Many of us who live and fly from Atlanta regularly are well aware of the construction project focused on improving the airport entrance roadway. It has resulted in some significant traffic backups during peak periods, not to mention a few twists and turns as you make your way toward the terminal building. I’ve been witnessing this backup for weeks, but I have not seen it quite so bad as it was on a recent morning flight.
Two lanes of traffic were backed up from the airport exit past Virginia Ave. where a lot of airport hotels are. MrsMJ, who happens to work in the area was dropping me off, but the traffic backup proved to be a bit much to get me to the airport, and her to work on-time. Rather than wait in line for what I estimate would have been a 15 or 20 minute crawl to the terminal, we exited at Virginia Ave. and turned right towards the College Park MARTA station. She dropped me off, and I took the MARTA train the rest of the way to the airport. The timing worked out very well.
If you are originating from Atlanta any time soon, be aware of the potential for traffic backups. Consider taking MARTA rail to the airport if you have convenient access to it, and build in a few extra minutes to your trip if you are driving to the airport. “Driving” includes being dropped off by one of the airport hotel shuttles too. Also, consider monitoring the @Atlanta_Airport Twitter account for updates.
-MJ, May 20, 2014
[…] airport making many stops at Delta CORP locations to drop off Delta people, and then enjoying the ATL construction zones, as MJ on Travel talked about, on the way to the terminal I made it to my flight and a nice ride back to […]
F Con would work, especially if one arrives early and wants to enjoy the nicer Sky Club. đŸ™‚ For some reason I was thinking they had added a Pre Check line in the F Concourse.
MJ,
Another suggestion would be to get dropped off at the international terminal to avoid all of the traffic craziness around the domestic terminal. That is unless you value Pre-Check more than the time spent in traffic. đŸ™‚
I agree, it has been bad but I’ve yet to see it as bad as you’ve experienced. Hopefully they can wrap up the construction quickly.
Living in south metro Atlanta I’m less affected by the construction, but be advised that last Wednesday it took an extra 12-14 minutes to get to the Delta terminal from the Pre Flight parking lot on Camp Creek Pkwy as they must use a circuitous route.