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 Trucking Association, 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 to American Trucking Associations, the only other truck-only lanes are on connector roads from the ports of Miami and Tampa.
