Georgia Planning Truck-Only Lanes
Georgia will build truck-only lanes that aren’t designed solely as an alternate for heavy-duty trucks on steeply graded roads.
The two new northbound lanes on a 40-mile stretch of Interstate 75 from Macon to McDonough on the southern edge of metropolitan Atlanta, will be built as part of the 10-year, $10 billion transportation law that Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal signed in September. That effort was funded by a 6 cents-per-gallon fuel tax increase and hikes in road user fees including truck registrations.
According to Georgia’s Department of Transportation, the traffic volume on the segment of I-75 is projected to reach as high as 100,000 vehicles per day, including 40,000 trucks.
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“These projects will move the needle when it comes to driver and freight mobility,” Deal said in a press release announcing 11 projects, including the truck-only lanes. “As Georgia’s economy and population continues to grow, we will now boast a transportation system that keeps pace.”
Ed Crowell, CEO of the Georgia Motor TruckingAssociation, wasn’t surprised by Deal’s plan to try to alleviate the growing traffic in the area that includes a lot of warehouses.
“This administration takes freight movement very seriously and understands that it plays an incredibly vital role in a healthy economy,” Crowell told Transport Topics. “This helps trucking, but it will also takes trucks off the existing lanes. And this is only part of a multitude of projects that the DOT is undertaking, including hundreds of bridge repairs and upgrades.”
According toAmerican Trucking Associations, the only other truck-only lanes are on connector roads from the ports of Miami and Tampa.