GDOT Urging Safety On Roads for Labor Day Holiday Weekend

The Georgia Department of Transportation is doing its part to try to help ease congestion statewide this Labor Day travel holiday.

Georgia DOT Spokesperson Katie Strickland said that with heavy traffic expected, the Department is once again suspending construction-related lane closures on interstate highways and heavily traveled state routes over the holiday weekend.

“To ease some of the congestion we see over these holiday weekends such as Labor Day weekend, we are going to suspend construction-related lane closures on interstates and heavily traveled state routes from 5 a.m. starting Friday, September 2nd until 5 a.m. Tuesday, September 6th,” said Strickland.

Strickland did say that drivers still need to be alert in areas where road work has been taking place.

“Crews may still be working in proximity to the highway, though they might not be on the highway and some of the long-term lane closures will remain in place for safety,” said Strickland.

Also, she said incident management or emergency, maintenance-related lane closures could become necessary at any time on any route.

The DOT said that the state typically sees an increase in roadway fatalities during heavy travel holidays like Labor Day and added traffic fatalities are up again this year.

According to DOT figures, there have been 921 traffic fatalities this year in Georgia as of Monday, 21 more than for the same time period a year ago.

With that in mind, Strickland said drivers need to be careful.

“Please just buckle up and put down your cell phone, no text message is worth losing your life,” said Strickland. “Don’t text and drive. Buckle up. Drive alert.”

Also, the DOT reminds motorists to call 511 or visit www.511ga.org before traveling to find out up-to-date information about travel conditions on Georgia’s interstates and state routes.

Georgia 511 is a free service.