Rucker Road Reopens Friday Night

ALPHARETTA, GA — The City of Alpharetta will reopen Rucker Road to all motorists this Friday after 6 p.m. The road has been closed to all but local traffic since May 28 so that the City could replace a bridge, rebuild the road from the ground up, and perform other work related to its Rucker Road Improvement Project.

“Our promise to Alpharetta residents was for Rucker Road to be open in time to handle school traffic when Fulton County students return to the classroom on Aug. 12,” said Pete Sewczwicz, Alpharetta’s Public Works Director. “We will deliver on that promise, and we are happy to say the construction activity that has been most impactful to our residents along the corridor is over.”

According to Sewczwicz, there will be periodic lane closures throughout the coming months, but those will occur between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to avoid peak commute periods.

“While temporary striping is in place for now, crews will have to come back in a couple of months, after the asphalt has cured, to apply the final topcoat and the permanent thermoplastic striping,” explained Sewczwicz. “There will be some lane closures associated with that and some that will be necessary as we complete certain sections of the sidewalks along the corridor. Compared to what our residents have endured over the past couple of months, however, the impacts and inconvenience will be negligible.”

The Rucker Road Corridor is expected to be an active construction area until the end of 2019 as wide sidewalks, pedestrian streetlights, and other amenities are installed. Additionally, some landscaping will not be added until the spring 2020 planting season. Because of that, residents who live along Rucker Road are being advised that the road is still several months away from being the attractive, residential corridor that it will be.

“Throughout the design process the residents of the corridor were clear that Rucker needs to be designed for residents, not commuters. Their vision was for Rucker be a tree-lined residential collector that feels safe and can be easily accessed from their neighborhoods,” Sewczwicz explained. “They wanted the road kept to two travel lanes, vehicle speeds reduced, and better pedestrian facilities. We are close to delivering on that vision, but we have a few more months of work to get there.”

Rucker Road was closed for nearly three months during summer 2018 while a second bridge was replaced and utilities along the corridor were moved. The impacts of that closure were magnified, however, when the city was forced to simultaneously close a large portion of nearby Mayfield Road for an emergency culvert replacement. That meant that two roads that see heavy east / west commuter traffic during rush hours were unavailable, creating considerable congestion and delays on roads never intended to carry commuters.

"While we have to close the road in order to replace a bridge, we will also be constructing roundabouts at two locations and rebuilding much of the road, quite literally, from the ground up," Sewczwicz said in a May press release. "The ability to completely close the road for two summers is also allowing us to complete a 3-year construction project in less than two years. No matter how we do the work there will be an inconvenience to the public, but this will let us get through the project and out of everyone's way a lot faster."

The city anticipates substantial completion of the Rucker Road Project will be achieved by late fall. However, some landscape and beautification work will not be completed until spring 2020.