An Atlanta Regional Commission plan calls for interchanges to be built in Clayton and Henry counties to help ease traffic jams from freight making its way to metro area from the port in Savannah.
ARC officials say an interchange with Interstate 75 and Forest Parkway in Clayton will have longer access lanes. The access lanes will make getting on and off of the interstate smoother, according to a press release from the ARC. That project is set to start in 2021.
Henry would get a new interchange near Bethlehem Road. That project, which would start by 2040, would move freight from the Port of Savannah and cut congestion at other Henry interchanges.
The two projects are an update to the ARC’s Atlanta Regional Freight Mobility plan.
ARC estimates freight traveling through metro Atlanta will rise 76 percent during the next two decades.
Some 70,000 truckloads of freight move between the Port of Savannah and metro Atlanta every year, according to ARC data. About 150 million tons of freight travel through the Atlanta area per year. That number is projected to rise to 266 million tons by 2040.
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