University Parkway, better known as GA 316 is a major highway connecting Atlanta to Athens. Extending from I-85 in Duluth to GA 10 Loop in Athens, this four-lane expressway carries the brunt of traffic between the two Georgia cities. University Parkway is named for the University of Georgia, which the highway largely serves since Athens is home to the sprawling UGA campus.

GA 316 is a full freeway along the portion west of GA 120, but is otherwise an expressway with at-grades and right-of-way for future upgrading to freeway. The only other interchange found along the highway east of that is a diamond interchange where the route passes under U.S. 78, the other major link between Atlanta and Athens.

Most of GA 316 is a concrete roadway, which proves to be useful in handing the heavy truck traffic and Atlanta sprawl that has now encompassed over half of the route into Barrow County. In all, GA 316 extends 39 miles extending through Gwinnett, Barrow and Oconee Counties narrowly missing Athens-Clarke County. Cities served by the highway include Lawrenceville, Winder and Athens as well as several smaller towns on nearby U.S. 29 Business, which GA 316 replaced. Points of interest near GA 316 include Fort Yargo State Park and the Mall of Georgia.

Lately, GA 316 has been in the news often for its severe traffic congestion that came as a result of decisions made years ago. Basically, GA 316 is only a freeway along its western end and the signalized at-grades along the portion east of that cause horrendous backups during peak times. With no funding to make the road a complete freeway, GDOT plans to make GA 316 into a toll road financed privately. The problem has been that proposals to make the road toll have been severely steep, a major problem since the road is used by students at the University of Georgia who cannot afford the proposed $5 tolls.

When I-85 was first proposed in the 1950's, the actual route between Atlanta and Greenville was unclear. Three proposals were thrown out on where to build the road and each alignment had its proponents. The northern route would have taken the highway through Gainesville and Toccoa, the southern alignment would have taken the highway through Lawrenceville, Athens and Elberton and the third was what is the route of today. The route of today came about due to the politics of then newly-elected governor Ernest Vandiver, who wanted the route through the little town of Lavonia instead. Oddly enough, this route looks very much like a compromise between the northern and southern routes.

GA 316 pretty much follows what would have been the southern route of I-85, which would have made it a veritable east-west route. Indeed, it is believed that the oldest part of GA 316 on the western end was built to compensate a bit as a direct result of the loss in the competition for the interstate highway.

Opened to traffic by 1960, GA 316 was quite simply a limited access spur of I-85 into Lawrenceville. With only a couple exits, the highway extended east to Duluth Highway/GA 120, where it ended at a partially completed interchange. It should be noted that at the time that GA 316 was built, the need for the road was not yet readily apparent. Gwinnett County was farmland, I-85 was incomplete and Lawrenceville was a small town. The purpose of the road was primarily a better connection to I-85 from U.S. 29 in Lawrenceville, serving to relieve part of GA 120.

Progress on GA 316 did not begin again for two more decades. The next section to open extended the route north of Lawrenceville to U.S. 29, allowing traffic headed to I-85 from Athens to by-pass downtown Lawrenceville entirely. Though it was built with features that would allow conversion one day to a freeway, the extension of GA 316 included only at-grade intersections and was paved in concrete like the rest of the road eventually would. This section of GA 316 was designated in 1978 and officially opened to traffic in 1981.

The original route of GA 316 was quite short, and all freeway. Built in the early 1960's, the roadway basically gave Lawrenceville a freeway spur into town. Note here in the map the proposed extension north of Lawrenceville, which was completed in 1981 (1978 GDOT Map).

Even though work had started again, it would be another 10 years before the next segment of GA 316 opened. By then, Gwinnett County was one of the fastest growing counties in the nation. Huge subdivisions, a major regional mall and the booming Atlanta economy enhanced by the coming 1996 Olympics were driving an unparalleled surge in population that took Atlanta from a large U.S. city to one of the major cities of America. While GDOT had focused largely on widening U.S. 78 to the south through the 1980's, they returned their attention once again to GA 316.

The next segment of the highway to open opened sometime around 1991, completing the new highway to GA 11 and bringing the road into Barrow County. This was quickly followed in 1993 by the completion of the highway to U.S. 78, firmly establishing its status as the highway that joined Atlanta and Athens in place of U.S. 78. The 1993 completion also resulted in the decommissioning of parts of congested U.S. 29 and GA 324, the latter which had served as an extended by-pass south of Winder that was no longer needed when GA 316 opened. Part of GA 8, the overlap of U.S. 29, was retained along the Old U.S. 29 alignment, however, and in 1999, became also U.S. 29 Business.

In the early 1990's, GA 316 started taking shape as a major highway, completed to GA 11 south of Winder. Note the proximity to GA 324, which was truncated to west of Auburn when GA 316 was completed (1993 GDOT Map).

The remainder of GA 316 to the Athens Perimeter (GA 10 Loop) is shown here proposed as GA 817 in 1993. Note U.S. 29 and GA 324 in comparison to the last map shown.

By 1995, GA 316 was fully completed, bypassing the last congested section of roadway between the two cities where U.S. 29 and U.S. 78 previously shared mileage. The road was unfortunately such a success, however, that 10 years after its completion it is now severely choked with traffic. Development on the west end of the route added interchanges to the route, but it is the lack of interchanges beyond that which have made the highway chaotic. So far, nothing has changed but solutions are currently being debated in 2005, with the ultimate plan to make the road limited access along its entire length.

The east end of GA 316 today continues into Athens as locally-maintained Epps Bridge Road with a partial interchange at U.S. 78 Business (1993 GDOT Map). Since GA 316 opened, the following highways shown in the last map were decommissioned: U.S. 29/GA 8 through Bogart and Statham and GA 324. Routes that were changed include GA 211, which was extended along part of Old GA 324 to end at GA 316, and U.S. 29 Business ,which was added along a retained part of GA 8.