East Cobb Road Construction Timeline: What Ends and What's Next
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
The corner of Johnson Ferry Road and Shallowford Road has had construction on every side for months. Waterfront Drive has been rerouted where it meets Johnson Ferry, and that work is now done. The East Cobb Church campus is going up nearby. In the spring, Toll Brothers started Shallowford Pointe, a subdivision planned for 75 single-family homes.
None of that work is the intersection project. The lanes, signals and medians at Johnson Ferry and Shallowford stay as they are until September 2027, and the busiest stretch of fall cones in East Cobb is actually on Lower Roswell Road. Lower Roswell finishes in November. After that, the county's work moves to smaller jobs on Holly Springs Road, Pete Shaw Road and Powers Ferry Road, and those run into spring. Here is the schedule by end date, starting with the corner most drivers wonder about.
At its late-September meeting, the Cobb Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 to approve the intersection project. Planners call it JOSH. The contract went to CMES, Inc. of Gwinnett, the low bidder, for $2.317 million. Georgia DOT covers design, construction and utility costs up to $1.8 million. Cobb pays everything above that cap, which comes to $468,877.
The agenda item spells out what drivers will eventually get:
"The westbound approach lanes will be reconfigured to two through lanes and two left turn lanes. The eastbound receiving lanes will be reduced to one lane and repurposed to accommodate the added westbound left turn lane. In addition, raised medians, traffic signal and pedestrian improvements will be included."
In practice, westbound Shallowford traffic waiting to turn left onto Johnson Ferry gets a second left-turn lane. The space for it comes from eastbound Shallowford, which drops to one lane after it crosses the intersection.
The schedule is what has changed. When Georgia DOT asked for public comment in May 2025, it expected work to start in 2026. Under the agreement approved this fall, design starts in March 2027, construction starts in September 2027, and substantial completion is targeted for September 2028. Engineering design on JOSH first began almost three years ago. East Cobb News reports the project had to wait for the church site and the Waterfront Drive reroute to move forward, and for funding to be combined with state and federal agencies.
For daily driving, that leaves about two more school years with the current lane layout at this corner. The construction around it is private site work, separate from the county's contract.
The $7 million Lower Roswell Road safety project covers about 0.6 mile between Woodlawn Drive and Davidson Road. It is paid for with 2011 SPLOST money. The plan calls for intersection improvements and raised medians to cut down on left-turn crashes, with most of the median work between Johnson Ferry Road and Davidson Road. A new multi-use trail for walking and biking runs along the south side of the road.
The county's closure listing for this stretch began on Nov. 20, 2024, and ends at 4 p.m. on Nov. 19, 2026. That is a window of almost exactly two years for possible one-direction weekday closures between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. The end date has held. In August 2025, Cobb DOT project manager Karyn Matthews told the East Cobb Civic Association the project was expected to finish in November 2026. The Sept. 30 county closure list still shows Nov. 19. Counting from today, Oct. 4, that is 46 days.
Several pieces are still listed as in progress. Cobb DOT's June update included storm drain work, a new driveway into the Kroger Shopping Center, and a traffic signal east of Johnson Ferry Road. The county's most recent posted forecast, from August, still lists sidewalk and driveway work, concrete islands and medians, pedestrian signals and asphalt paving. No published source yet confirms that the trail, the Kroger driveway or the new signal is finished. The county has not announced another phase west of Woodlawn or east of Davidson.
The other fall closures are short.
Trickum Road has been closed to through traffic for sinkhole repairs near 3877 Trickum Road, between the two Easy Circle entrances on the section from Jamerson Road to Shallowford Road. Crews are replacing a cross drain, catch-basin lids, the shoulder and an outlet headwall, and then rebuilding the roadway. The closure was announced for Monday, Sept. 21, through Tuesday, Oct. 20, weather permitting. That leaves a little over two weeks if the weather holds.
Shallowford Road at Gordy Parkway West is a $995,561 project, paid for with 2022 SPLOST money. It realigns the turn lanes on northbound Gordy Parkway and updates pavement markings and signals. Its one-direction closures were listed through Aug. 29. Gordy Parkway and Shallowford appeared on the county's Sept. 16 closure list and were gone from the Sept. 30 list. The county's target completion was Sept. 27. No formal close-out notice has been posted, so the closures have ended but the county has not declared the project finished.
Once Lower Roswell is done, the remaining work is spread across several smaller contracts, and most of them are paid for with 2022 SPLOST money. Two of them are on the same road.
Holly Springs Road at Davis Road. The existing roundabout is being reworked with crosswalks, adjusted curbs and a wider center apron. The contract is $836,025. Cobb DOT's August forecast covered roundabout demolition, utility relocation, and curb and sidewalk work, with completion targeted for Jan. 4, 2027.
Holly Springs Road at Sandy Plains Road. This project realigns turn lanes and changes pavement markings and signals. The $1.367 million contract went to Azimuth Contractors. Storm drain, curb, gutter and utility work were on the August forecast, and completion is scheduled for May 12, 2027.
Together, the two Holly Springs contracts come to about $2.2 million. That is roughly the size of the JOSH contract, split between two intersections a short drive apart, and both are already under construction.
Pete Shaw Road sidewalk. This adds about 0.7 mile of five-foot sidewalk with drainage on the north side of Pete Shaw Road, from Hazlehurst Drive to Ophie Drive, including a pedestrian bridge over Rubes Creek. Completion is scheduled for April 20, 2027.
Powers Ferry Road transit ADA improvements. This project upgrades ADA ramps and replaces sidewalk panels, curb and gutter. It is scheduled to finish March 15, 2027. The county has not published the exact street limits or a total cost.
For these four projects, the county's project entries don't give a lane-by-lane closure plan. They send drivers to the live advisory map.
The county's project-updates page is the official record, but it updates slowly. In early October it still listed Gordy Parkway as under construction, with an August activity forecast. For a same-day check, the Cobb DOT interactive closure map shows active closures, and Cobb DOT takes questions at 770-528-1600. East Cobb News and the Cobb County Courier publish the county's closure lists every few weeks, and those lists were the first public sign that the Gordy Parkway closures had ended.
If you're deciding when to list your home, these finish dates matter: a buyer's first drive past a lane closure on Lower Roswell feels different from a drive on fresh pavement past a new trail. Rich & Heather Homes prices homes with an appraiser's eye for timing and nearby changes like these. Request a Free Home Valuation, and we'll show you how your street compares before and after the cones come down.
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