According to WSB News, there is a proposal to buid a new interchange on I-75 to give southbound commuters on US 41/GA 3 more convenient access to the interstate. Please click here to read the article.

Below is a map showing the approximate vicinity of the proposed interchange near Acworth...


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It seems that today's Georgia DOT (GDOT) is using every opportunity to tell folks, "If we build it, then we'll toll it."

Will Georgia be going the way of Florida and build nothing but permanently tolled facilities such as all the newer Orlando-area expressways? Both this and the recent I-85 High-Occupancy Toll (HOT) proposal I blogged about last week do make me wonder.

Speaking of infrastructure, Governor Sonny Perdue has recently unveiled a proposal to take out bonds as an economic stimulus package for road building (among other things). If the Georgia General Assembly approves Perdue's proposal, then I hope that GDOT would use it more for helping alleviate traffic problems first and foremost and stay away from the "pork barrel".

As for the proposed I-75 ramp in question, I would be in favor of borrowing the necessary money for building it and using the collected toll revenue to pay it off. Once the bond is paid off, then GDOT should immediately remove any and all tolling equipment. GDOT had charged tolls for the original 1953 Eugene Talmadge Memorial Bridge in Savannah and the F.J. Torras Causeway between Brunswick and Saint Simons Island. In both cases, the tolls were eventually removed once they were paid for. By not doing so, that would have been like continuing to make mortgage payments on your house even after you have paid off said mortgage.

What do y'all think? Please feel free to post your comments and I look forward to reading them.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading and please come back often.

 

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