Where No Van Has Gone Before

The city of Atlanta made national news on March 30 when a massive fire, allegedly set by a homeless man underneath an overpass of Interstate 85 resulted in the collapse of a portion of the road, disrupting the daily commute of over 250,000 people — which sucks, considering that Atlanta was recently ranked as the 4th worst city for traffic in America. The Georgia Department of Transportation announced that the rebuilding of the bridge would take months, but C.W. Matthews Contracting crews worked around the clock to rebuild the overpass in just six weeks.

It was announced that the northbound side of the bridge would re-open on Friday afternoon, May 12, followed by the southbound side the following evening. On Friday morning, during the Bailey and Southside morning show on Cumulus Media’s WNNX (Rock 100.5)/Atlanta, host Jason Bailey wondered aloud, “Who will be the first person to drive across the new bridge?” As it turned out, he was one of them.

The Bailey and Southside morning show was able to gain exclusive access to be the first “civilians” to drive over, and set foot on the newly reconstructed I-85 southbound bridge. On Saturday morning, Bailey, co-host Southside Steve and Producer Digi-Dude Nate loaded up the Rock 100.5 station van and drove to the site of the shutdown. After the barricades were moved aside, the crew was off driving down a newly paved interstate without another soul on the road. They were able to park the van across the new bridge, and take some entertaining photos and videos for their listeners to get a sneak peek of the new interstate before it reopened. Digi-Dude Nate said, “It’s not every day you can lay down in the middle of one of the busiest roads in the country.”