Wayne Shackelford, former Georgia DOT leader, dies

Wayne Shackelford, a giant of Gwinnett County who led the state Department of Transportation during a period of explosive development in Georgia, died Tuesday afternoon.

He was 75. He suffered from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, said his son, Larry Shackelford.

Steeped in Gwinnett County politics and friends with heavyweights like developer Wayne Mason, Shackelford as a businessman developed real estate projects including Gwinnett Place Mall. In his government posts he helped lay the water and road infrastructure that allowed Gwinnett to transform into a booming suburb.

Backed by then-Gov. Zell Miller, he rose to statewide prominence as DOT commissioner, a post he held from 1991 to 2000.

“It would be hard to measure the impact Wayne Shackelford’s had on the state of Georgia,” said Brian Allen, transportation director of Gwinnett County, who said he counted Shackelford as a “personal mentor.”

“Certainly we knew him in Gwinnett County, but he’s always had the big picture in view,” Allen said. “We owe a debt of gratitude to him that we’ll never be able to repay.”

While Shackelford led the state DOT, Georgia added 1.5 million residents. Shackelford presided over historic projects to help those people move around, such as the opening of Ga. 400’s leg inside the Perimeter, and the HOV lanes that bore traffic for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. During his tenure the DOT’s three-year list of approved projects ballooned from $2.6 billion to $5.1 billion, according to DOT.

Growth brought controversial decisions.

Shackelford’s critics charged that he gave short shrift to mass transit and air quality in a quest to enable roads and sprawl. He was a proponent of the Outer Perimeter, including the Northern Arc. Near the end of his years at DOT, the federal government temporarily froze funds for new lanes in the Atlanta area when the region’s transportation plan went out of compliance with air quality standards.

“They were just determined to build the highways as hard as they could go,” said Neill Herring, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club. “He was all pavement all the time.”

Herring said, however, that he enjoyed Shackelford and his “expansive” style.

Miller raved about Shackelford upon the commissioner’s retirement.

“I do not know of any public official who has worked harder . . . who has done more . . . who has left more accomplishments. His works are everywhere -- in every county,” Miller said.

Current DOT Commissioner Vance Smith called Shackelford “a great man and a great friend.” Smith noted that he was instrumental in creating the Transportation Management Center, which now includes the Georgia Navigator traffic alert system.

Shackelford, an Army veteran, was born in Carroll County on Nov. 3, 1933, according to the state Department of Transportation.

He graduated from Berry College and did graduate work at the University of Georgia, then went to work in Gwinnett County administration in 1960. He stayed there for decades, building a personal network and a growing county, and then became a real estate developer.

In 1991, Miller decided he wanted Shackelford in charge at the DOT.

The choice wasn’t Miller’s to make. But he persuaded the state Transportation Board -- with threats, according to former aide Matt Towery -- to vote for Shackelford and oust Hal Rives, who was commissioner at the time.

In recent years Shackelford -- known to friends as “Shack” -- held a post at the engineering and planning firm Gresham Smith and Partners, and advocated for development. He chaired the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce and pushed the “Brain Train” commuter rail line between university centers in Atlanta and Athens, going through Gwinnett County.

In 2007, the state named the new interchange between Ga. 316 and I-85 after him.

New acquaintances were quickly confronted with Shackelford’s steel-trap memory as he reeled off facts and figures about local history, road projects or people.

He remained an indefatigable civic advocate almost to the very end, undeterred by worsening lung problems. In his later years he took to attending meetings and giving addresses with an oxygen tank in tow, sometimes in a wheelchair.