It was during the early 1940's that S.R 206 came into existance. It was conceived as a new route connecting S.R 107 east of Fitzgerald to U.S. 441 in Broxton through Ben Hill, Irwin and Coffee counties. Partially opened to traffic in the early 1940's, it was downgraded to projected mileage by 1946 but complete before 1950. By 1950 when the route was completed, it was a mostly unpaved highway with only a small paved portion near its western terminus, most likely extending east to Prospect Church Road (Ben Hill C.R. 121). Also, in 1950 it was noted that S.R. 206 actually went further east than its original intended terminus in Broxton, extending east of U.S. 441 to GA 135 (now also U.S. 221) in the West Green community. This portion extending to West Green resulted in a 1.2 mile long overlap with part of U.S. 441 through Broxton.
By 1952, S.R. 206 was paved a little further east: this time ending at present-day Osierfield Road (Ben Hill C.R. 254). Only five years later in 1957, the highway was completely paved from Broxton westward while the West Green portion remained a dirt road. In 1963, some improvement was made to the remaining paved West Green section where the unpaved surface was improved to a topsoiled surface versus simply graded when it got too rutted. In all, the period from 1953-1963 saw much improvement to the road, but no changes to the routing of the road.
In 1964, S.R. 206 saw its first banner route, S.R. 206 Spur. S.R. 206 Spur was a very interesting route because its sole purpose was to serve as a temporary link to then incomplete S.R. 353 following a small portion of present-day P. Griffin Road (Coffee C.R. 135). At the time, the arrow-straight S.R. 353 ended abruptly at the Irwin County line south of then S.R. 206. S.R. 353 was planned to extend through Irwin County to connect to S.R. 206, but apparently some political tangle resulted in the new highway coming to a dead stop at the county line. In time, S.R. 353 would eventually become S.R. 206 itself, but this did not occur for two decades more. In fact, the missing link of S.R. 353 through Irwin County of S.R. 353 was not even completed until 1973 and S.R. 206 saw no further changes at all until 1979.
On mainline S.R. 206, more improvement was made to the remaining unpaved part of the route. In 1969, part of the West Green extension of S.R 206 was finally paved from Broxton to Rex Peterson Road (Coffee C.R. 146). The West Green portion, now aptly named West Green Road and otherwise Coffee C.R. 594, was not a major route. It was never fully paved when it was a state route, and when paving was completed, GDOT eliminated it. GDOT was in a rush to get the final state roads paved during the late 1970's, and this usually ended with transfer back to the counties. Likewise, this happened to S.R. 206 east of Broxton, which was decommissioned on February 20, 1979. This was not the only portion of S.R. 206 to be decommissioned that year either. S.R. 206 Connector was also eliminated that day.
With Broxton declining in population and S.R. 353 taking most of the traffic away from what S.R. 206 was originally intended to do, S.R. 206 was finally relocated to what was then S.R. 353 sometime between 1989 and 1991. The former route to Broxton is known today as simply Fitzgerald Highway (Coffee C.R. 707, Irwin C.R. 314 and Ben Hill C.R. 359) and extends 10.2 miles. This decommissioning, however, resulted in the commissioning of the second banner route of S.R. 206 known as S.R. 206 Connector. S.R. 206 Connector forms a straight-line cut-off between S.R. 206 and U.S. 221, uniquely fulfilling the same purpose the route further north once did. As a result of all the changes made since the incarnation of the route, S.R. 206 went from an unpaved trail to a major highway connecting two county seats. PHOTO GALLERY (Contact Me If You Have Photos) |
