0 Deering Road completion delayed by void

ATLANTA - Commuters eager to use a popular cut-through road in northwest Atlanta will have to wait a little longer.



An unexpected find means a delay in construction along Deering Road, and neighbors aren't happy about it.



"I was like, 'How long is this going to take?'" said neighbor Rachel Buske.



Back in January, the Georgia Department of Transportation shut down the intersection where Deering hits Peachtree Street because the Amtrak parking lot is sinking.



It was supposed to take until June 30 to reinforce the lot and bridge over Interstate 75. But there's been a hiccup.



Right next to the wall where Channel 2's Erin Coleman saw crews pouring concrete, they discovered a void, a huge empty space that no one knew was there.



"It was totally unexpected. They felt like it was just a solid spot and when they opened it up it was not solid it was an open space," said Mark McKinnon with the Georgia Department of Transportation. "They realized at that point they better stop and make sure what this void is and how we should deal with it."



That meant a redesign and figuring out how to fill the void. It's pushed back the completion date to sometime in mid-August or later. Neighbors are not thrilled.



"When we first heard Deering was going to be shut down, everybody let out that collective groan because we knew what was going to happen," said Dave Sterne with the Loring Heights Neighborhood Association.



Sterne said traffic on neighborhood streets has picked up significantly and so has the speeding.



"Instead of 25 or 30, we're seeing 45 or 50," Sterne said.



"If people will just bear with us, we're trying to get through it and get it done," McKinnon said. "It's a whole lot better to make sure that this thing is done correctly and safely and everyone has a good product in the end that is not going to structurally fail later."



Department of Transportation leaders said they had to make sure when they filled the void that the new concrete wasn't too heavy for the existing concrete walls.



The target date now to open Deering Road is Aug. 14.