I need to see either one extended into Georgia and around Atlanta as another Atlanta bypass for the snowbirds. Hopefully both Florida and Georgia could work in collaboration to get this started. It would be the real Georgia-Florida highway. Plus either route would provide hurricane relief during evacuations
I would love to see this changed to more of the US 19 corridor to the east of Tallahassee and then perhaps kick into the US 27 corridor up Georgia. That would bypass the extremely heavy traffic on I-75 (where there is always construction and always at least one accident stopping traffic for miles when I go through). It could bend back to I-75 from Rome to Calhoun, and then somewhere around Dalton to Cleveland, TN (GA 71 looks like a straight shot) bypass I-75 going to Chattanooga.
I would also include I-185 in the routing, seeing that it's already a spur from I-85 to Columbus. But other than that, I love the idea! Too bad FL and GA will never go for it, because they don't see eye-to-eye on anything.
Agreed. I'd route it near Tallahassee then up to Albany GA, then turn GA 520 into a proper expressway from Albany to Columbus. I've seen a proposal made to make Alt 27 from Newnan to Carrollton then 27 from Carrollton to Rome and SR 53 from Rome to Calhoun an expressway, which could tie into this. But that's more new expressway than Georgia has built in several decades, and would have to compete with proposed I-14.
Well, since Alabama's state government seems poised to return the state to premodern times (including providing any more freeway access than is presently on the ground), it would seem to be up to the state of GA to host any corridors coming up from FL. What GA has going for it is their GRIP program, itself a legislated (2005 under SAFETEA-LU) high-priority corridor "cluster", which technically can be any type of rural road improvement, from better-aligned 2-lane facilities all the way to expressways with occasional grade separations. If something like the Suncoast corridor could be coordinated with the GA efforts, the above suggestion of improving US 19 from the state line to Albany (already an expressway) and then to Columbus might be feasible -- although it's likely not to be an Interstate-grade corridor but rather a standard rural expressway with the occasional interchange (at major crossing routes). It could and likely would use the GA 300 corridor as an accessway to I-75, as well as using GRIP 520 up to I-185 in Columbus. Since last year's signage of the "Fall Line" expressway continuum as GRIP 540 from Columbus to Augusta, it seems GA has something of a renewed commitment to the long-distance in-state corridor concept (joining 515 and 520 in that regard). Whether that enthusiasm could and would be extended to a long-distance corridor up the west side of the state (functioning as something of an Atlanta bypass, as 540 is to some degree) is yet TBD.
Even though there are some GA collegiate enthusiasts re the I-14 concept as applicable in that state, Alabama's recent withdrawal from the limited-access arena has for all intents & purposes rendered that concept unattainable -- at least for the near term. While much of the GRIP 540 corridor
does line up with the various I-14 proposals past & present, the point is moot until such time as the rest of the Deep South snaps out of their recently expressed apparent desire to return to the 1950's (if not the 1850's). At about 250K for the metro area, Columbus certainly qualifies as a traffic generator; something like an I-16 western extension along an upgraded GRIP 540 might not be out of the question -- even leaving any AL mileage out of the equation. But such an upgrade project would take quite a chunk of change to do -- something GADOT is unlikely to have available, considering other statewide needs. An educated guess indicates that incremental expressway-level upgrades to GRIP corridors will constitute the projects of choice within GA for the foreseeable future -- and if FL proposes any joint projects, GADOT will likely make clear that such activities will have to mesh with what is already on the ground or in the works -- such as the US 19 corridor north to at least Albany. A corridor that doesn't serve as a reasonable alternative to the perennially packed I-75 but instead diverts traffic away at or south of the FL state line won't provide much relief to the GA section of that route; running the Suncoast extension up to the US 19 state line crossing might have the potential of diverting some roadside tourist dollars to that relatively impoverished section of GA. Now -- of course FL could unilaterally simply take the Suncoast up to I-75 on their side of the state line to simply provide a traffic diversion within their jurisdiction. But then FL would have to consider the value of the Suncoast as simply a I-75 reliever -- but in doing so, would leave their own underserved area of Tallahassee as is; a corridor up US 19 would better serve their own state capital in the process.