced, meaning tolls rise with congestion to keep traffic flowing, a model already used on parts of I-75 and I-575 in northwest Atlanta. The new lanes are designed to deliver more reliable travel times for drivers who choose to use them. General-purpose lanes will remain free and open to all drivers, regardless of vehicle occupancy.
The project also includes multimodal features beyond the new lanes. The design carries express lane transit (ELT) support, MARTA connections, transit station investments and improved east-west connectivity at key interchanges. Those transit elements are included in the project’s scope from the start.
April 2026 Groundbreaking, 2031 Target Opening
Construction on the express lanes broke ground in April 2026, and the project’s current target is to open to traffic in 2031. The official groundbreaking was held on April 22, 2026, with True North 400, Georgia DOT and SR 400 Peach Partners leading the event.
Drivers who want to track the project’s tree-clearing and right-of-way prep can read how tree clearing marked the start of the corridor overhaul. For day-to-day updates, GDOT keeps the official project hub and design renderings current with construction notices and lane shift information. The project is part of Georgia’s broader Major Mobility Investment Program, a group of large-scale highway and interchange projects targeting metro Atlanta’s most congested corridors. Early work has focused on utility relocation, clearing, and right-of-way preparation before any pavement work begins.
- 16 miles of new express lanes in both directions
- $11 billion financial commitment, per the project’s own page
- April 22, 2026 groundbreaking ceremony
- 2031 target opening year
The Public-Private Team Behind the Project
The SR 400 Express Lanes are being built as a public-private partnership, a delivery method that has grown common for large toll-road projects but is still relatively new in Georgia. The partners named on the project are the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), the State Road and Tollway Authority (SRTA), the U.S. Department of Transportation, and SR 400 Peach Partners, the private consortium financing, building and operating the lanes. GDOT is also the source of the nightly lane closure announcements, with each week’s schedule tied to the contractor’s work plan.
Federal backing for the project has been a major part of its funding story. The federal loan approved to help overhaul the 16-mile stretch of Georgia 400 is detailed in the $3.89 billion federal loan backing the toll lane expansion. A public-private design-build-finance-operate-maintain contract means the private partners take on long-term operational risk in exchange for the toll revenue stream once the lanes open. The model is the same one used for the I-75 South Metro Express Lanes and the I-85 Express Lanes in Gwinnett County, both of which opened in previous years. SR 400 Peach Partners will operate and maintain the corridor for decades under the agreement.
Toll revenue on the new lanes will be set dynamically, meaning prices rise as traffic rises, a design meant to keep the express lanes flowing even during peak periods. The exact toll rates and operating hours have not been announced, and the State Road and Tollway Authority is expected to publish them closer to opening day.
- GDOT (Georgia Department of Transportation)
- SRTA (State Road and Tollway Authority)
- U.S. Department of Transportation
- SR 400 Peach Partners (private consortium)
How Drivers Should Plan Around the Closures
GDOT says the nightly lane closures could shift on short notice, and the agency’s standard advice is to assume any scheduled work is also subject to weather delays. Drivers with overnight trips along the affected sections should expect at least one lane to be closed in the work area between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Daytime travel is not affected by this week’s overnight work, and the contractor is required to reopen all lanes by 5 a.m. each morning.
For real-time conditions, GDOT points drivers to the latest weekend lane closure schedule and the Georgia 511 system, which carries both traffic alerts and construction notices. Georgia 511 is available by phone, online, and through the agency’s mobile app, and it is the same system the state uses for incident notifications. Drivers passing through an active work zone should slow down, move over when possible, and stay alert for workers on foot near the lane shifts. The overnight work is set to wrap up before the Friday morning rush, with the final closure window ending at 5 a.m. on July 10. No detours are required for any of the four affected segments this week, GDOT said.
Transit and Tolling Built Into the Plan
Beyond the new express lanes, the project’s design includes a dedicated commitment to express lane transit, with buses running in the same priced lanes. True North 400 lists dedicated ELT support, MARTA connections, transit station investments, and improved east-west connectivity at key interchanges among the design features.
In December 2025, True North 400 secured a $2 million grant from the Atlanta-Region Transit Link Authority to advance conceptual design and preliminary engineering for first- and last-mile connectivity around future ELT stations. The funding doesn’t pay for construction, but it sets the stage for transit-oriented development along the corridor before the lanes open. Once the express lanes are running, the transit component adds bus service to the priced lanes, a feature the existing general-purpose lanes don’t carry.
The project as a whole is still in its first year of construction, with utility relocation, tree clearing and bridge work dominating the early schedule. Overnight lane closures like this week’s are likely to recur frequently through 2026 and 2027 as crews work behind concrete barriers. Each closure is one small step in a build that GDOT expects to take most of the rest of the decade. The 2031 target opening is the current schedule, and any major slippage would push the project past the next regional transportation plan update. For now, drivers passing through the corridor at night this week should expect a single-lane shift and slower traffic through the marked work zones.
