I-185, US 27 and friends, Fort Benning GA

[Tom958]

Georgia really doesn't do expressways, but US 27-US 280-GA 520 has evolved into an exception. It's been four lanes for a long time, I guess since the fifties or maybe since the WW2 era, but over the decades it's been upgraded, interchanges added, and access points revised and/or removed. From the general appearance, I'm guessing this work was done by the Corps of Engineers rather than GDOT. I find it interesting-- maybe you will, too.

This is I-185 southbound approaching Fort Benning. I-185 was six laned down to St Mary's road a while back, in the '90's, IIRC. The section from there to Fort Benning is more recent, since 2010, and involved straightening out a 50 mph S curve. The pavement was removed and replaced with all-concrete lanes and shoulders, even where the road wasn't realigned.

As you see, there's a lane drop exit for US 280-GA 520 westbound-- there's a recently-added flyover ramp for the opposite direction, too. It looks weird on a map, but that's definitely the heaviest turning movement through the interchange. Too bad that there's no arterial (or any road at all!) cutting off that rather extreme corner:


At the I-185-US 27-US 280-GA 520 interchange, a grand gateway to Fort Benning has been built. It looks pretty spectacular, actually. Directly in front of the bridge, FORT BENNING GEORGIA is incised into the buff-colored precast. Leaving the base (I worked there in 2011 and 2012), it's COLUMBUS GEORGIA. Embarassingly, the Steetview here is far better than my crappy photo. 



A bit farther southeast on US 27 et al, there's this unusual interchange. The northwestbound ramps are elevated to squeeze them in between the mainline lanes and the nearby Cusseta Road (the old highway, I presume) and railroad. I think that GDOT would've done a pair of panelized retaining walls instead.

Within Fort Benning, there's a median guardrail broken only at access points. Just beyond this interchange, there's a break for an emergency vehicle turnaround, and as we drove through, an ambulance made a U turn there for no obvious reason. 



Further down, a new overpass, and older one, and a closed-off at-grade access point. Since I'm dumber than a box of rocks, it didn't occur to me that the new bridge is on a separate road for tanks and other heavy vehicles even though I noticed that the pier is solid like the ones for railroad bridges instead of being a two-column bent per GDOT practice. As you can see on the satellite view, the at-grade access point has been replaced by a trumpet interchange, though the at-grade facility has been barricaded off rather than removed. Perhaps it'll come in handy for some reason.







A little further southeast, there's this pedestrian bridge. I wouldn't be surprised if they use golf carts to get around the base-- that would explain why the bridge and its approaches are step free. There's another bridge like this over Lindsay Creek Parkway (the unnumbered late '70's extension of I-185).


Finally, well off the base on the other side of Cusseta, there's a permanent speed warning sign. Between its unusualness and the fact that it informed me that I was doing 64 in a 55 zone, I got so flustered that I not only didn't get a photo, but also failed to make the right turn (at the intersection at the bottom of the hill) to stay on US 27 and had to make a U turn. Fortunately, there was an unusually prominent reassurance (or not!) sign for US 280-GA 520, so I noticed my mistake promptly. My family will be coming that way in the near future-- the feature that confused me can serve as a landmark for them. 

[codyg1985]

I was noticing that US 27/280 was basically a freeway east of I-185 through Fort Benning when looking at Google Street View a few weeks ago.

A lot of the work was probably done by the Army Department of Public Works (not exactly the Corps of Engineers; at least the DPW is what it is called at Redstone Arsenal here in Huntsville) coordinating with GDOT.

[Tom958]

Days later...

I didn't know there was such a thing. Thanks!