Within Atlanta’s Perimeter Community Improvement Districts (PCIDs), we realized some time ago the importance of transportation corridor flow, accessibility and, increasingly, alternative transportation for locating major employers. In addition to newer neighbors like Mercedes USA, and State Farm Insurance, we are also home for Cox Enterprises and its related subsidiaries, the InterContinental Hotels Group, Arby’s, UPS, Newell-Rubbermaid and thousands of other enterprises, as well as the Southeast’s largest retail/shopping center.
This is, in part, how the Central Perimeter sub-market is becoming Georgia’s Fortune 500 address of choice.
And the I-285/Ga. 400 interchange, which sits in the middle of the 4.2 square miles of our two CIDs straddling Fulton and DeKalb vounties, now handles more than 400,000 vehicles and trucks each day. The interchange was designed to handle only a fraction of that traffic.
To alleviate this bottleneck, improve gateway access to north Georgia and our Georgia ports, and improve interstate commerce flow as well as local commutes, our PCID property owners and investors committed the first $10 million in hard construction dollars towards building the new $1 billion interchange. We made this voluntary financial commitment, placing significant skin in the game, both as a testament of faith in our state and Congressional leadership, and to move this project forward, eventually completing the largest surface transportation retooling and upgrade in our state’s history.
Savannah is poised to become the top port on the eastern seaboard, in terms of inbound shipments. I-75, I-85 and Georgia 400 each handle more traffic flow than I-95 along our eastern seaboard. The past four years have seen metro Atlanta become our nation’s eighth-largest population center, and Georgia the eighth most populous state. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is retaining its pre-eminence, but is also indelibly tied to North Georgia’s transportation infrastructure.
Business leaders are hoping for a positive forecast on transportation funding at the Capitol and for a deal to emerge from the eventual House/Senate conference committee, culminating in a bill landing on Gov. Deal’s desk. Any construction will likely require a combination of new or increased user fees, as well as a hike in the excise tax on fuels. Georgia’s DOT has for decades received nearly two-thirds of its funding from the federal government, however the largesse of our federal government in this area remains in grave jeopardy, with the U.S. Highway Trust Fund projected to become insolvent in May.
For the most conservative constituents calling for a balanced budget and smaller federal government, the road ahead is clear — state and local governments, as well as the business communities which reside there, each will have to pick up a larger share and, in some cases, all of the expense of some transportation infrastructure improvements. An excellent example of this occurred recently when city of Atlanta residents passed a road and bridge bond referendum with an 88 percent approval vote.
Transit and alternative transportation investment by the state are also required for Georgia to maintain its reputation for transportation leadership. Now is the time to support these efforts. Collaboration, smarter sharing of limited resources and broader funding partnerships are the keys to this new road — and doing nothing is simply no longer an option.
