Georgia State Route 166

Extending from Atlanta to the Alabama border, GA 166 ranges wildly from a winding rural highway to freeway along its 66-mile course. In Atlanta, a major part of the road is known as Arthur Langford Parkway, formerly the Lakewood Freeway. This road, a full freeway begins at a partial-diamond interchange at Lakewood Avenue, extending west to I-285, where the road merges into two-lane Campbellton Road entering the Ben Hill community of Atlanta.

Past Ben Hill, GA 166 is chiefly rural, but the encroaching development from new suburbs is beginning to affect the lengthy highway. GA 166 reverts again to a four-lane highway where it meets the southern end of GA 61. The road then becomes an expressway with one major interchange at U.S. 27 as it bypasses Carrollton to the south. Beyond Carrollton, GA 166 reverts back to a two-lane, mostly rural highway before quietly entering Alabama, changing to AL 46 as it does.

GA 166 is located in Carroll, Douglas and Fulton Counties. GA 166 shares mileage with portions of GA 154 in Atlanta, GA 92 near Douglasville and U.S. 27 Alt/GA 16 south of Carrollton. The entire route passes through the cities of Atlanta, East Point, Carrollton and Bowdon as well as the communities of Ben Hill, Campbellton, Fairplay, McWhorter and Sand Hill.

When Georgia Highway 166 was originally commissioned in the 1940's, it was a highway with much less importance of today. When the route was designated, it was mostly a remote, agricultural farming road extending southwest out of Atlanta at U.S. 29 above Fort McPherson along Campbellton Street and Campbellton Road west to end at what was then U.S. 78 Alternate (now GA 61) east of Carrollton. The route was only partially paved with pavement ending just west of the Chattahoochee River.

By 1952, GA 166 was fully paved out to GA 92 and by 1956, paving was completed from the Carrollton side east to GA 5. The highway also was significantly extended in 1954 when GA 166 joined an extended GA 61 taking over what had previously been U.S. 78 Alt/GA 8 Alt and at the last just GA 8 Alt. While this work solidified the importance and scope of GA 166, it was not the most significant event ever to happen to the highway.

Before GA 166 was extended to the Alabama State Line, U.S. 78 Alt followed the route. Note that U.S. 78 Alt appears to not be commissioned in Alabama, which may have been the cheif reason for the route's demise. The westermost part of GA 166, shown as U.S. 78 Alt on this map, had originally existed as parts of GA 16 and GA 34 (1952 GHD Map).

In the early 1960's, Atlanta's first wave of suburban growth took place and the Campbellton Road corridor was very much part of this. The growth in the area was in part attributed to the construction of Atlanta's Perimeter Highway, I-285. Such was the progress that Georgia's first fully enclosed mall, Greenbriar Mall, opened where GA 166 and I-285 intersected. Greenbriar Mall was home to one of the first suburban Rich's Department Stores and most significantly the first Chick-Fil-A, which opened a stand in the mall in 1967.

To accomodate this growth, a grand plan emerged to build a new alternate route for I-20 extending from Douglasville east to rejoin I-20 southeast of Atlanta in Dekalb County. This new interstate, designated I-420, included part of GA 166 in the plan for the new freeway. Work began on this new interstate highway in the mid-1960's with work completed on the first section between the South Expressway (I-75/I-85) and I-285 around 1970. It is interesting to note that GA 166 was decommissioned in 1965 along Campbellton Road east of I-285 when construction started on the new freeway. What appears to be teh reason for that is because when work began, the road appears to have been blocked off just east of I-285 until the new interchange was completed.

When the road opened, GA 166 was relocated for the first time to the new four-lane freeway connecting the two interstates. This new suburban freeway, featuring many hills and curves, was one of the most significant parts of I-420 to be completed, and the road was named Lakewood Freeway for the classic and now defunct Lakewood Amusement Park and surrounding suburb on the eastern end of the freeway.

GA 166 along Campbellton Road prior to the commencement of construction of the Lakewood Freeway. Note in this photo that I-285 is still proposed at the location (1964 GHD Map).

As part of the original Atlanta freeway plan, which originally even included a connection to what is now I-575, I-420 for a time was very much in progress. Problem was that the progress by GDOT in building and completing all of the proposed new freeways in Atlanta combined with the social unrest of the era, resulted in the Atlanta Freeway Revolt, a descendent to the earlier San Francisco Freeway Revolt that resulted in the cancellation of Atlanta's most unpopular freeway projects. I-420 just happened to get caught in the mix of rage over the embattled I-485, GA 400 and GA 410 freeways furthern into Atlanta.

Completed Lakewood Freeway and the proposed eastward extension to proposed and never-built GA 400. Note that the road was not yet planned to I-20. Also note decommissioned Campbellton Road (1972 GDOT Map).

Proposed I-420/GA 414 extending east of the Lakewood Freeway. Note in the map that proposed GA 400 was truncated south from the previous map to meet I-420 as GA 413. When I-420 was canceled, that portion of what is now I-675 was never built (1977 GDOT Map).

Plans for the proposed I-420 were on maps for several years. The maps originally showed the route extending to the proposed GA 400 and by the late 1970's, I-420/GA 414 was prominently displayed on official maps as the vital link needed to tie the Lakewood Freeway to I-20 on the east end. Regardless, I-420 met the fate of of all other new freeways in Atlanta during that era when an embattled GDOT cancelled the project in 1983. With no plans set yet to build the western leg, the project effectively died and the Lakewood Freeway suddenly was doomed to exist as no more than an urban freeway connector largely serving local traffic. The road has remained as such ever since with modifications largely limited to the interchange with I-75/I-85 during the major overhaul of those roads in the late 1980's. As a side note, significant photos can be found of this freeway either here or in the links below.

GA 166 did not cease to have further changes, though. In 1980, GA 166, which had 24 years earlier taken over former U.S. 78 Alt through Downtown Carrollton, was moved to a new by-pass to the south of the city. Partially four-lane and partially two-lane expressway, the highway features a mixture of at-grades, grade separations and one interchange. A portion of U.S. 27 Alt and GA 16 that had shared brief mileage with GA 166 was moved onto the by-pass with GA 166 during this conversion as well.

Since 1980, a few more noteworthy changes occured along the highway. The first of these included the relocation of GA 154 along a longer section of the highway in Atlanta in the early 1990's when the Cascade Road portion was decommissioned. That change resulted in an overlap of GA 154 and 166 along a portion of the Lakewood Freeway. The second involved a four-laning of all of the by-pass portion of GA 166 in Carrollton. Next, a controversial four-lane project along the previously existing two-lane northeast by-pass in Carrollton, temporarily designated GA 166 Spur was ceded back to local control in late 2002 when the project was completed. In that project, the roads are locally known as Linda Lane and Northside Drive. Lasly, in 2003, renovations were completed to Langford Parkway including a high jersey barrier median replacing substandard guardrails and new fully-reflective overhead signage, improving the entire route.

All photos below by J.T. Legg. More photos will be added here when time and availability permits.

Georgia 166 Termini Gallery

All photos below by J.T. Legg.

Western Terminus: Alabama State Line (AL 46)
On the first photo, note the concrete monument depicting the state line. A few of these still exist. The second photo is the first eastbound reassurance shield. The third photo includes highly unusual end signage at the state line. This is common in Carroll County, however. The final photo is the first reassurance shield in Alabama for AL 46. At one time, this location was the end for GA 8 Alternate.
Eastern Terminus: Lakewood Avenue in Atlanta
Photos forthcoming when available.