The Georgia-Florida Parkway, better known as S.R. 300, is a major highway connecting I-75 in Cordele to Albany and Thomasville before continuing into Florida as the Florida-Georgia Parkway. S.R. 300 extends for 116 miles through Crisp, Worth, Dougherty, Mitchell and Thomas Counties. Most of this route is overlapped with U.S. 19 and S.R. 3 from Albany to the Florida border. S.R. 300, completely established along previously existing highways, clearly has the purpose of defining an important trade route for the purpose of marketing this often overlooked part of Georgia. The entire route is a four-lane highway, and it also includes a couple interchanges in Albany as part of the Albany Expressway as well as with U.S. 41 in Cordele. S.R. 300 also overlaps a portion of U.S. 82/S.R. 520 (South Georgia Parkway) in Albany from where the routes meet west to the Albany Expressway (U.S. 19). S.R. 300 also has one banner route, S.R. 300 Connector in Cordele. S.R. 300 Connector, locally known as Old Albany Road, is 3.4 miles long and actually serves as a business route except that S.R. 300 ends at I-75, making a business designation impossible. The highway connects S.R. 300 to U.S. 280 west of Cordele. HISTORY The highway that is today S.R. 300 was not the original highway. In fact, the redesignation along Georgia-Florida Parkway is one of only a half dozen redesignations of former routes along entirely different roads. The original S.R. 300 was located in Jasper and Putnam Counties. It extended 22 miles from S.R. 83 in Monticello to U.S. 441 between Eaton and Madison just past the Rock Eagle State 4H Club Center. Rock Eagle is not only the major 4H center in the state, but also a popular campsite for the BSA as well. As a side note, it is ironic that the original route led out of Monticello, GA while the route of today goes to Monticello, FL.
The former route of S.R. 300 in Jasper County extended 9.2 miles east from S.R. 83 in Monticello and is today known as Rock Eagle Road (Jasper C.R. 363). In Putnam County, the road is known as Glades Road west of Reids Road (C.R. 17) and Union Chapel Road east of Reids Road. Former S.R. 300 also briefly overlapped former S.R. 213 (Godfrey Road) at the UGA School of Forest Resources near the Central Georgia Experiment Station. This overlap includes a bridge over Indian Creek. In terms of road numbers, west of Old S.R. 213, the road is designated Putnam C.R. 295 and east of Old S.R. 213, C.R. 296. Exact mileages in Putnam County are not known. When first commissioned in 1959, this highway was completely unpaved, so it is unlikely the road initially served as any shortcut to Rock Eagle. In fact, this highway was not originally paved at all except along the portion from U.S. 441 to Rock Eagle Road (Putnam C.R. 2), one of the two entrances to the center (the other is on U.S. 441). In 1966, the state completed paving of the western leg of the highway extending from Monticello to S.R. 142. The rest of the highway was not fully paved until 1970. The shortcut to Rock Eagle may have been the first S.R. 300, but it was not destined to remain a state route. Jasper and Putnam Counties in particular were harsh victims of the Great Decommissioning of 1982 losing in addition to S.R. 300 all of S.R. 213, 221 and 229. Likewise, S.R. 300 was removed from the list of state highways in the county, but it came back that same year much more profound than before. The new S.R. 300 took over substantial portions of two major highways, S.R. 257 and S.R. 333. Since most of S.R. 300 south of Albany is covered in the S.R. 300 page, the main part I want to detail here is S.R. 257. The reason that S.R. 257 was changed to S.R. 300 was largely due to a four-lane upgrade of a two-lane highway that served as the only major route connecting Atlanta and Albany. S.R. 257 took a confusing route through Cordele, and the new route designation was hoped to draw more traffic to the city since GDOT canceled the proposed I-175.
Essentially a compromise, the route originally did not connect to I-75 when first renumbered, but was already substantially four-laned prior to the changeover. However, the city still is pushing for interstate access, which is understood for a Southern city of 75,000 people wishing to grow that lost out on I-75 years ago (1). The remaining two-lane portion into Cordele was finally turned back to Crisp County when the new connection to I-75 was completed in 1985. This new connection included an interchange with U.S. 41, suggesting potential freeway expansion, and provided a quickest route to the city than had ever existed previously and an easy to remember number to get there.
The remainder of S.R. 300 from Albany southward is most of previously constructed S.R. 333. S.R. 333 was built through the 1960's with the Albany Expressway completed in 1974, so essentially all road improvements had long been completed. S.R. 300 follows the entire route of former S.R. 333 from U.S. 82/S.R. 520 in Albany southward to the Florida State Line, overlapped entirely with U.S. 19 and S.R. 3. Since the 1980's, no changes have occured along S.R. 300 itself, but its former alignment into Cordele, once part of S.R. 257, was revived as a state route in 1995. Old Albany Road, as it was known by that time, was designated S.R. 300 Connector and remains a state highway today.
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