Bells Ferry Road, formerly known as GA 205, is a 12-mile long route in Cherokee County extending from GA 92 between Acworth and Woodstock and Marietta Highway (Old GA 5) in Canton. The route consists of an urban four-lane route merging into a winding suburban two-lane serving two major large housing developments, Lake Allatoona and a tremendous stream of traffic that hardly existed to that degree when the highway was a state route. HISTORY
First appearing in the late 1940's and fully unpaved, GA 205 fell out of sequence with other 200-series routes. Most other 200 series routes were assigned before GA 205. While its named designation, Bells Ferry Road, extends south to Marietta, state maintenance never continued south of GA 92. In fact, the final incarnation of GA 205 included what was part of GA 92. Part of GA 205 was relocated after it was commissioned to a new location east of where the roadway crossed Little River (historically Bells Ferry) so that it would not be flooded by Lake Allatoona. This new bridge and new route was completed in 1950. Later, in 1955, GA 205 was paved from Canton to near Victoria Road and then to Kellogg Creek Road (then GA 92) the following year. GA 92 following Bells Ferry Road south to Old Alabama Road was not paved until 1962 when GA 92 was relocated from present-day Bascomb-Carmel Road.
In 1970, GA 92 was relocated south to Old Alabama Road away from its previous alignment along Kellogg Creek Road. The previous alignment resulted in GA 92 following part of Bells Ferry Road, which was designated and paved eight years earlier. When the relocation was completed, GA 205 was extended three miles further south along part of the former GA 92 to meet the new more direct route of GA 92. From 1970 to the mid-1980's, GA 205 was a very winding road, but the lack of decent routes to bypass congested GA 5 resulted in it lasting through that period. However, when I-575 was completed as the fastest route between Canton and Acworth, the highway emptied of traffic and was turned with GA 5 back to Cherokee County. On March 12, 1985, it was fully decommissioned.
At the time the route was decommissioned, GA 205 still traversed what was then the Little River Wildlife Management Area, a huge state forest tract that today is covered in subdivisions. The southern periphery of this, which is now the Towne Lake development, was known as the "Thousand Acre Woods" with many dirt trails that had served as logging roads that became popular for recreation. Also, when GA 205 existed, there was much poverty along its route, much of which has disappeared with the suburban sprawl of Atlanta. Sprawl has since taken over most of the former highway since state control ended. Since the highway was decommissioned over 20 years ago, Old GA 205 was four-laned along the Old GA 92 portion of the route up to Kellogg Creek Road as an extension of a four-lane project south of the former southern terminus.
This work was completed in 1998. Plans to extend the four-lane northward were halted that year and have yet to materialize, remaining in long-range. Regardless, work was completed in 2005 on an intersection improvement with Butterworth Road as well as turn lanes and safety upgrades along the entire two-lane portion suggesting that four-laning of the route will doubtfully be widened any time before 2015. However, a planned bridge replacement of the narrow 1950 bridge at Little River and four-laning from Kellogg Creek Road to Towne Lake Parkway is still in the works.
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