Thanks to $30 million in federal stimulus funds, another segment of the Fall Line Freeway is under construction along the 215-mile highway stretching from Augusta to Columbus.
The ultimate completion of the road will be a relief to truckers who must either detour 60 to 70 miles into Atlanta traffic if they want to stay on major highways or add time to their trip on the narrow roads nicknamed the “woodpecker trail,” said Tom Mills, the president of Augusta-based Sanders Truck Transport.
“Until they do complete it, there’s no reason to use it,” he said.
Every mile of the project from Macon to Columbus is either open or under construction, but 34 percent remains closed from Macon to Augusta.
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We call this the Fall Line “Freeway”, but is it a limited access road or just a divided 4 lane highway?
If it’s just a divided 4 lane, it will end up just like GA 316 in spots, and won’t be used by truckers.
The transportation and economic justification for the Fall Line freeway never existed. These are not port cities like Atlanta and Savannah. There is no economic relationship between these cities and the distances are too great for service companies to expand into another “Falline city” market. How many goods are shipped along this route? Manufactures in these cities need to get their products into regional distribution centers in the midwest, northeast and southeast. This was just a political road. In a state that underfunds transportation, completing the Fall Line Freeway is a low priority. Macon wishes this road was significant.
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