A nearly direct route from College Park to Fayetteville, GA 314, much better known as West Fayetteville Road, extends almost due north-south from the Atlanta Airport vicinity down to GA 85, which mostly parallels the highway. In fact, the intersection with GA 85 joins at a very sharp angle. 10.7 mile GA 314 passes through Clayton and Fayette Counties and is four lanes from GA 85 north to GA 279 (Old National Highway).

The history of GA 314 would have been mostly uneventful, but the expansion of the Atlanta Airport kept resulting in forced truncations of the northern end of the route. In all, GA 314 has been truncated twice due to expansion at the Atlanta Airport. While Riverdale Road (GA 139) has been more severely affected by it, GA 314 has been no exception and the second relocation, completed in 2004, eliminated approximately 0.7 miles from the north end of the highway. This was not to mention the incredible amount of streets, neighborhoods and structures removed in the process. Quite a bit of College Park is now airport property where once people lived under the noise of jets.

Originally, the two routes joined together at a Y-intersection with GA 139 continuing north to connect to U.S. 29 where Camp Creek Parkway (GA 6) passes under it today. When GA 139 was relocated on an east-west alignment to avoid the first airport expansion in the late 1970's, GA 314 was slightly truncated to form a T-intersection right in the view of the runway. This remained as such for over 25 years.

Compare the routes of GA 139 and 314 in 1975 and 1984. Note the peculiar and confusing course of GA 139 that replaced the more direct route. The first major airport expansion in the late 1970's was the culprit for such an oddity, and the changes were massive including nonetheless reconstruction of part of I-85 in the area. GA 314 was only shortened slightly, but enough to be shown here.

2004 saw the biggest change to GA 314. With another large chunk of people and buildings displaced, GA 139 was relocated along a series of sweeping curves that overtook part of GA 314 and pushed the north end of the route right at I-285. Just north of the new terminus is a runway under construction, and only a small part of the old route and terminus remains, which is shown in the unique photos below.

Here, a 2005 Rand McNally map was used to show the relocation of GA 139 due to the airport expansion. The expansion is not only resulting in a new tunnel for I-285, but also severely truncated GA 314. While this map is not entirely accurate, the curvature of GA 139 is quite severe so as to avoid the lengthened runway.

On other historical notes about GA 314, the highway was originally commissioned in 1959, forming an extra route between College Park and Fayetteville. Most of GA 314 was unpaved upon commissioning with the only paved portion north of Bethsaida Road. This was also a location of transition that appears to have followed part of Bethsaida Road (C.R. 290) and all of Bryce Road (C.R. 581). This switchback was corrected when the road was fully paved in 1966.

Thirty years later in 1996, GA 314 is far from the country road extending from the southside of Atlanta to Fayetteville. Suburbs now dominate both counties, and congestion on the south end led to the widening of part of GA 314 from GA 85 in Fayetteville north to GA 279. With part of the route four lanes, it was the last of the changes on the route aside from the 2005 relocation on the north end. With a substantial part of the route now older suburbs, such changes are less likely to occur now. Regardless, GA 314 did undergo quite a few changes for a mostly insignificant route.