Outer Perimeter

State Route 500 marker

State Route 500

Outer Perimeter Highway
Northern Arc

Route information

Maintained by GDOT

Length:

55 mi (89 km)

History:

proposed

Major junctions

West end:

I‑75 near Cartersville

I‑575 near Canton

SR 400 near Cumming

I‑985 in Buford

East end:

I‑85 in Buford

Highway system

Georgia State Routes

←

SR 422

SR 515

→

The Outer Perimeter is a freeway originally planned to encircle Atlanta, in the U.S. state of Georgia about 20 to 25 miles (32 to 40 km) outside of Interstate 285, which is colloquially referred to as the Perimeter and is a point of reference for local travel outside Atlanta's city core.

Planning

The original plan of the highway was to have roughly gone through or near the communities of Cartersville, Canton, Cumming, Buford, Dacula, Loganville, Conyers, McDonough, Hampton, Newnan, Peachtree City, Villa Rica, and Dallas. The roadway was to have roughly paralleled State Route 20, which goes around three sides of Atlanta.

A later incarnation of the highway only encompassed what was termed the Northern Arc and included the portion of the original planned highway from Interstate 75 near Cartersville across to Interstate 85 near the Mall of Georgia in Buford. One proposal tied to this version would have reportedly limited exits to five major interchanges, at the freeways that crossed it: I-75; I-575; Georgia State Route 400; Interstate 985; and I-85.

The Northern Arc was to have been a toll road under another proposal, which advocates say would have kept most local traffic away from the highway, while freeing it for trucks. Opponents said that despite the toll, the road would have encouraged additional development and congestion, creating the continued urban sprawl that, at times, threatens to overwhelm areas much closer to Atlanta-proper.

Route designation

The highway has been officially designated Georgia State Route 500. Although officially denied by the GDOT, it may also have carried an internal Interstate Highway number of Interstate 485. Advocates of the highway touted its use by long-distance truck drivers to have them completely avoid the congestion of the highways much closer to Atlanta.

The original Perimeter, I-285, which was originally planned as a bypass of the city and was completed in 1969, has in effect become one of the main freeway routes for both local traffic and traffic passing through the Atlanta area.^[1]

Later status

Budgetary constraints, political pressure, and public opposition supposedly killed plans for both incarnations of the road. However, the Northern Arc resurfaced in February 2007, with suggestions that it be placed further north, out of the current path of exurban land development.

In 2015, S.R. 20 started to get widened, starting with a new bridge over the Chattahoochee river, to alleviate traffic congestion. The route will closely resemble the original Northern Arc path and the plan will essentially be the Northern Arc replacement.^[2]

A map showing a resemblance of the originally propose Northern arc and S.R. 20 Credit: Truman Hartshorn study, GSU

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, April 14, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.